Does that thing have a big turntable under there somewhere? Because from the photo, it looks like it can shoot in exactly or almost exactly the direction the rails happen to be pointing, and if you need to shoot somewhere more than two or three degrees to either side, you’re SOL…
I’m guessing it was used almost exclusively to destroy trains.
Siege of Petersburg, I believe, so trading fire between two relatively static lines.
Back when a solid plank was all I took to protect you from rifle fire. Or does the encasing serve some other purpose, perhaps?
Wood still wasn’t strong enough to sustain a lot of fire even from those rifles. The confederacy just didn’t have enough iron.
That’s some pretty thick wood at a good angle. Maybe there’s a mythbusters, but I’d expect it could protect against small arms fire of the day.
Wood is definitely better than nothing, but I don’t really see a situation in which this thing would need protection against small arms anyway. Unless something has already gone horribly wrong, those small arms are a significant distance from your artillery. At that range, they are already effectively worthless because their lack of rifling makes them horribly inaccurate.
If I had to guess, you would mainly be worried about union sharpshooters (maybe) and artillery. At that point the only real advantage of the wood is the obstruction of sight.
The standard rifled muskets of the time actually had a range of about a kilometer.
The fourth guy from the right looks so confident; oh yeah, you think you got what it takes? Bring it!
It also serves as a bike ramp. The Confederate soldiers were well known for their love of BMX tricks.
