was touched to the vent to ignite the charge. Based on advances in small arms technology, the matchlock musket was replaced by the flintlock around 1630 or so, but “slow match” and linstock were still in use for field artillery when the Civil War began. As late as 1864, Union forces in the Trans-Mississippi Theater noted that Confederates were firing their artillery with “matches and fuze” presumably meaning the linstock and slow match. Obviously, friction primers were widely available by then but it appears that slow match was still used late in the war. It bears noting that in the Western and Trans- Mississippi theaters, some flintlock rifles were still in the ranks in mid-1864.
follow small arms and implement the newer forms of ignition like the flintlock? In 1782, the British navy first employed flintlock fired cannon aboard their warships. These can be seen being used in the film, Master and When did artillery begin to
This is a rare 1812 French manufactured flintlock ignition system for cannon marked BRINGOL / A PARIS / 1812.
Prior to cannon ignition ‘locks’ being used, typical firing of cannon would be with a quill primer or open powder train which was touched off with either a handheld linstock or portfire. Use of either of these methods required the gunner to be in close proximity to the cannon’s vent and left the artillerist subject to possibly be in line of the cannons’ recoil, or in the event of the failure of the tube; undoubtedly in harms way.
The brass body consists of two pieces with the release spring and cocking mechanism inside, as typical with a flintlock gun. At the rear of the lock, is an iron piece which has a hole in it for the lanyard line to attach. Black powder was filled into the pan and the frizzen closed to protect the powder from the wind and elements. The hammer which held a flint was pulled back or cocked readying the piece. A quick pull on the outstretched lanyard released the hammer and the flint would strike the steel frizzen hopefully creating a spark which would instantaneously light the powder in the pan and set off the propellant charge.
Cannon locks would either mount onto a raised cast section on the barrel next to the vent, or onto an applied mount next to the vent. On some older cannon barrels you can see the cast on mounts, or the threaded holes for screws used for attaching the mount next to the vent. The lock pictured, has in the front a pin that slid into a receiving hole, and a hole through the brass housing for a bolt to secure it. The lock measures overall, approximately 6 5/8 inches in length.
Cannon locks are very rare to find today. Eventually flintlock style cannon locks were replaced with a percussion style system of ignition which was a further improvement.
Commander: Far Side of the World set during the Napoleonicera. By the mid-1840s, naval artillery was produced with the newer percussion cap lock system, following the trend in military small arms. The percussion artillery cap-locks were fired with a lanyard. Adapting the percussion cap-lock to artillery was tricky due to the gas pressure coming up the vent after igniting the round.
The surging pressurized gas from the vent blew back the hammer, damaged it and rendered the cannon at least temporarily out of commission. The solution was found with the so-called “Hidden” (designed by Enoch Hidden and patented Jan. 14, 1831) flint-lock ignition system. The Hidden caplock was attached to an oblong mass of metal near the vent called the lock piece. On shell guns, the hammer was fitted into a slit cut into a lug cast near the vent. The Hidden percussion caplock was also used with the Parrott and other rifled ordnance.
(David Kornelly collection)
To fire the piece, a percussion primer in the shape of a 2 ½-inch-long quill tube topped with a wafer was first inserted in the vent. Then the lanyard was steadily and quickly pulled, rotating the hammer on its bolt until it was brought down on the vent setting off the percussion primer. Continued pull on the lanyard drew the hammer clear of the vent avoiding the erosion caused by gasses rushing from the vent. To obtain this action, an inch-long slot was cut at the rear of the hammer. In contrast to the hand held weapons, no springs were included in the Hidden mechanism. The percussion caplock artillery was somewhat superseded in the late 1850s by lower cost friction primers. The friction primers fit into the vent, much like the older powder tubes and were fired with a lanyard, like the lock type artillery. The friction primer consists of a brass tube, open at one end. At the closed end, a small hole of about the same diameter of the tube is drilled to one side, and short length of similar tubing is inserted and soldered into place. Opposite this short length of
tubing is a hole to receive the priming wire, a length of brass wire with a flattened and serrated end. The short tube is lined with a friction powder similar in composition to the head of a friction match. The priming wire is inserted through the head of the long tube and into the short tube, which is then crimped to hold the end of the serrated wire in place. The long end of the priming wire is twisted into a loop. The head of the primer is then sealed and, when dry, the main body of the primer (the longer tube) is filled with fine musket powder and the open end sealed with wax. The resulting product is effectively waterproof, which is one of the big advantages the friction primer had over the linstock. In use, the primer is simply placed in the vent hole of the cannon, with the lanyard hooked to the loop of wire. When the lanyard is pulled, the serrated end of the priming wire ignites the friction composition. This fire ignites the musket powder in the body of the primer, which flashes through the vent and sets off the main charge. The chain reaction ignition is nearly immediate. The wire being quickly jerked through the fulminate-of-mercury compound is the reason this type of cannonprimer is called a “friction primer.”
To make the wire capable of creating the necessary friction, the final ½ inch of the wire was “roughened” with a knife-blade or a file. If the wire were smooth it would not create the necessary amount of friction to ignite the compound. Wire on a few original friction primers from one arsenal was closely inspected and found to have two tightly wound circular twists, and the total length when straightened-out measured about one and one half inches. However, friction primers from other arsenals appear to have a longer wire or more twists in the wire. Was this intentional? Other friction primers identified as Civil War-era were made from copper wire instead of brass. Despite occasional defects, friction primers were the most reliable and most common method of artillery ignition during the U.S. Civil War-era.
Tragedies were not unknown at the time and not all the friction primers made by Confederate arsenals were duds; in fact, far from it. According the Richmond Whig newspaper, in mid-March 1863, a young woman employed at the Brown’s Island laboratory building in Richmond was making friction primers on a perforated board and decided that it would be faster to remove all the primers at once by knocking the boards together. The ensuing explosion blew the roof off and knocked down the walls of the laboratory building resulting in a temporary shutdown of the Richmond Arsenal. From this we know some C.S. friction primers were not completely defective.
Craig L. Barry was born in Charlottesville, Va. He holds his BA and Masters degrees from the University of North Carolina The (Charlotte). Craig served Watchdog Civil War Quarterly as Associate Editor and Editor from 2003–2017. The Watchdog published books and columns on 19th-century material and donated all funds from publications to battlefield preservation. He is the author of several books including The Civil War Musket: A Handbook for Historical Accuracy The Unfinished (2006, 2011), Fight: Essays on Confederate Material Culture Vol. I and II (2012, 2013) and three books (soon to be four) in the Suppliers to the Confederacy series on English Arms & Accoutrements, Quartermaster stores and other European imports.
A single shot from a derringer, at 10:15 pm on April 14, 1865, was all it took to transform the end-of-the-war celebration in Washington, D.C., into shocked anger, outrage, and depression. A nation had lost its leader and, as Secretary of War Stanton said, “He now belongs to the ages.” The grief the Union felt was visible as the President’s funeral train made its roundabout way to Springfield, Ill., Abraham Lincoln’s home town, and the place where he was to be buried. Leaving Washington on April 21, the train traveled through 180 cities in seven states. One of those cities was Elizabethtown, Penn.; 154 years later, to the day, a commemoration of the train’s passage through the town was reenacted on the Stone Gable Estate.
The Stone Gable Estate recently added the Star Barn to its property. The magnificent 1872 barn was disassembled at its home in Lower Swatara Township, moved to the new site, reassembled, and completely restored. Now, in place of its 25 horse stalls, the Star Barn serves as a museum,
conference center, and a place for weddings and other events.
The original railroad bed of the Northern Central Railway is also on the Stone Gable property. With new track placed, the Lincoln Funeral Train was transported to the site from its home on the Harrisburg, Lincoln & Lancaster RR and placed on the tracks.
Excitement was palpable on the Stone Gables Estate on April 22, 2019, as brilliant spring sunshine greeted crowds of people who began arriving to see the full scale replica 4-4-0 steam locomotive moving down the tracks. At precisely 12:05 the train came chugging up the track and stopped at a covered bridge. The covered bridge is another historic structure that has been moved to the estate and rebuilt. A company of Civil War reenactors dressed in Union Army uniforms, marched through the covered bridge and onto the passenger car behind the Leviathan engine. Both passenger car and engine are faithful reproductions of mid 1860’s railroad stock and were decorated the same way as the original funeral train. Behind the passenger
car was a hearse car, again decorated as the original. Inside the hearse car, reenactors portraying members of the Veterans’ Reserve Corps, soldiers who had been injured or otherwise made unable to perform a soldier’s full duties but who were still capable of light duty, maintained a guard over the President’s coffin, just as was done in 1865.
After the train was loaded, it continued down the track and stopped at the site of the reenactor camp. Speeches were made and visitors were able to view the train and its cars. The most touching part of the day’s reenactment, though, came during the train’s short trip. The railroad bed here is at the bottom of a deep cut, and along a good part of the distance from the bridge to the camp, many visitors lined the way and made those on the train think of the crowds who lined the track of the actual funeral train so long ago. Shannon Brown, Programming Director for the Lincoln Funeral Train, Harrisburg, Lincoln & Lancaster RR, estimates that over 2,200 people attended this event. It is a tribute to the love that many in America still feel for President Abraham Lincoln that they took the time to make the pilgrimage to Elizabethtown to help commemorate the passage of our “Captain’s” last voyage.
The Lincoln Funeral Train will remain at the Stone Gable Estate. Rides will be available during various special events throughout the year. More information on these train rides can be found at https://thestarbarn.com/ event-calendar/.
Joe Bordonaro is a USAF veteran (1973–1977), Glassboro State College graduate (1980), Catholic school teacher (St. Joseph’s Pro- Cathedral, 1983–1988), and retired public school teacher (Mullica Township School, 1988–2009). He has been involved with Civil War reenacting/living history since
Faith and Mark Hintzen, and Sherri Groff, members of the Atlantic Guard Soldiers’ Aid Society, portrayed members of the Elizabethtown, Penn., community who came to pay their respects to their fallen President. Dillan Enck, of Mannheim, Penn.; Roy Wulf, of Manassas, Va.; and Joel and Jacob Yoder, of Cochranville, Penn., helped provide an infantry escort.
Col. Dave Childs, USV, and Major Marcus Riddell, USV, directed security during the arrival of the Lincoln Funeral Train.
Steven Diatz portrayed Winfield Scott Halliday, a writer for the New York Herald.
(Joe Bordonaro) Reproduction of Lincoln’s casket. (Joe Bordonaro)
Donald Husler portrayed a reporter for the Juniata Sentinel. The paper reported on the war, including the identity of casualties from the area. (Joe Bordonaro)
Francis Strouse, of Elizabethtown, Penn., portrayed the conductor of the Lincoln Funeral Train. (Joe Bordonaro) James Steinmetz, of Birdsboro, Penn., takes a rest after the train arrived in Elizabethtown. (Joe Bordonaro)
Hearse car being transported on a low-boy trailer. (Dave Kloke)
Don Whitley, of Lititz, Penn., portrayed a member of the Veteran Reserve Corps in the Lincoln Funeral Car. The VRC provided the guards for the train in 1865. (Joe Bordonaro)
