Platforms, Artillery

Platforms were used to support the weight of a piece at an embrasure or barbette emplacement to prevent the piece from sinking in soft soil and to help keep the wheels of the carriage level so that the piece could fire accurately. The nature and strength of platforms depended on the type of cannon and carriage they had to support. Platforms for light field pieces could be as simple as three planks laid bear on the ground to support the wheels and trail while heavy mortars might require platforms of multiple stacked layers of thick planks. Most platforms fell somewhere between these two extremes.

Barbette carriages for heavy artillery only required a cross piece for the pintle and perhaps a semi-circle of planking or thick beams radiating outward from the pintle block to support the traverse circles. Light field pieces could be supported by a platform that consisted of three sleepers about 15 feet long laid perpendicular to the embrasure under the wheels and trail. Planks at least two inches thick were laid on the sleepers and nailed into place. The rear of the platform would be raised about five inches higher than the front to help break the recoil of the piece and drain rainwater off the platform. Heavy artillery mounted on siege carriages needed more substantial platforms that consisted of 12 sleepers laid in two rows, the second overlapping and at an angle to the first row. 36 planks measuring five by three and one-half five inches were laid on the sleepers and fastened with dowels. A headpiece, called a hurter was placed at the front of the platform to prevent the wheels of the artillery carriage from striking the revetment of the interior slope. The hurter also allowed the piece to be run up to the embrasure and fired in the proper direction at night.

[This page originally appeared as a Basic Information Page on the old Civil War Field Fortifications Website.]

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January, 2004