Primed and Loaded | 18th Century Mortars

“Mortars are a kind of short cannon of a large bore, with chambers. Their use is to throw hollow balls filled with powder, called shells ; which falling upon any building , or into the works of a fortification, burst, and their fragments destroy every thing within reach.”
John Muller, A Treatise on Artillery, 1768
Bombs from Mortars could be fired at high angles in order to send them over the enemy defenses. Once inside the city they would cause fear, disorder, and damage in places that the enemy might have thought were safe. Targets would include enemy tents, powder storehouses, officer’s quarters, and more. The basic goal was to ruin the enemy’s men and materiel which would also break their spirits in the process.
In other cases the bombs could be fired directly into the earthworks where they would explode. This was done to assist the heavy siege guns in breaking through the enemy defenses by gouging holes in their earthworks where infantry could then assault the enemy.
In order to assist in this process, some mortars were mounted onto carriages and were called Hobits. General Knox, commander of the American artillery at the siege, ordered several mortars to be converted into Hobits for the siege in order to throw bombs into the enemy earthworks.
Here at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, we have a recreated version of a 4 ½“ Coehorn Mortar that fires a roughly 9 lb bomb. Our mortar is relatively small in comparison to some of the artillery at the Siege of Yorktown. Some of the Mortars used here were 10” or 12” in diameter and fired 100 to 200 lb bombs. However, these pieces give us much more opportunity to demonstrate how they are used.
Citations:
Döhla, Johann C. A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution. Translated by Bruce E. Burgoyne. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
Greene, Jerome A. The Guns of Independence: The Siege of Yorktown, 1781. Savas Beatie, 2013.
Muller, John. Treatise of Artillery: Containing ... to which is Prefixed, an Introduction with a Theory of Powder Applied to Fire-arms. United Kingdom: John Millan, 1768.
Popp, Stephen. Popp’s Journal 1777-1783 Translated by Joseph G. Rosengarten. Reprinted from the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, April and July, 1902
Prechtel, Johann Ernst. A Hessian Officer’s Diary of the American Revolution Translated by Bruce E. Burgoyne. Westminster, MD: Heritage Books. 2008

[@michelehumphrey852]

I enjoyed the live cannon demonstration during my last visit. The audience participation was fun as volunteers were invited to simulate loading and firing the gun. Sadly, I was too short to volunteer. 😆

[@curtisbullock9739]

I saw a group of union civil war reenactors at South Mountain in Maryland once - they had a cannon with a ~3 or 4” bore that was really interesting. I don’t think they fire it, but they were very knowledgeable about the battle and about how the cannon would have been used.

[@marioacevedo5077]

These mortars were short range weapons. In "The Last of the Mohicans" there's a great battle scene where the French are digging trenches to drag their mortars close to the British fort. The British watch, knowing that once the mortars are in place, they'll rain destruction on the fort and force the surrender.

[@SuperRandomNinja1]

This is a cool video definitely adding to my playlist of founding fathers era and before level weapons tech

[@user-kp2do6rk5n]

Just. COOOOL!!!)))
Tnx🤩👌

[@michaelwight2740]

Could you do one showing the tools used to clear and fire?

[@hintoflimetostitochip7978]

This is what the internet was made for. Thank you! ❤

[@BIG-DIPPER-56]

Very Nice 👍

[@kaptainkaos1202]

Very nice video! You were a really good presenter!

[@JYFMuseums]

Thank you so much!

[@Bidimus1]

The quote that included shapnel I think was not of the period you represent as the term Shrapnel is named after Lieutenant-General Henry Shrapnel (1761-1842), a British artillery officer, whose experiments, initially conducted on his own time and at his own expense, culminated in the design .
Otherwise a very good video.

[@JYFMuseums]

Henry Shrapnel is the creator of spherical case shot, an anti-personal time fused exploding artillery shell that was packed with small iron or lead balls. By the 1850s spherical case shot was being called “shrapnel shell” and by the early 20th century any exploded fragment of a metal body or fragment of an artillery shell was being called shrapnel.
The quote you are referring to (at the 7:45 mark?) is from the English translation of A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution by Johann Conrad Döhla, with the translation, editing and an introduction written by Bruce E. Burgoyne. It is one of the best narratives of the Revolution written by a common soldier. Johann Conrad Döhla kept his diary during his service in North America as one of thousands of Hessian soldiers whose service was sold to the British by their sovereign. He crossed the Atlantic in 1777 with the Ansbach-Bayreuth regiments, serving in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island before reinforcing the British efforts in Virginia. Döhla was at Yorktown and after the surrender of the British army endured two years as a prisoner of war. We do not know the original German word used by Döhla in his original diary, or why Bruce E. Burgoyne as the translator/editor chose to use the word shrapnel. But translations are not always a word for word literal translation, but often a translation of the theme. Shrapnel may have been the best word to convey the context of the theme in the German to English translation.

[@Bidimus1]

Then it is a poor translation of some German word for fragment.. that in modern German is...Fragmente
It may well be a good translation of
events but on technical issues less so.

[@Bayan1905]

I've often wondered if a coehorn could be mounted horizontally and used as a cannon, almost like a shorter version, like a mountain howitzer in a way. I've tried researching them but can't find much. Of course, if you type in Hobit, no matter how it's spelled, you get a million posts about the Lord of the Rings characters, none on what Heny Knox did.

[@JYFMuseums]

According to Jerome A Greene's book, "The Guns of Independence" Ch. 9 pg. 191, he writes the following:
"From this battery, bombs were dispatched from the 10 inch mortars mounted on reinforced howitzer carriages personally designed by Henry Knox."
The battery he refers to is a company commanded by William Ferguson of the 4th Continental Artillery. The howitzer carriages would have allowed the mortars to be mounted as field guns.
There is a reference to "Hobits" in "Military Dictionary" by Simes, dated 1768, which says:
"Hobits, are a sort of small mortars, about 8 inches diameter, some seven, some six: they resemble a mortar in every thing but their carriage, which was made in the fashion of that belonging to a gun, only much shorter: they march with guns and are very good for annoying the enemy at a distance, with small bomb, or in keeping a pass, being loaded with cartouches."

[@tristanwolske8201]

I want one.

[@paulogoncalves8587]

Muito bem explicado como funcionava essas temiveis bombas!!!

[@johntrotta5375]

The square ROOT of 12 is ~3.46. The SQUARE of 12 is 144. If you’re going to claim to do arithmetic, please use the correct terms.

[@littlehills739]

do u have a video of hollow balls being made

[@JYFMuseums]

We do not. Mortar bombs, shells and artillery shot would be produced/cast in iron blast furnaces.

[@qinjian206]

you look a bit like napoleon

[@JO3BID3N-is-a-P3D0]

cool demo !