Note Number 16, The Billinghurst and Requa Rifle Battery, page 1
National Park Service
Item Details
TitleNote Number 16, The Billinghurst and Requa Rifle Battery, page 1
This resource is part of a series
This resource is part of a series
Descriptive Information
LanguageEnglish
TranscriptionNote No. [Number] 16; The Billinghurst and Requa Rifle Battery; Five "Requa Rifle Batteries" were constantly used as defensive guns of position in the siege operations under my direction. As they constituted almost the only artillery depended on for the defense of the advanced trenches and were not considered as coming within the artillery or [ordnance?] departments of the siege (this weapon being a new one) a somewhat detailed account of it may be considered proper here: particularly as distinguished officers of the Army and Navy have reported favorably concerning it from having observed experimental practice. From these reports I extract the following description. This rifle Battery is "a device for multiplying and accelerating infantry fire from rifle barrels" and appears in principle to be a substitute for a six pounder field gun whenever grape and canister are needed, and to the extent of its range, case shot, over each of which it possesses greater precision and much less liability to fail in producing desirable results". It consists of twenty five rifle barrels each 24 inches long, arranged upon a light field carriage by an iron frame. Upon this frame in the rear of the barrels is fitted a sliding bar worked by two levers (one at each side) by which the cartridges are forced into the rear of the chambers. By a lever under the frame the barrels may be diverted so as to scatter the balls 120 yards in a distance of 1000." "The weight of the battery complete is 1382 pounds".
Physical Descriptions
Mediumletters (correspondence)
TypeStill Image
Formatimage/jpeg
Contributing Institutions
Identifiers
Digital Identifiersmt_brooks521_087_001
Permanent Linkhttp://purl.clemson.edu/8531B12662E536008C975982E7043B8C
Batch ID20180328174717