Mary asked one day not long ago where I get my ideas to write. I replied, "Give me a spark and I'll build a fire." And now she shakes her head and tells me that is so contrived. Well, it is what it is. Anyway the cannon picture is of one of those I used to build ten years or so ago. With the help of a friendly farmer from Sisseton who turned three brass barrels for me, I built in 1/12 scale. I gave him one cannon in exchange for the other two.
Now here's where the spark came from. I just read a Bernard Cornwell historical novel titled Waterloo. Napoleon made good use of this style of cannon in his warfare and this is modelled after them. The Battle of Waterloo took place in 1815 and an interesting item for me is that this cannon was still used heavily during our Civil War. Technology developed slowly during this period. A few rifled barrel cannons did appear but the armies of both the North and South were slow to replace the Napoleonic.
Cornwell has written many historical novels and accurately portrays the periods he writes of. I took note of one passage in this story where the hero and another soldier wanted to eat between skirmishes. They stripped a metal breastplate from a dead French soldier, turned it upside down to make a kettle of it, grabbed a smear of axle grease to use as shortening, and cut a chunk of meat from a freshly killed horse, and curbed their hunger.
I don't think this is far-fetched at all. Field kitchens could not roll onto the middle of a battlefield and feed men in combat. They were on their own. A book in my library Following the Custer Trail tells of the hardships the common soldiers had in Custer's command. The officers had cooks and good rations but not so for everyone who had to subsist on hardtack, beans, salt pork, and maybe wild game if it could be found. Usually the wild game was shared with the officers and Custer's dogs. Building individual cook fires was not easy. If it rained their fuel got wet and if they depended on dried buffalo chips it would be soggy and would not ignite. It probably has not been any different for any soldiers at any other time.
Now here's where the spark came from. I just read a Bernard Cornwell historical novel titled Waterloo. Napoleon made good use of this style of cannon in his warfare and this is modelled after them. The Battle of Waterloo took place in 1815 and an interesting item for me is that this cannon was still used heavily during our Civil War. Technology developed slowly during this period. A few rifled barrel cannons did appear but the armies of both the North and South were slow to replace the Napoleonic.
Cornwell has written many historical novels and accurately portrays the periods he writes of. I took note of one passage in this story where the hero and another soldier wanted to eat between skirmishes. They stripped a metal breastplate from a dead French soldier, turned it upside down to make a kettle of it, grabbed a smear of axle grease to use as shortening, and cut a chunk of meat from a freshly killed horse, and curbed their hunger.
I don't think this is far-fetched at all. Field kitchens could not roll onto the middle of a battlefield and feed men in combat. They were on their own. A book in my library Following the Custer Trail tells of the hardships the common soldiers had in Custer's command. The officers had cooks and good rations but not so for everyone who had to subsist on hardtack, beans, salt pork, and maybe wild game if it could be found. Usually the wild game was shared with the officers and Custer's dogs. Building individual cook fires was not easy. If it rained their fuel got wet and if they depended on dried buffalo chips it would be soggy and would not ignite. It probably has not been any different for any soldiers at any other time.
