Also known as: Indian Wars artillery.
| Period | 1865 to about 1890 |
|---|---|
| Field use | Surplus wartime guns; light and mountain pieces on the frontier |
| Trend | Gradual shift toward steel breech-loading ordnance |
After the great war
For a generation after Appomattox the Army drew on its huge stock of Civil War guns. In the West, where mobility mattered and heavy guns were of little use, light field pieces, mountain howitzers, and rapid-fire guns such as the Gatling accompanied the columns of the Indian Wars.
Meanwhile the world's heavy ordnance was moving decisively toward steel, breech-loading, and rifling, and the United States began the slow modernization that would leave the muzzle-loading smoothbore and banded cast-iron rifle behind by the century's end.
Sources & further reading
- CivilWarArtillery.com research archive: manuals, reports, and historical references.