Park Rangers at the numerous Civil War battlefields are a wealth of information. Unfortunately, it is difficult (if not impossible) and expensive for classes of students to venture out to a Civil War battlefield. So, how about bringing a Park Ranger to your classroom? Well, here is one way to do just that.
Many of you know that I enjoy reading the My Year of Living Rangerously by Antietam Park Ranger Mannie. He has posted several great videos on Civil War artillery. In addition to that, you can actually listen to Ranger Mannie giving a talk on Civil War artillery for some visitors to the Gettysburg National Military Park.
Ranger Mannie talks about Civil War artillery:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2jayy_touring-gettysburg-with-ranger-mann
In addition to this, there are several videos of Civil War canon firing available via YouTube:
Finally, Ranger Mannie has also posted some excellent photographs of the firing of a Civil War canon entitled Muzzle Blast Revealed. In this post Ranger Mannie shows and discusses some additional aspects of artillery such as the fuse and how it fits into the projectile.
What is also interesting about this post is that it shows some photos of cannons being fired from directly in front of the cannon!
During the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate soldiers marched shoulder to shoulder across an open field toward cannons just like the ones shown on Ranger Mannie’s website in what would become known as Pickett’s Charge. Have your students consider that situation for a moment and perhaps have them write a letter home as a Confederate soldier having survived the charge and faced the cannon.
The Gettysburg Daily Blog has two great posts on Civil War Artillery with Licensed Battlefield Guide George Newton
For more information about Civil War Artillery, be sure to check out: http://www.civilwarartillery.com
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