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A limber is a two-wheeled
cart A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from the flatbed ...
designed to support the trail of an artillery piece, or the stock of a field carriage such as a caisson or
traveling forge A traveling forge, when combined with a limber, comprised wagons specifically designed and constructed as blacksmith shops on wheels to carry the essential equipment necessary for blacksmiths, artisans (called artificers in many armies) ...
, allowing it to be towed. The
trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. ...
is the hinder end of the stock of a gun-carriage, which rests or slides on the ground when the carriage is unlimbered. A caisson () is a two-wheeled cart designed to carry artillery ammunition; the British term is "ammunition wagon". Caissons are also used to bear the casket of the deceased in some
state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...
and military funerals in certain Western cultures, including the United States.


Before the 19th century

As artillery pieces developed
trunnion A trunnion (from Old French "''trognon''", trunk) is a cylindrical protrusion used as a mounting or pivoting point. First associated with cannons, they are an important military development. Alternatively, a trunnion is a shaft that positions a ...
s and were placed on
carriage A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping ...
s featuring two wheels and a trail, a limber was devised. This was a simple cart with a
pintle A pintle is a pin or bolt, usually inserted into a gudgeon, which is used as part of a pivot or hinge. Other applications include pintle and lunette ring for towing, and pintle pins securing casters in furniture. Use Pintle/gudgeon sets have ma ...
. When the piece was to be towed, it was raised over the limber and then lowered, with the pintle fitting into a hole in the trail.
Horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...
s or other
draft animal A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks instead of being slaughtered to harvest animal products. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for ...
s were harnessed in single file to haul the limber. There was no provision for carrying ammunition on the limber, but an ammunition chest was often carried between the two pieces of the trail.


Nineteenth century

The British developed a new system of carriages, which was adopted by the French, then copied from the French by the Americans. During the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
, U.S. Army equipment was identical to
Confederate Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighti ...
equipment, essentially identical to French equipment, and similar to that of other nations. The
field artillery Field artillery is a category of mobile artillery used to support armies in the field. These weapons are specialized for mobility, tactical proficiency, short range, long range, and extremely long range target engagement. Until the early 20t ...
limber assumed its archetypal form – two wheels, an
ammunition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other we ...
chest The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the crea ...
, a
pintle A pintle is a pin or bolt, usually inserted into a gudgeon, which is used as part of a pivot or hinge. Other applications include pintle and lunette ring for towing, and pintle pins securing casters in furniture. Use Pintle/gudgeon sets have ma ...
hook at the rear, and a central pole with horses harnessed on either side. The artillery piece had an iron ring (
lunette A lunette (French ''lunette'', "little moon") is a half-moon shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc taken ...
) at the end of the trail. To move the piece, the lunette was dropped over the pintle hook (which resembles a modern trailer hitch). The connection was secured by inserting a pintle hook key into the pintle. The quantity of ammunition in the chest, which could be detached from the limber, depended on the size of the piece. An ammunition chest for the M1857 light 12-pounder gun ("Napoleon") carried 28 rounds. The cover of the ammunition chest was made of sheet
copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...
to prevent stray embers from setting the chest on fire. Six horses were the preferred team for a field piece, with four being considered the minimum team. Horses were harnessed in pairs on either side of the limber pole. A driver rode on each left-hand ("near") horse and held reins for both the horse he rode and the horse to his right (the "off horse"). In addition to hauling the artillery piece, the limber also hauled the caisson, a two-wheeled cart that carried two extra ammunition chests, a spare wheel and extra limber pole slung beneath. There was one caisson for each artillery piece in a battery. The
cannoneer "Cannoneer" as a term for an artilleryman dates from the 16th century. the United States Army uses as titles for such a soldier: "13B" (thirteen bravo) M.O.S. (military occupational specialty code), a "cannon crewmember" or "cannoneer" for sh ...
s could ride the ammunition chests on the limbers and the caisson when speed was required, but to do so for any length of time was too tiring for the horses, so cannoneers generally walked. The exception to this rule would be in horse-artillery batteries, where the cannoneers rode saddle horses. When the artillery piece was in action, the piece's limber would have been six yards behind the piece, depending on the terrain, with the caisson and its limber farther to the rear of the firing line, preferably behind some natural cover such as a ridge. While firing the piece, if possible, the crew kept the two ammunition chests on the caisson full, preferably supplying the gun from the third ammunition chest on the caisson's limber. When the ammunition from the ammunition chest on the piece's limber was exhausted, the piece's limber and the caisson's limber exchanged places. The empty ammunition chest was removed, and then the middle chest on the caisson was moved forward onto the limber. A fully loaded ammunition chest for a "Napoleon" 12-pounder weighed 650 pounds, so the chest was dragged and pushed, rather than lifted, into place. With a full ammunition chest in place, the limber was ready to move forward and supply the piece. Although the limber's primary purpose was to haul the artillery piece and the caisson, it also hauled the battery wagon and a
traveling forge A traveling forge, when combined with a limber, comprised wagons specifically designed and constructed as blacksmith shops on wheels to carry the essential equipment necessary for blacksmiths, artisans (called artificers in many armies) ...
. The battery wagon carried spare parts, paint, etc., while the traveling forge was for use by a
blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...
in keeping the battery's hardware in repair. The ammunition chest on the limber hauling the battery wagon contained
carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters t ...
s' and saddle-makers' tools, and the ammunition chest on the limber hauling the traveling forge contained blacksmiths' tools. Siege artillery limbers, unlike field artillery limbers, did not have an ammunition chest. Siege artillery limbers resembled their predecessors: they were two-wheeled carts with a pintle, now somewhat behind the axle. When the piece was to be hauled, the trail was raised above the limber, then lowered, with the pintle fitting into a hole in the trail. Unlike the situation with its predecessors, horses were harnessed to the 19th-century limber in pairs, with six to ten horses needed to haul a
siege gun Siege artillery (also siege guns or siege cannons) are heavy guns designed to bombard fortifications, cities, and other fixed targets. They are distinct from field artillery and are a class of siege weapon capable of firing heavy cannonballs o ...
or
howitzer A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...
.Gibbon, p. 176.


20th century

With the general passing of the horse as a mover of artillery, the need for limbers and caissons also largely passed.
Truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...
s or
artillery tractor An artillery tractor, also referred to as a gun tractor, is a specialized heavy-duty form of tractor unit used to tow artillery pieces of varying weights and calibres. It may be wheeled, tracked, or half-tracked. Traction There are two ...
s could tow artillery pieces but did not completely take over until after the end of the Second World War. Many armies retained limbers seemingly from sheer inertia. As a field artillery piece, the British 25-pdr was designed to be towed only in conjunction with a trailer. The trailer provided the vital over-run braking system for the gun. Both the unsatisfactory, and consequently short lived, trailer artillery No. 24 and the far more usual No. 27, had the same type of wheel hubs as the gun. The No. 27 also carried 32 rounds of ammunition, had a useful stores tray on the front and brackets for a gun traversing platform and spare hub on the top . Some simple limbers were kept for heavier pieces such as the eight-inch Howitzer M1 to achieve better weight distribution. Image:The British Army in the United Kingdom 1939-45 H20971.jpg, 25-pdr field gun and limber being towed by a Morris Commercial Quad Image:8inHowLimberRED.jpg, 8-inch Howitzer M1 on a limber heavy carriage (limber highlighted by red box) Image:Soviet_WWII_limber_1.jpg, Soviet 120 mm mortar with limber, caption in Russian Image:Soviet_WWII_limber_2.jpg, 120 mm mortar rounds carried in limber Image:S-23-limber-beyt-hatotchan-6.jpg, Modern limber without gun


Caissons in American and British culture

The song "The Caissons Go Rolling Along" refers to these; the version adopted as the
U.S. Army's The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
official song has, among other changes, replaced the word ''caissons'' with ''Army''. Caissons are used for burials at
Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...
and for
state funeral A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of protocol, held to honour people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive elements of ...
s for United States government dignitaries including the
President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...
for the remains to be carried by members of The Old Guard's Caisson Platoon. When the equipage is used in this way for a state funeral in Britain, the coffin is usually placed on a platform mounted on top of the gun and referred to as being carried on a
gun carriage A gun carriage is a frame and mount that supports the gun barrel of an artillery piece, allowing it to be maneuvered and fired. These platforms often had wheels so that the artillery pieces could be moved more easily. Gun carriages are also use ...
. For the funerals of British
monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...
s, there is a tradition that the horses be replaced by a detail from the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...
.


See also

* Field gun competition * " U.S. Field Artillery" march, composed 1917 by John Philip Sousa *
Catafalque A catafalque is a raised bier, box, or similar platform, often movable, that is used to support the casket, coffin, or body of a dead person during a Christian funeral or memorial service. Following a Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, a catafalqu ...
*
Bier A bier is a stand on which a corpse, coffin, or casket containing a corpse is placed to lie in state or to be carried to the grave.''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' (American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc., New York, ...


Notes


References

* * * * * *


External links


The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Limbers And Caissons (Military) American Civil War artillery Artillery ammunition Carts Artillery operation Funeral transport Carriages and mountings fr:Affût (artillerie) it:Affusto sv:Lavett