The Galloper gun is an

artillery piece Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and led to heavy ...

used circa 1740 in British colonies (later the United States). It has 1½, 2, 3, 4, and 6 (rare) pound

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

variants. The gun and carriage weighs around . The gun was designed to be pulled by one horse between the shafts and to keep up with fast moving

troop A troop is a military sub-subunit, originally a small formation of cavalry, subordinate to a squadron. In many armies a troop is the equivalent element to the infantry section or platoon. Exceptions are the US Cavalry and the King's Troo ...

s, perhaps even

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...

. Gallopers were among the first attempts to give some degree of mobility to guns but the

logistics Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...

of gun crew movement and ammunition transportation meant that the time to fire from a different location was not significantly reduced.

In North America

The galloper carriage was not used in the Americas during the French and Indian War nor in the Revolutionary War. Smith's ''Universal Military Dictionary'' of 1779 states its use by the King of Prussia in the previous war. The replacements for the North American campaign were the Townsend design 3-pounder and the Patterson design 3-pounder on grasshopper carriages and the Congreve designed light field 3-pounder shipped in 1776. Several of these were taken from Burgoyne at Saratoga. Two original Townsends are found at the Smithsonian and West Point. The only Pattison original is in Perth, Canada. No original carriages exist but a gunner's model of the grasshopper carriage is found at the Woolwich military museum. Many of the Congreve light 3-pounders on butterfly carriages, two boxes mounted on the axle and one box in the trail, can be found in National Park facilities. Information on the cannons of the Verbreuggens at the Royal Brass Foundry is found in the book on 18th century gun founding by Carel de Beers.

References

Field artillery Artillery of the United States Artillery of the United Kingdom {{artillery-stub