The 12-pounder Whitworth rifle was a medium caliber field gun deployed during the mid-19th century. Designed by

Joseph Whitworth Sir Joseph Whitworth, 1st Baronet (21 December 1803 – 22 January 1887) was an English engineer, entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist. In 1841, he devised the British Standard Whitworth system, which created an accepted standard for scre ...

, the gun was most notably used during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. The gun was also used by the

Imperial Brazilian Army The Imperial Brazilian Army ( Portuguese: Exército Imperial Brasileiro) was the name given to the land force of the Empire of Brazil. The Brazilian Army was formed after the independence of the country from Portugal in 1822 and reformed in 1889, ...

in the

War of the Triple Alliance The Paraguayan War, also known as the War of the Triple Alliance, was a South American war that lasted from 1864 to 1870. It was fought between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance of Argentina, the Empire of Brazil, and Uruguay. It was the deadlies ...

Description

The 12-pdr rifle was designed in the early 1850s by British manufacturer

, who had recently been contracted to improve the

Pattern 1853 Enfield The Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle-musket (also known as the Pattern 1853 Enfield, P53 Enfield, and Enfield rifle-musket) was a .577 calibre Minié-type muzzle-loading rifled musket, used by the British Empire from 1853 to 1867; after which many wer ...

. During his experiments with the Enfield, Whitworth was inspired to begin experimenting with a hexagonally-rifled barrel; Whitworth would later apply these principles to his field guns. Along with Whitworth's smaller 3-pdr gun, the artillery piece was considered for adoption by the British government's Board of Ordnance. However, Whitworth's guns eventually lost out to the

Armstrong gun An Armstrong gun was a uniquely designed type of rifled breech-loading field and heavy gun designed by Sir William Armstrong and manufactured in England beginning in 1855 by the Elswick Ordnance Company and the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. Such g ...

. During the

the weapon was exported and saw service in the Union and Confederate armies, though it was considered a rarity. From a design standpoint, the weapon was unique. Like all of Whitworth's designs, the weapon had a distinctive hexagon-ally rifled barrel and was a breechloader (though it could be loaded via the muzzle with modifications). The cannon was forged using a method in which iron plates would be overlapped and forced together using hydraulic presses. The 12-pounder Whitworth saw service with the

Army of Northern Virginia The Army of Northern Virginia was the primary military force of the Confederate States of America in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was also the primary command structure of the Department of Northern Virginia. It was most oft ...

. One Whitworth was used in the Confederate defense of Charleston. The weapon saw some service in the Union army (notably with the

Army of the Potomac The Army of the Potomac was the principal Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the surrender of the Confede ...

in the Peninsula campaign), and in one instance a group of Americans living in England gifted a battery of four Whitworths to the United States government. Despite being a rarity in the Civil War (one source states the weapon only saw Confederate service with the Army of Northern Virginia), a replica 12-pounder Whitworth was used on the set of ''

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' ( it, Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, literally "The good, the ugly, the bad") is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood as "the Good", Lee Van Clee ...

''.

References

{{reflist Artillery of the United Kingdom American Civil War artillery