The 3-pounder Whitworth rifle was a small 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 ...

Description

The 3-pdr rifle was designed by British manufacturer

in the early 1850s. Along with Whitworth's 12-pdr rifle, the artillery piece was considered for adoption by the British government's Board of Ordnance, eventually losing 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 imported and saw service in the Union army and possibly in the Confederate army. In service, the rifle was sometimes referred to as a mountain gun, though this might stem from a confusion over caliber sizes. From a design standpoint, the weapon was unique. Like all of Whitworth's designs, the weapon had a hexagon-ally rifled barrel. It was also a breechloader, an unusual feature for the time. The piece had exceptional range and accuracy, being capable of firing a 3 pound shell over 9,500 yards. However, the small size of the shell limited its bursting charge, consequently reducing the number of fragments formed when the shell detonated. According to a 1860 ''New York Times'' article covering Whitworth's weapons, the relatively small 3-pdr had superior range compared to his larger rifled guns.

References

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