Cannon

“ At the first boom of the cannon, the rolling of the drum, or the sound of a warlike march, millions of men, clothed in red, like the common hangman, marched out of the shade, furnished with instruments suitable for bleeding, scorching, disembowelling, crushing, burning, and stopping the breath of their neighbors. ”

“ Everywhere in this liquid mud you see broken glass, unexploded shells, cannon-balls—every trace of camp life. You seem to hear the noise of a cannon-ball falling only two yards away, and from all sides come the sound of balls, which sometimes hum like bees, sometimes groan and split the air, which vibrates like a violin-string, the whole dominated by the sinister rumbling of cannon, which shakes you from head to foot and fills you with terror. ”

“ All that the eye could make out for some moments in the dust and smoke, was a confused mass of men clutching each other, dealing blows with the butt-ends of muskets, or fencing with bayonets—men in blue and gray, wrestling, cursing, falling, and dying, in the midst of the crash of small-arms, and the thunder of cannon, which clothed the crest in flame. ”

“ Cannon shot and shells have been made in many new forms; and cannons themselves have been increased in calibre to an extraordinary size with proportionate efficiency, and have been constructed in various modes and forms never before conceived. The tent, the cot, the chest, the chair, the knife and fork, the stove and bakeoven, each and every one of them, have been touched by the transforming hand of homely genius, and have assumed a thousand unimaginable forms of usefulness and convenience. ”

“ They won the applause of the multitude, the smiles of the fair, and admiring yells from the small boys. For in those ante-bellum days a cannon on wheels was regarded with unspeakable awe; and a man in military dress awakened the liveliest emotions in the popular mind. ”

“ Let us accompany the novice to the battle-field. As we approach, the thunder of the cannon becoming plainer and plainer is soon followed by the howling of shot, which attracts the attention of the inexperienced. Balls begin to strike the ground close to us, before and behind. We hasten to the hill where stands the General and his numerous Staff. Here the close striking of the cannon balls and the bursting of shells is so frequent that the seriousness of life makes itself visible through the youthful picture of imagination. ”

“ But I dare say a cannon sometimes comes careering solemnly down, and circling about like a dead leaf or thistle-down; and then the ragged fellows go and play about the cannon and tell themselves all kinds of stories about the fish higher up and their iron houses, and perhaps go inside and sleep, and perhaps dream of it all like their betters. ”

“ VALENTINE. Have you ever studied the subject of gunnery—artillery- —cannons and war-ships and so on?
MRS CLANDON. Has gunnery anything to do with Gloria?
VALENTINE. A great deal—by way of illustration. During this whole century, my dear Mrs Clandon, the progress of artillery has been a duel between the maker of cannons and the maker of armor plates to keep the cannon balls out. You build a ship proof against the best gun known: somebody makes a better gun and sinks your ship. You build a heavier ship, proof against that gun: somebody makes a heavier gun and sinks you again. ”

“ When the cannon is aimed by ideas, when men with religious convictions are behind it, when men die for what they live for, and the mainspring that works daily urges them to hazard all, then the cannon articulates its explosions with the voice of a man, then the rifle seconds the cannon and the fowling-piece the rifle, and the women make the cartridges, and all shoot at one mark ”

“ For many hours this tremendous cannonade continued, while, unable to gain any intelligence of what was passing, ignorant of everything, except of the fact, proclaimed by the loud and repeated voice of war, that there was a battle, we listened in a state of terrible uncertainty and suspense, and thought with horror, in the roar of every cannon, that our brave countrymen were every moment falling in agony and death. ”

“ The study of these points will save money, time, and what is of more value, brain-work, which might be better employed. Striving to produce perfect breech-loading cannon is like striving to square the circle. ”

“ We do not long examine the calibre of a cannon when its ball decapitates us. And even if they miss—these eyes—at least they dazzle us by their fire, and he is glad enough who can get out of shot-range. ”

“ And still, as the pitiless human strife went on with its ceaseless rattle of rifle fire, and the almost continuous roar of artillery, day by day the Invader from Space grew bigger and brighter in the great reflector, and day by day the huge cannon, which, in the decisive moment of the world's fate, was to do battle with it, approached completion. ”

“ We are not obliged to muster our squadrons in "hot haste," to the "sound of the cannon's deafening roar," nor to arm ourselves for physical combat; for there is more power in suflering death, for truth's sake, than in fighting with swords of steel, and with cannon balls. ”

“ A well aimed cannon often settles the fate of a war. And how did Napoleon get his start, if not as a gunner? Full of these dreams I fell in love with my bronze cannon as if with a young girl and from then on I was always beside her. ”

“ He would march to the mouth of the cannon in the hour of battle; he would ride through the field when bullets were flying in every direction, and strewing the ground with the dead, and not a nerve would tremble. ”

“ The old man, with shaking hands, took from under his coat the heavy article that had sagged his pocket. It was a black, old-fashioned, seven-chambered revolver, well oiled and as grim-looking as a rifled cannon on a battleship. ”

“ The moment the cannon booms out the hour of sunset, however, they dash for water and food, and often gorge themselves half the night. You may see a man with a cigarette in his hand waiting until the sun goes down in order that he may light it, or another holding a cup of water ready while he listens for the sound of the cannon. ”

“ In these galleries, at short distances, are ragged yawning apertures, all formed by the hand of man, where stand the cannon upon neat slightly raised pavements of small flint stones, each with its pyramid of bullets on one side, and on the other a box, in which is stowed the gear which the gunner requires in the exercise of his craft. ”

“ The first story is of cracked free-stone, the front and end walls of stucco, and the rear of brick. As you enter the vestibule two musty cannon stand gaping at you, and upon one of them you may see, almost any day, a little "darkey" sound asleep. Whether he guards the gun, or the gun guards him, opens a wide field for conjecture. ”

“ Within, however, the muzhik regains his childlikeness, and when he stands before the enormous cannon—"the Czar of Cannon," an old bronze gun—he invariably climbs upon the pyramid of giant balls which stands before it, climbs aloft and gapes into the yard-wide mouth of the gun. ”

“ For not till he comes from the battle-field can a man both sing and cannonade; like the canary-bird, which, though so melodious, so timid, so small, so tender, so solitary, so soft-feathered, can yet be trained to fire off cannon, though cannon of smaller calibre. ”

“ The ground is strewn with bodies, the streets are soaked with blood. Fine ladies flit about. They lift their children and bid them kiss the mouth of the cannon, for the cannon have saved the rich from destruction. ”

“ In the excitement of the moment the poker was left in the cannon!
A heap of soil at the end of the garden was chosen as the "earthwork," on which our big gun was fixed, pointing upward, though unnoticed by us, point-blank at the parlor windows. A small heap of shavings was put around the weapon, and one was appointed to light it. "To cover!" at once was the order, and each one rushed to a safe place. I tremble at this moment when I remember that, a second before the explosion, the inevitable small boy rushed from one cover to another right in front of the cannon's mouth. ”

“ If this country gets a big cannon, some other nation will want a bigger one. It's a constant warfare. I'm going to devote my talents—such as they are—to Uncle Sam. I'm going to make the biggest cannon in the world—the one that will shoot the farthest and knock into smithereens all the other big guns. ”

“ A cannon, of very tolerable efficiency for close quarters, and slug or bullet charges, may be made by boring a hole partly through a piece of tough strong log, with a pump auger; bore a vent with a gimlet, put on one or two hoops or rings of iron or raw hide, and the gun is ready for use. ”

“ We expected to fight, certainly, but we had in mind a style of combat, desperate perhaps, but straightforward, in which cannon replied to cannon, rifle to rifle, and where we bravely opposed our bodies to those of the enemy. ”

“ The only engineer who has, by practical experience, satisfied himself that large masses of wrought iron are totally useless for making heavy ordnance is Mr. Nasmyth; whose monster cannon, which was to astonish the whole world, proved, when heated, to have so little cohesion that it would scarcely hold together whilst being lifted from the furnace to the anvil. ”

“ That if you take one of those Pieces of Ordnance so common with us, I mean a Cannon, levell'd at one of the highest Towers, and if at the very Instant of discharging it, a Bullet be let fall of the same Form and Size as that which the Cannon is charg'd with, notwithstanding the one is shot a Mile off, and the other falls down limply by a perpendicular Line, yet they will both come to the Ground at the same Instant. ”

“ During the War of the Revolution, cannon were fired at short range, and it was the custom to load them with grape-shot, or small iron balls, when firing against a charging enemy, because the grape would scatter like the shot of a shot-gun and tear a bigger gap in the ranks of the enemy than would a single solid cannon-ball. ”

“ Artillery, now in the general acceptance of the term, includes all and every description of gun, of greater power and dimensions than muskets and other shoulder guns.
Modern civilization, with its giant strides of improvement, has rejected the cumbrous and unsightly complication of springs, levers and wheels; and given to us, in their stead, the light and handsome six-pounder cannon; which is so easy of transit that it can accomplish the most complex and difficult movements, while the horses are at their fullest gallop. ”

“ You can (with luck) break a window with a toy arrow; but you can hardly bombard a town with a toy gun. If people object to the mere model of a cannon, they must equally object to the picture of a cannon, and so to every picture in the world that depicts a sword or a spear. ”

“ A founder of cannon has recently presented himself, who has already given in a model, and is about to make some experimental pieces of artillery. But, should he really succeed in casting good cannon, yet can he only do so as a preparation for the future, and in no way can he be in time for the business we have now in hand. ”

“ Their's not to make reply, Their's not to reason why, Their's but to do and die, Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. 3. Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them Volley'd and thunder'd; Storm'd at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well, Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell Rode the six hundred. 4. Flash'd all their sabres bare, Flash'd as they turn'd in air, Sabring the gunners there, Charging an army, while All the world wonder'd: Plunged in the battery-smoke Right thro' the line they broke ”

“ According to a former story a gun was to be employed to throw the projectile from the earth to the moon; now the gun was to be employed to change the earth's axis. The cannon, always the cannon; these gunners of the Gun Club had nothing else in their heads but the cannon. They had a real craze for the cannon. Was this brutal engine again threatening the universe? Yes, we are sorry to confess it, it was a cannon which was uppermost in the mind of President Barbicane and his associates. After the Columbiad of Florida, they had gone on to the monster cannon of the place "x." ”

“ Many interesting relics have been raised by the pumps and attendant divers—coins, bones, jewels, timbers, cannon, muskets, pistols, swords, and a compass, which is so constructed that pressure on the top causes the legs to spread. One of the cannon, fifty-four inches long, has a separate powder chamber, the shot and wad still in the gun, and traces of powder in the chamber. It is curious that what we usually consider so modern an invention as the breech-loading cannon should be found side by side with stone balls. ”

“ You see, Ned, there is, theoretically, nothing to prevent the casting of a steel rifled cannon that would be fifty inches across at the muzzle, and making it a hundred feet long. I mean it could be done on paper—figured out and all that. But whether you would get a corresponding increase in power or range, and be able to throw a relatively larger projectile, is something no one knows, for there never has been such a gun made. Besides, the strain of the big charge of powder needed would be enormous. So I don't want merely to make a giant cannon. ”

“ The chief inconveniency to which a ship is exposed, on the contrary, is, that the low-laid cannon in a fort near the brink of the sea, may strike her repeatedly, on or under the surface of the water, so as to sink her before her cannonade can have any considerable efficacy. ”

“ Cannon is of infinite use for a rear-guard, when you are obliged to pass a defile, or a river; and should be placed at the entry of such defile, on an eminence, if there be one, or on any other place, from whence they can discover the ground through which the enemy must march to attack the rear-guard.
A detachment of pioneers, with tools, must always march at the head of the artillery, and of each column of equipage or baggage.
If the enemy be encamped on the right flanks of the march, the artillery, &c. should march to the left of the troops, and vice versa. ”