I'ld ask that guy On Mail Call this, but the time lag and as I am not a regular watcher..... OK I read in Civil War accounts that they would "spike" the cannons if it looked like the opposing force was going to capture them. I kinda envisioned using a railroad spike and jamming it in the blow hole. Upon reflection this morning I thought that there might be another technigue, like running a ramming staff down and breaking it off, or a canon ball with no powder. Be interested in knowing what was done. Next part of question would be would this be repairable later on?

They hammered a spike into the blow hole, and snapped it off flush. Redrilling or removing the "spike" was too time comsuming, in the heat of battle, thus rendering the cannon of no use to the opposing force.

that was what I figured was done. Could the canon ever be repaired, or was that it? Melt it down and make a new one

If I remember correctly the spike was carried by one of the gunners, (probably the one in charge)it was made for that type of gun, and it was tapered to be hammered in the hole, flush, and I believe was unremoveable, unless it was drilled out. Being flush you couldn't put it out, so the only other way was to try to hammer it completely through, Due to the taper, this was basicly impossible, and probably would cause the casting to crack. (remember these were mostly made from cast iron or steel. That's why spiking was a last resort thing to do. (As a side note we crack cast metal everyday on my job, that's why we order certain parts by the dozen, they need to be cast, but do not take hammering or over stressing too well)
I guess it would be like blowing up a breech today, or blowing up disabled vehicles.

I'm sure one of the Civil War or Waterloo Dudes would be able to answer better, we had a reenactor from the revolution period one night at a meeting, and he explained the whole process, and I'm just passing on what little I remember from his talk.

Once is was "SPIKED", it was useless. After the battle they would normally setup a "cannon" repair station. All parts of artillery were modular, you could rebuild cannons from disable ones. SPIKING a cannon was hardly done due to the time is took. Remember when most cannons were capture in was during the heat of battle.

Totally agree about the limited use of the spiking procedures. Civil War employment considered artillery a maneuver arm. Cannons rolled forward with the advancing troops. If you study the First Battle of Manassas/Bull Run, for example, the Union almost wins based on the employment of the artillery well forward of the advancing troops. Interesting employment technique.
DJ

In Napoleonic times a more usual way of stopping your enemy capturing the guns was to 'double load' them - double powder- double shot , long fuse and scarper. Cast iron guns just burst into shrapnel like chunks.

Spiking was a method, as stated above to temporarily render a gun unusable. The crews that spiked the guns were hoping to recapture their lost guns. They could then be drilled for a new primer hole. At one civil war battlefield museum, can't remember which - Shiloh I believe, they have an example of a 12lbr Napolean with two primer holes, one being pluged.

DJ - Civil War era artillery tactics are much different than today - all field arty of that era being direct fire. A couple differences - Some artillery would be held in reserve - the most famous case being the large arty reserve held by the Union at Gettysburg - today arty is never held in reserve. Arty could be wheeled out in front of advancing infantry to soften the enemy - direct fire was often difficult on level ground with direct fire arty not being able to safely fire over their own infantry . The young Confederate artillery officer that commanded JEB Stuart's horse arty (his name slips my mind) was famous for his aggressive tactics - even causing heavy damage to the left flank of the Union forces at Fredericksburg. By the way there is a town in Alabama named after the young Conferdate officer who was later killed at Chanclersville.

John Pelham was his name. The range area at Ft McClellan is also named after him. Jeb Stuart 's flying artillery is what they called themslves I believe. Pelham is one of those guys that would have been honored with the Medal of Honor had the Cofederate heros been allowed to recieve it.

Thanks for Pelham's name. Brain is a litle rusty - filled with too much useless crap A good long vacation will help flush all the work related crap and leave more disk space for useful stuff - like military history