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LOT 231
Historic Documented 1862 Dated Civil War
Phoenix Iron Co. Model 1861 3-Inch Ordnance
Rifle Identified as Used by Battery F of the 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery with Carriage - Serial
no. 379, 3 inch , 64 inch round bbl., black finish. The 3-Inch Ordnance Rifle, Model 1861 was one of the primary field artillery pieces of the Union Army during the Civil War and were
also prized by the Confederacy when they could capture them.
It could accurately fire a 10lb round 1,830 yards and could fire solid
bolts, case shot, shells, or canister as needed. This example has a pinched front sight post and is marked “TTSL No 379 PICo 1862/816” on the muzzle
(Inspector Theodore Thaddeus Sobieski Laidley, No. 379, Phoenix Iron Company,
816 lbs. weight). “US” is marked on top over the trunnions. The original sight base for the Pendulum Hausse sight is present. An included copy of a July 25, 1864 Battery Report for
Battery F of the 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery (Ricketts’ Battery) lists this gun by number as the sixth of the battery’s six guns and indicates it fired 499 rounds during the last quarter and had fired 1,299 rounds in total to that date. 325, 375, 378 and 379 were likely the replacements
issued to the unit in September 1862 given the other two guns on the battery report were no. 42 and 64 and from 1861. The unit had defended Henry House Hill at Second Bull Run and was
also part of the “artillery hell” at Antietam. #378 from Ricketts’ Battery is discussed in the article “Historic 3-Inch Ordnance Rifle from Ricketts’ Battery” by Ron Rupp in the included copy of Artilleryman Magazine Volume 37 No. 3. He located the tube on display in York, Pennsylvania, at Hanover Junction and discusses the report noted above and
the unit’s history including their famous defense of East Cemetery Hill on the evening of July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg. General Johnson sent 6,000 men in an assault on the hill that they later termed “Battery Hell” while another 1,295 under General Hays attacked the right flank and another 1,244 under Colonel Avery hit the left. Fire from R. Bruce Ricketts’ Battery tore many of the assaulting Confederates to pieces, but some of the Confederates reached the battery. The artillerymen then fought to defend their guns while the remainder of the battery kept on firing. Rupp notes, “It can be claimed Ricketts’ battery served as the ‘High Water Mark’ on East Cemetery Hill when the crest of the Confederate attack broke on Ricketts’ center section, [and] then receded downhill as Federal reinforcements arrived.” The fighting was fierce. The Confederates managed to spike the piece on the far left after its crew was all either killed, wounded, or taken as prisoners. One of the Confederate officers that broke through was struck in the head with a stone by an artilleryman when
he demanded he surrender at musket point. Lt. Brockway stated, “The scene was now one of the wildest confusion. Friends and foes were indiscriminately mixed, and our means of handspikes, rammers, stones, etc., made a sturdy resistance, animating each other with shouts and cries, ‘to conquer on the soil of our native state or perish.’” The Confederates were forced to retreat after taking heavy losses,
240 and the fighting continued the next day.