The Rockets of Company G
Part 1
One of the more intriguing elements of the 74th was
the rockets used predominately by the men of Company G. The rocket launcher was a new technology
introduced in the Union Army and pretty much ignored by everyone else except
for Colonel Schimmelfennig who saw it as a means of having a miniature cannon
that he could move about with him. The
technology was relatively straight forward – consisting of a tube that could be
adjusted in height thereby determining its range; a resister that determined
the amount of velocity the rocket left the tube with; and, the rocket itself.
Now, I am not going to give a lot of details about the rockets and
their use – I leave that for Bret to do in his book that is probably going to
hit the stands in 2002/03 – so the details are there. But, he did provide us some information on
when these were used in the Charleston materials
posted on the site.
The rocket pictured here with Bret is located at Ft. Ward in Alexandria,
Virginia. Few of these survived the Civil
War and there is also one in a private collector’s hands in the Charleston
area. I apologize for the poor quality
of the pictures – it was apparently darker in the room than I had thought. Here is what is on the explanation card
pictured on the right:
Hale Rocket Launcher
During the 1840s, British inventor William Hale developed a
rocket that stabilized its flight with rotational thrust from the internal
propellant charge. The rockets were made
with three types of warheads: a solid
head, exploding shell, and case.
Standard rockets were 2 ½ inch (weight: 6 pounds) or 3 ¼ inch (weight:
16 pounds). During the Civil War,
rockets saw limited use and were fired from tubes or troughs mounted on
portable stands or light carriages.
Maximum range was about 2,000 yards.
Now in the two movies linked below you can hear Bret describe to
Brian and I how these worked – Bret has information that leads him to believe
that range was a bit farther than that given – again we have to wait for the
book.
First
movie – Bret is explaining how the resister worked in delaying the
departure of the rocket from the launch tube.
Brian is in the background.
Second
movie – Bret is explaining a bit about the accuracy and the range of the
rockets as a result of questions from Brian and then myself.
I should also point out that Ft. Ward, in addition to being a
great museum and location to take the family, is very similar in its
construction and design to Ft. Blenker built by our ancestors as part of the
defenses of Washington, D.C. Be sure to
take some time when you are in the area to visit Ft. Ward – you will not regret
the opportunity.
Here Bret is pointing out the location of Ft. Blenker, no longer
in existence, on the map at Ft. Ward.
Cannon at Ft. Ward that look out over the approach area.
These forts all had bombproofs within them. Think of a large trench filled with 50-100 men sitting out an artillery attack – sounds about as much fun as a root canal without Novocain to this visitor.
Bret with Brian in the area of the cannon at Ft. Ward. The various munitions were stored in the
bunkers are being pointed at by Bret.