Cannon
Cannons are projectile-based weaponry, used since Medieval times. They were often situated on stone walls, towers, fortresses or ships.
Ammunition
- Round shot is the term for a normal cannonball.[1]
- Chain-shots consisted of two linked cannonballs designed to disable a ship's sails, allowing her to be boarded.[1]
- Grapeshot referred to small balls or slugs fired through the gun muzzle from a bag, similar to an impact of a shotgun. Small ships would fire grapeshot due to their lack of guns, but were also susceptible to it.[1]
- Heated shots were designed to set a ship on fire. Men-of-War and frigates were armed with these.[1]
History
Renaissance Italy
Sometime in late 1499, Mario Auditore upgraded the arsenal of Monteriggioni by adding mounted cannons to the walls of the town. In anticipation of an attack from the Borgia, or from their long time enemies in Florence, Mario rigorously trained his men in the cannons' use.
A few days after their installation, Ezio Auditore da Firenze and several of Monteriggioni's mercenaries used the cannons to repel the Borgia's forces, after they had begun a siege on the town, destroying many of the French Army's cannons.
Leonardo da Vinci incorporated cannons into his War Machines for Cesare Borgia's army, including the tank, bomber, and Naval Cannon. The Naval Cannon was a boat capable of launching heated shots at a ship's sails, causing the masts to topple.[2]
Ottoman Empire
Cannons were among the War Machines used by the Byzantines in their struggle for control of the streets of Constantinople with the Turkish Assassins. The Assassins eventually responded in kind by incorporating cannons into their barricades.[3]
Colonial America
Cannons were used by armies and navies during the struggles for control of North America during the 18th century. Cannons and mortars were placed in forts, and transported on carts to the fields of battle, where they bolstered the firepower of troops using muskets, neutralizing entire platoons at a time if aimed properly.[1]
Also introduced by this century were swivel guns, which were designed to fire beyond the normal range of a naval cannon. A single shot could blow up a ship after barrage had exposed its gunpowder supply, or detonate naval mines. There were also mortars, cannons which fired bombs upwards to fall and detonate on a close range target. Mortar fire was capable of stripping ships of all weaponry.[1]
Gallery
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Cannons used in the Defense of Camerino -
Concept art of Ezio firing a cannon -
Concept art of cannons used during the Battle of Bunker Hill -
The mercenaries by a cannon -
Haytham Kenway sabotaging a cannon -
A cannon being used during the Battle of Monmouth
Reference
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