North end of battle field where the first days fighting started. North of Gettysburg, PA USA.
The Whitworth was a Civil War artillery piece that was imported from England by both sides during the Civil War. Only the South actually used this gun during the war however. It was a rifled Civil War cannon that fired an elongated 12-pound shell. There was one thing about this gun that made it so unusual. The unusual thing was that it was a breechloader. Most every other gun during this time period were muzzle loaders. This really made this weapon stand out and is the forerunner to today’s modern artillery. The gun was extremely accurate and could fire a solid shot beyond 2,800 yards. The guns also made a distinctive shrill as the shot flew overhead. The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War, the Union victory that ended General Robert E. Lee's second and most ambitious invasion of the North in 1863. Often referred to as the "High Water Mark of the Rebellion", it was the war's bloodiest battle with 51,000 casualties and the setting for President Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address". Begin your visit at the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center at 1195 Baltimore Pike, Gettysburg, where the park offers free information, an extensive museum about Gettysburg and the Civil War, the fully restored Gettysburg Cyclorama that dramatically depicts "Pickett's Charge", and the film "A New Birth of Freedom", narrated by Morgan Freeman, which focuses on the significance of Gettysburg.
Size: 4256px × 2919px
Location: Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania. USA.
Photo credit: © Morey Milbradt / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: artillery, breech, breechloader, cannon, cannons, horizontal, milbradt, monuments, morey, pennsylvania, rifled, shot, wheels, whitworth
