Three kinds of guns.
All ordnance employed in the service, may be divided into three classes, viz., Guns, Mortars, and Howitzers.
Carronades discontinued.
Carronades may be considered obsolete, although a certain number are still supplied to the navy, and a few will be found mounted in some garrisons and coast batteries.
Classification of guns and their uses.
Guns are used for projecting shot and shell, horizontally or at very low angles, and as they are fired with large charges of powder, which are fixed for each nature of gun, very great strength and considerable weight are required in their construction. Guns are of two kinds, viz., (solid) shot guns, and shell guns. Some guns are also classed as heavy, medium, and light. Those generally employed for field service, are made of bronze or gun-metal; all guns of higher calibre, of cast-iron.
Mortars.
Mortars are short pieces of ordnance, used to throw shells at high angles (vertical fire), generally 45°, the charge varying with the range required; they are distinguished by the diameters of their bores. Mortars are made of cast-iron or bronze; the former being principally intended for garrisons, battering trains, the navy, &c., and the latter, which are of small calibre, and very light, are chiefly employed in sieges.
Howitzers.
Howitzers resemble guns in form, but are much shorter and lighter in proportion to their calibre, and are, consequently, fired with less charges of powder; shells and case are fired from them, but not solid shot.