GDG- firing by thumbing the vents

[va37cs at aol.com]

This is not a Gettysburg question, but does relate to the general practice of firing artillery. I came across?the following?description of Confederate artillerists in action at Sharpsburg in Warrior in Gray by James Swisher. I could not?discern the source from the footnotes.?

"The batteries were soon firing double charges of canister from red-hot barrels. Gunners avoided the time consuming task of swabbing the barrels after each discharge by 'thumbing the vents,' a dangerous process by which a gunner kept his thumb over the gun vent to prevent oxygen from entering the chamber and setting off the charge prematurely while loaders tamped in powder and shot. When the gunner removed his thumb the cannon immediately fired. . . . The guns recoiled four to five feet, and the gunner who was firing?with his thumb had to ride the gun back."

I realize artillerists sometimes loaded without swabbing the tubes, but this imples that thumbing the vent?was not normally done and that a gun?could be fired without a friction?primer. I know there are some artillery experts out there. Could this be possible and has anyone?read the source of this description?? The artillery involved would have been the Washington Artillery, Jeff Davis Artillery and ?Boyce's South Carolina Battery [no mention of this pratice in Boyce's report]. The action described took place as Confederates attempted to halt the Union breakthrough at the Sunken Road.


Thanks,

Dean Harry
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