My old Matchlock Fortress Gun

[earlwb]

They were popular for use as long range guns to harass or snipe at the enemy. Infantry actually used them to some extent. Artillery units would use them and they used them aboard ships at the time too. But when you had fortifications for a siege, then the guns could fire on the enemy positions and they couldn't fire back unless they had some too. I would not be surprised if some of the forts at the time had the guns for use as well. Several American generals or leaders had the big wall or fortress guns made for them. The British forts likely had some within for their usage too. The British actually issued the guns to their various military units.

 

[Gene L]

Very interesting, Earl.

 

[earlwb]

Here is a interesting story about a long shot taken against a British soldier in 1776. https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/10/long-shot-september-1776/

The shooter may have had a wall gun. The author stated the gun had a six foot long barrel. That would be about in line with the large caliber wall guns both sides were using at the time. The author claimed the shot was about half a mile too.
Hard to say what really happened but it is a interesting story about the war back then.

 

[Many Klatch]

During the Rev War, Wall guns were used at a Regimental level on both sides. They were used to reduce enemy strongpoints and also used to set up strong points, sort of like a .50 Machine gun today. The Jaegers called them Amusettes and they were hauled on a wheeled carriage and served by a 3 man crew.

The unusual bore configuration my be due to being originally designed to used loose powder (I think that is the name). Anyway, loose powder is used as is out of the powder factory without corning. Some test were done on that shape of barrel and they found that due to some really complicated thermodynamics that the barrel shape and powder worked very well together.

 

[ChrisPer]

Over at vikingsword.com the knowledgeable contributor Matchlock (sadly now deceased) posted a number of period pictures of 1400s/1500s guns on saw-horse-like tripods. I suspect that what we call wall guns may often have been used in the field on those tripods, because they are quite maneuverable.