Interesting little gun. My immediate reation to it was "Blakely," because the rifling appears to be Blakely pattern hook slant.

Figure VIII-32 on page 153 of Warren Ripley's "Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War" pictures a similar, but not identical gun tenatively identified as Blakely, or a CS manufactured Blakely. There are a pair of these guns at the Washington Navy Yard.

The guns at the WNY are 2.9 inch bore rifles with an overall length of 36.5 inches. However, the cascabel (knob on the breach) of your gun is bobbed, and the WNY guns are not. Also the breech on your gun appears to be turned down a bit, or stepped. The other major difference is that the trunnions on your gun appear to be cast directly with the tube. Many Blakely field guns, and the WNY gun utilize a trunnion band that was fitted to the tube. The rifling on the WNY gun is 6 lands and 6 grooves (6x6) whereas your gun is 8x8, but there were other 8x8 Blakelys.

The trunnions of the WNY guns are 2.7 inches in diameter and 2.5 inches in length. Ripley notes this means the guns would mount in a standard U.S. spec. (thus C.S. spec.) mountain howitzer carriage.

I think I am in the ballpark.

If you would get some clearer pictures of the breech and the trunnions, measure trunnion lenght and diameter and check the trunnions carefully for any markings, the additional information would be helpful. Any known history on the gun? Where did it come from, what part of the country are you located in, etc.

Dave Neel