The Woodruff Gun
Annotations to the Margreiter article.
PRICE’S ARMY CAPTURES WOODRUFF GUNS AT PILOT KNOB, MISSOURI
Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Volume XLI, Part 3, p. 961.
Confederate Correspondence, Orders, and Returns relating to operations in Louisiana and the Trans-Mississippi states and territories, from September 1, 1864, to October 15, 1864.
Office Chief of Artillery, Army of Missouri
September 28, 1864
Lieutenant Colonel MACLEAN,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Army of Missouri:
COLONEL: I have the honor to make the following report of the number of pieces of artillery captured at Pilot Knob, Mo., on the 27th instant and the disposition made of them: Four 32-pounder siege guns, three 24-pounder howitzers, six Woodruff field guns, and two 24-pounder Coehorn mortars. In obedience to my instructions to render useless such as could not be removed I endeavored to do so by bursting, burning, ans spiking. Two 32-pounders were burst, the others injured as much as possible, with the exception of two Woodruff guns given to Colonel Dobbin, and one Coehorn mortar given to Captain Hughey’s artillery. These I had removed with a complement of ammunition for them. The remainder of the ammunition (about 2,200 rounds) was destroyed with the fort, also 5 caissons for 3-inch rifled guns. The harness, equipments, &c., were distributed to the various batteries.
Very Respectfully,
W. W. Dunlap,
Major and Chief of Artillery, Army of Missouri
[The difference between the 6 Woodruffs captured by Price and the 4 Woodruffs noted elsewhere in the OR is accounted for by an incident in Arming the Suckers, by Ken Baumann, p. 56, which recounts an exchange between an Illinois Cavalry regiment and the forces at Fort Davidson trading 2 Illinois Woodruffs for 2 Fort Davidson mountain howitzers:
“In May 1863, the two battalions were at Pilot Knob….Here the two-pound howitzers were exchanged for two twelve-pound mountain howitzers. These were in a few weeks turned over to another command.” Page 255. Adjutant General’s Report-Illinois. Volume 8. Springfield, 1901.]