The Williams Repeating Cannon,Invented by Capt. D. R. Williams of Kentucky, the Williams Repeating C

The Williams Repeating Cannon,Invented by Capt. D. R. Williams of Kentucky, the Williams Repeating Cannon was a secret weapon of the Confederacy during the American Civil War.  With a crank driven design, this cannon fired a one pound shell at a rate of around 65 rounds per minute, making it essentially the grandfather of modern military auto-cannons.  The gun had a unique crank driven device that when turned would open and close the breech.  A gun crewman would drop a paper cartridge into position, where the crank driven breech would push the cartridge into the breech, lock, fire the cartridge, the reciprocate back open.An incredible design, the Williams Repeating Cannon was found to be very reliable and accurate up to 2,000 yards.  In all 42 guns were produced at Lynchburg, VA, Richmond, VA, and Mobile, AL.  Often they were grouped in batteries of six, and worked in tandem pairs (one firing while the other cooled), which created a devastating amount of firepower.  -- source link

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