RE 122 — The 1st Screw-Gun Mountain Battery, 5

The 5th of a series of 6 photographs intended to demonstrate the loading of a complete ‘Screw-Gun’ on six mules, showing an Anglo-Indian soldier guiding the mule. This one is loaded with the chase, the longer front-part of the barrel of the 7 Pounder RML (Rifled Muzzle Loading) gun, fastened on a special pack saddle with additional saddle-straps. As the decorative elements on top of the column behind the mule shows, this series of photographs was taken in the Sherpur cantonment. The mountain artillery unit was stationed just beside the 7th BS&M on the western bastion of Sherpur. This is maybe one of the reasons for the existence of this set of BS&M photographs. Other reasons may have been that the ‘Screw-Gun’ was a brand-new invention, and the 6/8 R.A. was the first unit to be equipped with it. Just a few days before these photographs were taken the battery was engaged for the very first time at Saiyidabad (RE 116).

[Album:] The 1st Screw gun Mountain battery. [S&M List:] 2-64 One Gun and Equipment 6/8 R.A. on Mules.

Original:
Private collection of Bryan Maggs, Collection BS&M, Fol. 35, bottom.
Not in the albums of the RE Collections at Chatham.
Royal Artillery Museum, Woolwich, Acc. No. 1604: Letter addressed to Colonel H.A. Inglis, dated 26th Nov 1912, together with a set of later copies of these photographs.
The Second Afghan War 1878-80: Abridged Official Account (1908), p. 714: Royal Artillery, 8th Brigade, No. 6 Mountain Battery (7-pr. jointed screw guns), Major T. Graham.
Hensman, H. (1882): The Afghan War of 1879-80, the Mountain Battery is several times mentioned as being especially useful on the rough Afghan terrain.
Adamec, L.W. (1985): Kabul and southeast Afghanistan, p. 727: Sherpur, "The cantonment built by Amir Sher Ali, 1 mile to the north of Kabul city, and in which the British army, under Sir Frederick Roberts, was beleaguered in December 1879. [...]"
Trevelyan, Ch.: Indian Army Mountain Artillery (www.king-emperor.com): “Although light in calibre, the guns of Mountain Batteries were designed to be disassembled and transported by pack mule in up to eight loads for use in terrain that would otherwise be impossible to traverse with larger and more conventional artillery. The earliest guns were the tiny 3 Pounder SBML (Smooth Bore Muzzle Loading) and 4 2/5 Inch SBML howitzer of c.1850. These were replaced in 1865 by the 7 Pounder RML (Rifled Muzzle Loading) and this in turn was replaced in 1879 by the significantly improved and significantly heavier 2.5 inch RML, also known as Kipling's Screw Gun (all mountain gun types from this 2.5 inch RML on had barrels that split in two for transport).“
Detailed description of the ‘Screw-Gun’: (www.kipling.org.uk/rg_screwguns1.htm)