What were the diffenent sizes of cannon balls in the 1600?

Answer 1

Cannon c. 1600 was not standardized the way it was in later periods, and as such the bore and shot varied significantly. However, the common sizes for field guns were approximately 15-20 lbs. Howitzers had not been invented.

Lighter guns such as the demi-culverin (a relatively new invention) fired 8-12 pound shot.

Fixed guns, naval guns and mortars commonly fired 24-48 pound shot -- these artillery pieces could not be moved and were slow to load and fire. The hip new weapon of the age was the demi-cannon, a 30-32 pound naval gun sometimes used in towers (for coastal defense). I have no evidence that this existed in precisely 1600 -- but in 1602, demi-cannons were brought down and employed with positive results at Kinsale (in fact, they decided the seige).

Answer 2

Field artillery, as opposed to coast or siege artillery, is guns light enough to be pulled by horses, and light enough so they would not tend to sink into the mud of unpaved roads and battlefields. In the Revolution, guns firing 4 or 6 pound cannon balls were commonly used in the field. Heavier guns could be and were mounted in forts and on ships, where their weight was not going to make them bog down in the mud. Napoleon Bonaparte started out as an artillery officer, and he became associated with the type of gun that was the most common, north and south, in the Civil War: the 12 pound "Napoleon". This gun fired 12 pound balls, and the gun weighed around one ton, and so was light enough for field use. There was a variety of ammunition for the gun by the Civil War, not just "solid shot" (cannonballs). There was spherical case shot - a hollow ball packed with explosives and rifle-sized balls, with a wooden fuse screwed into it, which was supposed to allow it to be timed to burst over enemy troops. There were canister and case shot, like big cans, packed with iron balls, used against troops at close range, so the cannon became like a big shotgun, and which were frequently used with devastating effect in the Civil War. In truly desperate circumstances the gunners might load two canisters, "double shot", for even greater effect. The Napoleon was a smoothbore gun, like a musket, but there were some early rifled cannon and a few breechloading guns also used in the Civil War, which had far greater range and accuracy, such as the Armstrong and Whitworth. Naval cannon continued to be heavier than field artillery, 32 pounders being common, but "Dahlgren" guns also were invented by a northern Admiral, and these could fire 100 or 200 pound balls. Sometimes these massive cannon were "pivots" - they could be turned to aim at an enemy alongside, instead of having to maneuver the entire ship to bring the guns to bear. Thus, only one or two of these massive pivots needed to be mounted on the centerline of the ship to make a formidable warship. Massive siege guns, up to 13 inch mortars, were also used at some times by troops on land. These fired shells weighing hundreds of pounds, in a high arc, thirteen inches in diameter, useful for going over the walls of brick forts. One of these used in the siege of Charleston, South Carolina by Union troops was called "The Swamp Angel", and another was used in the Siege of Petersburg, mounted on a railroad flatcar. A replica of the Petersburg gun is at the Richmond-Petersburg Battlefield Park, near where the original was used.