Mr. Hubbard,

Do you have any ideas as to carriage dimensions for the english carriage for the 2.75" Whitworth breechloader? Just looking at the lengths of the tube in breech loading configuration I would expect it to be slightly less mobile with respect to gaining position off road. Even the muzzle loader has a tube length roughly that of 20 pdr Parrott (without the considerable extra heft of course.)

Looking at the image of the contemporary carriage shown for the 2.75" breech loader in the U.K. found in Hazlett's book I rough out a length of about 126 inches for the carriage without wheels (give or take about 4 inches), or about an extra foot of trail compared to a 12 pdr Napoleon. I'm guessing this will translate to roughly 100 lbs of extra weight in the trail and cheeks compared to the Napoleon. That would make its carriage about 300+ lbs heavier than a 3" rifle. So I can see how the extra tube projection, trail length, and weight could make it noticeably less nimble than the light 3" rifles in battlefield conditions.