Mortars

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    Mortars were short range, indirect cannons. Mortars were designed to fire explosive ammunition over the walls of the enemy. The heavy shells used as ammunition were strong enough to get through bombproof shelters. The eight inch siege mortars had a firing range of about eight hundred yards. The ten inch siege mortars had a firing range of about eight hundred seventy five yards.
   
    One advantage of mortars were that they were easy to move. They were moved across the battlefield with wagons, which was very convenient since mortars were short range cannons, and did not have a very big affect if they were used at long range.