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Based on an earlier French design, the 12 Pdr Mountain Howitzer was a small artillery piece designed primarily for service with the infantry and cavalry.
They were usually attached individually to infantry and cavalry regiments, and only rarely assigned to batteries of artillery.
The Mountain Howitzer was normally transported by being disassembled and carried by three mules (see illustration), but could also be used in conjunction with a similarly small-scale limber.
Image from the 1861 Army Ordnance Manual.
Slightly differing models of the Mountain Howitzers were introduced in 1835, 1838, and 1841.
The effective range of the Mountain Howitzer was approximately 1000 yards, or roughly equivilent to the .58 caliber rifle muskets used by Civil War infantry.
The Mountain Howitzer was manufactured by Cyrus Alger & Co. and the Ames Company in the North, and by the Tredegar Ironworks in the South.
Sources:
Hazlett, James, Edwin Olmstead, & M. Hume Parks. Field Artillery Weapons of the Civil War.
(Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1983).
Thomas, Dean. Cannons: An Introduction to Civil War Artillery.
(Gettysburg: Thomas Publications, 1985).
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