Jim, that's a good question about the technical aspects of whether opposing forces could actually tell what type of enemy artillery they faced! I'm not so certain that one could easily discern the gun types at extended range by merely looking at them, or in the direction he thought them to be! Certainly by just a visual inspection at long range one would not be able to distinguish much else, perhaps, other than possibly the glint of bronze as opposed to cast iron. Of course, there'd be nothing like the experience of formerly being under fire to make an eductated guess about what type of guns were firing at you when they actually fired! And in that arena I'd expect an artilleryman to have a better education!
And going a bit further, I'd bet one of the more distinguishing elements of recognition might have been the sounds of discharge, flight and strike or explosion. But this would be conjecture on my part. Surely a trained eye could probably assess the general gun type also by the distance of engagement. But there would be some real limitations to all of this if one were trying to make determination between, say, a 10-pound Parrott, a 3-inch Ordnance Rifle and a 12-lb James Rifle! A 6-lb James Rifle and a 12-lb Napoleon might be a hard thing to distinguish at range as well, since both could effectively fire the same distance.
But for the substance of your question, I do believe that gun type recognition at extended range would be a hard thing to do, especially when one throws in all of the normal battlefield distractions and visual interferences. And I also believe that the HPS graphical arrangement provides an unrealistic identification of enemy gun types. I know that I've relied upon exactly that kind of thing to develope some of my tactical decisions upon the field.
Ideally, there'd be some generic image for all gun types at extended range, which would transpose to a more definable image when the guns engaged or the range became moderate. Otherwise, having a generic image maintained throughout for the sake of Fog-of-War would seem to be unrealistic, especially after your boys had taken almost double the number of short range casualties from those Napoleons they thought were Parrotts!
_________________ General Jos. C. Meyer, ACWGC Union Army Chief of Staff Commander, Army of the Shenandoah Commander, Army of the Tennessee (2011-2014 UA CoA/GinC)
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