8-inch Dahlgren Rifles at Patriot’s Point
8-inch Dahlgren Muzzle Loading Rifle (Converted in 1879-1880 from 11-inch Smoothbore) as previously displayed at Patriots Point near USS Yorktown.
Four Dahlgren 8-Inch Muzzle Loading Rifles are on display outside of Patriots Point Soccer Stadium. These cannon were converted to rifles in 1879-1880 from 11-Inch Dahlgren Smoothbores which had been cast at Builders Foundry in Providence, Rhode Island in 1863. Their original numbers were No. 63, 64, 67 and 69. (Source is an article on the Patriots Point website linked here.)
They were installed upon USS Lancaster in 1881 and removed (to be replaced with 5-inch breechloaders!) in 1895. For over 100 years, they guarded an entrance to the Charleston Navy Yard. At some point after the Navy Yard’s closure, they were moved to Patriots Point where they originally were “aimed” at the aircraft carrier Yorktown (CV-10). After 2021, they were moved to their present location at the Patriots Point Soccer Stadium (slight rant at bottom).
1864 Photo of a 11-inch Dahlgren and carriage. I believe the carriage is made of wood.
US Navy History and Heritage Command Photo: Description: “View on deck, looking forward along the starboard side in June 1864. Acting Master Eben M. Stoddard (left) and Chief Engineer William H. Cushman are beside the ship's after XI-inch pivot gun, which is trained out to starboard, as it was during the action with CSS Alabama on 19 June. Note ammunition for the gun on deck at left, including grape, shell and what appears to be a powder charge.”
Designed by John A. Dahlgren, the 11-Inch Dahlgren smoothbore is famous for being the gun that armed USS Monitor in her fight with CSS Virginia. USS Kearsarge sank CSS Alabama with her two 11-inch pivot guns. USS New Ironsides carried an entire broadside batteries of 11-inch guns. With the exception of the huge 15-inch guns carried by Passaic-class and Canonicus-class monitors, it was the largest and arguably most powerful gun to arm the ships of the US Navy before during and after the Civil War. (Post on the 11-inch Dahlgren from USS Keokuk on display in Charleston.)
By the 1870s, the age of the smoothbore naval gun was drawing to a close. As the United States Navy sought to arm it’s ships with more powerful and more modern ordinance, a program of converting 11-inch Smoothbores to 8-inch rifles was begun. Since 8-inch rifles had been in US Navy service during the Civil War in the form of the 150-pounder Parrott Rifle, the Navy must have thought that converting the Dahlgren would produce a superior rifle to the Parrott.
USS Lancaster in 1898: US Navy History and Heritage Command Photo https://www.history.navy.mil/.../NH-85000/NH-85814.html
The figurehead of USS Lancaster on display at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News. The wingspan is nearly 20 feet, and the eagle is covered in gold leaf. It was sculpted by John Haley Bellamy of Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1880.
8-inch Dahlgren Muzzle Loading Rifle (Converted in 1879-1880 from 11-inch Smoothbore) as presently displayed at Patriots Park Stadium.
Warren Ripley’s “Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War” describes the conversion process: “The alteration consisted in reaming out the bore to 13 inches or so, then sleeving it down to 8-inch caliber rifled with 15 lands and groves. At the same time the muzzle was cut back about three inches and the swell turned off. Diminishing the size of the bore, of course, changed the balance of the piece, so the trunnions were shaved an inch at the rear, then increased to 12-inch diameter with an eccentric ring built up mainly in front. This moved the axis forward 1.5 inches and counteracted the tendency of the rifle to be muzzle heavy. Lock pieces were removed since firing was by friction primer. The converted piece weighed roughly 17,330 pounds.” (Ripley, pg. 97).
8-inch Dahlgren Muzzle Loading Rifles (Converted in 1879-1880 from 11-inch Smoothbore) as presently displayed at Patriots Park Stadium.
The four Dahlgrens sit on their original 1880s carriages outside the soccer stadium. I know little of carriages of this period, but they seem to be an interesting point in the evolution of naval carriages between those of the Civil War era and those of the “New Navy” of the mid-1880s and beyond. Given how few cannon of this period are displayed on their original carriages makes these pieces all the more interesting.
Rifled Bore of 8-inch Dahlgren MLR
I was under the impression that the inserted sleeve was wrought iron, but I cannot find a source to confirm that impression. Ripley specifically says that of the sleeves made for the conversion of 10-inch, Model 1861, were wrought iron. Anyone have a source that says what the sleeves on the Dahlgren conversions were?
The other question I have is the identification of the pieces with USS Lancaster. USS Lancaster was a steam sloop built in 1858. Between 1878 and 1881 she was the subject of a significant repair which cost more than the original build price of the vessel. (The extent to which this “repair” resulted in a wholly new vessel like that of Constellation, I don’t quite know, but this is the 19th century US Navy!) Donald Canney’s wonderful book “The Old Steam Navy: Frigates, Sloops, and Gunboats: 1815-1885.” says of the repaired sloop’s armament, “Her bow was reconfigured as the Trenton’s, with a ram and a running-in bowsprit. Some of the same castings were used for both ships. Her gundeck battery, formerly of twenty-four 9-inch guns, was replaced by eight converted 8-inch rifles, and two additional rifles were on the fore and aft spar deck pivot rails” (Canney, pg. 161).
USS Lancaster Crew in 1883 - US Navy History and Heritage Command Photo -
Ripley also identifies the cannon with Lancaster. Such an armament for what was among the most up-to-date ships in the US Navy makes sense. However, none of the photos present on the US Navy History and Heritage Command website nor any other photo I’ve seen of Lancaster shows the 8-inch rifles. The historical photos of Lancaster from History and Heritage Command show what appear to be 9-inch Dahlgren smoothbores on two-truck carriages as well as a Parrott rifle. The photos of the 8-inch Dahlgren rifles are from USS Trenton.
USS Trenton - Forward Pivot Gun - 8inch Dahlgren MLR - US Navy History and Heritage Command Photo https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-60000/NH-60342.html
My impression is that these converted smoothbores are seen as economy measures of limited effectiveness. The view is that while the great-power navies had moved on to sea-going ironclad battleships armed with breech loaders, the barely-funded USN was reduced to using 1850s technology in an 1880s world with auxiliary-steam wooden sailing vessels armed with converted cannon which had been bordering on obsolescence when new. The relevant chapter in Canney’s book is called “The Dark Ages.” I would point out that the Royal Navy was building composite (iron frame, wood planking) sloops armed with muzzle loading rifles well into the late 1870s. (See the still existent HMS Gannet of 1879 for comparison.) I wonder how fair the common judgment is? Anyone know of reliable sources on these converted Dalhgrens?
Also included are historical photos which I hope show the development of the naval gun carriage for guns in this class: an 1864 photo of a wooden carriage aboard Kearsarge and an 1870s photo of an iron carriage aboard Kearsarge show the development before our four Dahlgrens. An 1890 photo of a breech-loading 8-inch / 30 caliber rifle aboard the “New Navy” cruiser Chicago makes an interesting comparison in my mind. In service less than a decade after the guns of Lancaster (and perhaps designed a bit earlier), the design of the mounting is interesting to me. In some ways (recoil cylinder, central pivot) it shows significant development, but in other ways (gearing, wheels and cranks) it doesn't look so different.
US Navy History and Heritage Command Description: “The ship's after XI-inch Dahlgren pivot gun, trained out to port, circa the 1870s. This gun has an iron pivot mounting, of a type adopted after the Civil War. Mounted on the right side of the gun carriage, just behind the gun trunnion, is a plaque bearing the name Winslow, after Kearsarge's commanding officer in 1864, Captain John A. Winslow. The port side ladder to the quarter deck is at the left.”
Another US Navy History and Heritage Command Photo, this shows the 8"/30 gun aboard USS Chicago of the "New Navy". In service less than a decade after the guns of Lancaster (and perhaps designed a bit earlier), the design of the mounting is interesting to me. In some ways (recoil cylinder, central pivot) it shows significant development, but in other ways (gearing, wheels and cranks) it doesn't look so different.
Just my opinion: While I understand that Patriots Point has a focus on the Cold War and World War II, I enjoyed seeing these cannon displayed next to the carrier. I also know that the professional soccer team is the “Charleston Battery”, taking its name from “The Battery” the common name for White Point Garden in Charleston where several heavy cannon, including USS Keokuk’s 11-inch Dahlgren, are displayed. However, I am just not convinced that these historical artifacts are really in the right place being lawn ornaments at a stadium. The tubes are defaced by scratches. Their tompions are missing or pushed in, and they have trash in them and around them. I am sure every museum curator in the world would tell me that graffiti and trash are problems in museums, too, but museums and historic sites are used to minimizing it and correcting it. I’m just not sure that the folks who do maintenance at a soccer stadium are really equipped to take care of 19th century military artifacts. I guess as a plus, maybe they are seen by people who wouldn’t go to a museum... Maybe...
