Heavy Artillery of the Confederacy in the American Civil War
Five cannons are shown mounted at Fort Johnson after the capture of Charleston in 1865. Fort Sumter may be seen in the background. From foreground to background: A 10-Inch Confederate Columbiad, another Confederate Columbiad (likely 10-Inch), a Double Banded Brooke (possibly a 7-Inch Rifle), and a Pattern 1844 10-Inch Columbiad which had been banded and rifled by the Confederates. Finally in the back is an 8-Inch Siege Howitzer on a Siege and Garrison Carriage. Detail of Library of Congress Photo: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2018666897/
When operating against Rebel held harbors and waterways, the sailors and ships of the United States Navy faced a formidable array of defensive weapons - the most visible component being the heavy cannon mounted by forts and ships. This post is an overview of the major types and systems of heavy naval and seacoast artillery operated by the Confederate Army and Confederate Navy during the American Civil War
The major types of Confederate Naval and Seacoast Heavy Artillery included:
Pre-war US Army cannons including 24-Pounder, 32-Pounder, and 42-Pounder shot firing guns as well as the shell-firing 8-Inch and 10-Inch Columbiads of the 1844 and 1857 Systems.
Pre-war US Navy cannons including 32-Pounder guns and 8-Inch shell guns of the 1845 system, Dahlgren guns, and older model 32-pounder and 42-pounder guns and carronades.
Confederate Manufactured Columbiads of primarily of 8-Inch and 10-Inch calibers.
Brooke Rifles and Smoothbores which were cast iron cannons with wrought iron reinforcing bands designed by John Mercer Brooke
Smoothbore Guns Rifled and/or Banded to increase their accuracy and hitting power
Imported Cannon - mostly Rifles made by British manufacturers
Captured US Army Cannons and Columbiads
Two US Army Pattern of 1829 32-Pounders displayed on front pintle barbette carriages at Fort Moultrie near Charleston, South Carolina
Pre-War US Army Cannons: When militia forces of the seceding states seized US Army seacoast forts and arsenals they also seized the cannons mounted and stored at these forts. The heavy cannon generally fell into two broad types:
Shot firing 24-Pounder (5.82-Inch), 32-Pounder (6.4-Inch), and 42-Pounder (7-Inch) guns - These cannons had been designed and manufactured in the early 19th century to fire solid shot on relatively flat trajectories. Though obsolescent by 1861, they were retained for want of better cannons especially in seconday positions.
Shell firing 8-Inch and 10-Inch Columbiads of the 1844 Pattern. These Columbiads were designed to fire round explosive shells at higher elevation. Such shells (if the shell’s fuse managed to successfully ignite and the shell managed to hit and imbed into the side of a wooden ship’s hull) could cause devastating damage to wooden ships. The 1844 Pattern Columbiads were chambered cannons which lacked the strength to reliably fire heavy solid shot.
8-Inch Columbiads of the 1857 Pattern. These “New Columbiads” lacked the chamber of the earlier 1844 guns . They had only been issued in small numbers when the war began, but one survives at Fort Moultrie.
Captured US Navy Cannons
Confederate Battery of 9-Inch Dahlgrens at Yorktown (photographed after capture). Though these guns are sometimes identified as 11-Inch Dahlgrens, they are 9-Inch guns. These guns would have been captured at Gosport in 1861 before being recaptured by United States forces when the Confederates retreated from Yorktown. Detail from this photo: https://www.loc.gov/item/2018671722/
Pre-War US Navy Cannons: When Virginia forces took the Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk in 1861, Sessionist forces captured around 1,200 heavy cannons. Most were various types of 32-Pounder, but a still significant number were shell firing guns. Additional cannons were taken at the Pensecola Navy Yard. While some of these weapons were used by the Confederate Navy, many were used by the Confederate Army in forts along the coast and rivers. The seized naval cannons included:
32-Pounders of the 1845 System: In 1845-1846 the US Navy introduced a system of 32-Pounders in different weights including 27, 32, 42, 46, 51, and 57 hundredweight. The projectiles were common between the guns, but the lighter guns used lighter propellant charges.
8-Inch Shell Guns of 55 Hundredweight and 63 Hundredweight: These two weights of shell gun had been introduced alongside the 1845 32-Pounders.
Older model 32-Pounder and 42-Pounder guns and carronades: Even though these older guns had been superseded by the 1845 System cannons, some remained in the stocks at Gosport.
Dahlgren guns: The US Navy had adopted John Dahlgren’s system of 9-Inch, 10-Inch, and 11-Inch heavy shot-and-shell firing guns in the mid 1850s for the new classes of steam frigates and sloops under construction. USS Merrimac and her sisters had been designed to carry an entire battery of 9-Inch Dahlgrens on her gun deck. Though only a small portion of the guns captured at Gosport were Dahlgrens and almost all of them were the 9-Inch model, these were among the most modern and capable cannons initially available to the Confederacy.
A 9-Inch Dahlgren which served aboard USS Southfield until that ship was sunk by CSS Albermarle. The Confederates raised the cannon and mounted it aboard CSS Pee Dee near Florence, South Carolina. Read about the Guns of CSS Pee Dee.
11-Inch Dahlgren salvaged from the sunken USS Keokuk by the Confederates. Read more about the guns of USS Keokuk. Read more about the guns of USS Keokuk.
Confederate Columbiads
10-Inch Confederate Columbiad made at Tredegar Iron Works in 1862 displayed at Fort Moultrie near Charleston, South Carolina.
Columbiads Manufactured in the Confederacy. 8-Inch and 10-Inch Columbiads were produced by Tredegar Iron Works and Bellona Foundry which were both near Richmond.
Posts about Columbiads
"Pattern 1857" Columbiads: Tredegar produced some number of these Columbiads in 1861. One of these guns, an 8-Inch, survives at Fort Pulaski.
8-Inch Model 1861 (Confederate) - Produced by both Tredegar and Bellona throughout the war, these Columbiads adopted the general shape of the US Army guns designed by Rodman - most notably the “mushroom knob” shaped breech designed to facilitate lifting the gun with a rope around the breech and the “soda bottle” shape of a thick breech that thins rapidly towards the muzzle. Confederate manufacturers did not adopt Rodman’s hollow casting process which strengthened the cannon as it cooled from the inside out, the Confederate Columbiad was cast as a solid block in the traditional manner before the barrel was bored out.
10-Inch Model 1861 (Confederate) - Also produced by Tredegar and Bellona throughout the war, the 10-Inch Confederate Columbiad was mounted in seacoast fortifications where attack by US Navy ironclad ships was thought likely.
Tredegar Produced two Prototype 12-Inch Columbiads near the end of the war. Alone among Confederate heavy cannon, these two guns were manufactured using Rodman's "hollow casting" technique
8-Inch Columbiad similar to the US Pattern of 1857 Columbiad. This cannon was manufactured by Tredegar in 1861 and is displayed at Fort Pulaski.
8-Inch Confederate Columbiad manufactured by Bellona in 1862 mounted at Drewry’s Bluff. National Park service photo via Wikimedia.
6.4-Inch Confederate “Columbiad” Rifle produced from a casting for a 10-Inch Columbiad at Tredegar in 1861. Photo by John Stanton and posted on http://www.fortwiki.com/Fort_Powell_(1) and used according to the terms of the CC Attribution Share Alike License.
"Columbiad Rifles" Additionally, some rifles were created by taking a casting for a Columbiad (which was cast solid without a barrel) and boring a smaller diameter barrel which was then rifled. The one surviving 6.4-Inch Rifle is displayed in Mobile, Alabama.
5.82-Inch Rifles were made from 8-Inch Columbiad castings
6.4-Inch Rifles were made from 10-Inch Columbiad castings
Brooke Rifles and Smoothbores
10-Inch Double Banded Brooke Smoothbore (foreground) and 7-inch Double Banded Brooke Rifle (back left) with 6.4-Inch Brooke Rifles in the background at the Washington Navy Yard.
John Mercer Brooke's guns: Finally, while not Columbiads, the foundries at Tredegar and Selma (Alabama) produced heavy cannons designed by John M. Brooke. These Brooke Rifles and Smoothbores were designed originally for the Confederate Navy, but being among the most capable heavy guns produced by the Confederacy, they saw considerable use on land as well. However, their naval roots which may be seen in their design - particularly in the large cascabel which has provision for both an elevating screw and breeching rope and which is similar to that of US Navy Dahlgren guns. Again, they are not Columbiads, but it is hard to talk about Confederate heavy ordnance and not mention them.
Brooke Rifles and Smoothbores included: (See posts about Brooke Rifles and Smoothbores)
6.4-Inch Rifle (originally single banded, later double banded)
7-Inch Rifle (single, double, and triple banded versions were created)
8-Inch Smoothbore (produced from a 6.4-Inch Rifle casting)
8-Inch Rifle (no known survivor)
10-Inch Smoothbore
11-Inch Smoothbore
11-Inch Rifle (no known survivor)
Single Banded 6.4-Inch and 7-Inch Brooke Rifles of CSS Atlanta at the Washington Navy Yard. Read more about CSS Atlanta’s Brooke Rifles.
7-Inch Triple Banded Brooke Rifle - This Brooke is on display at Fort Moultrie
Banded and Rifled Cannons
Two US 32-Pounders of 57 Hundredweight which were captured at the Gosport Navy Yard, banded and rifled by the Confederates, and mounted during the war at Fort Caswell. They are now displayed at Fort Fisher.
Banded and Rifled Smoothbores
The Confederacy also banded and rifled a number of older smoothbores to create additional heavy rifles. Many 32-Pounders and some 42-Pounders were rifled and a reinforcing band was placed over the breech to help the tube withstand the greater pressures. (Rifled projectiles allowed less propellant gas to escape past the projectile when fired, and the projectile itself also usually weighed twice or more the round ball of the same caliber.) Some number of 8-Inch and 10-Inch Columbiads were also banded and rifled by the Confederacy.
10-Inch Columbiad (Pattern of 1844) Banded and Rifled by the Confederates.
British Rifled Cannon
4.5-Inch Blakely Rifle displayed at Fort Pulaski near Savannah, Georgia
British Rifled Cannon in the American Civil War
The Confederacy also imported heavy ordnance. Most of the imported cannons were British manufactured rifles. Additionally ships purchased aboard and fitted out for the Confederate Navy tended to be armed with British cannon. The three most common British rifles were Blakely, Whitworth, and Armstrong. Although most of the British guns were of good quality, supplying ammunition for them could be a challenge, and locally manufactured ammunition sometimes posed problems. A disproportionate number of British rifles seem to survive to the present as trophies or former trophies - likely because they were seen as unusual by United States soldiers and sailors who captured them.
Replica of 150 Pounder (8-Inch) Armstrong Rifled Cannon on display at Fort Fisher. The original cannon is displayed at West Point as a trophy.
The primary sources for this page (and great for further reading on Civil War artillery in general) are:
Olmstead, Edwin, Stark, Wayne E., Tucker, Spencer C. The Big Guns: Civil War Siege, Seacoast, and Naval Cannon. Museum Restoration Service, 1997.
Ripley, Warren, Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War (4th Edition). The Battery Press, 1984.
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