The 10-Inch Brooke Smoothbore of CSS Columbia
A 10-Inch Brooke Smoothbore manufactured by Tredegar in 1864 for installation aboard CSS Columbia is displayed as a trophy at the Washington Navy Yard. In the background are a 7-Inch Brooke Rifle of CSS Tennessee (left) and the 12-Inch "Mersey Gun" (right).
The largest single collection of Confederate Brooke cannons are the trophies displayed at the Washington Navy Yard. Eight of the cannons are rifles: four single-banded Brooke Rifles captured aboard CSS Atlanta and four double-banded Brooke Rifles captured aboard CSS Tennessee.
The ninth is a 10-Inch Brooke Smoothbore. It was manufactured for the ironclad CSS Columbia which was built at Charleston. According to Warren Ripley’s Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War, it is unknown whether the 10-Inch Brooke was aboard Columbia when that ship was captured after US forces took Charleston in February of 1865. Ripley also states that the 10-Inch and 11-Inch Brooke smoothbores were designed to fire wrought iron shot propelled by heavy charges against ironclads (Ripley, pg. 130).
The 10-Inch Brooke at the Washington Navy Yard is marked as being manufactured by Tredegar in 1864 and weighing 21,140 pounds, according to the information in the registry in the appendix of The Big Guns. The National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Georgia displays the only other surviving 10-Inch Brooke along with an 11-Inch Brooke smoothbore as well.
