The 150-Pounder Armstrong of Fort Fisher

Dec 26

1865 Photo of the 150-Pounder Armstrong at Fort Fisher — 150-Pounder Armstrong Muzzle Loading Rifle at Fort Fisher - 1865 Photo via the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/2013649009/

Note: the photos of the original 150-Pounder Armstrong displayed at West Point were taken by another photographer and are used here with his permission.

“There was one magnificent gun in a battery just below Fort Fisher - a 150-Pounder Armstrong . It was presented to Jeff. Davis by Sir W. J. Armstrong. It was kept bright and mounted on a mahogany carriage, beautifully mounted with brass” so wrote Lieutenant John Bartlett of USS Susquehanna to his sisters in a letter which described his participation in the Naval Landing Party’s attack on the fort during the Second Battle of Fort Fisher. (The letter, which makes for bracing reading as it describes the heavy casualties sustained by the landing party and the human and material condition inside of the fort after the naval bombardment and battle, may be found on pages 526-529 of Volume 11 of the Naval Official Records.)

The 150-Pounder (or 8-Inch) Armstrong Muzzle Loading Rifle was one of a pair imported from Britain for the defense of Wilmington, North Carolina. One was mounted at Fort Fisher and the other at Fort Caswell (on the southern side of the mouth of the Cape Fear River). The Armstrong Rifles, built up out of bands of wrought iron, were impressive and formidable weapons - except for the extremely limited supply of ammunition available for them - said to be only 13-rounds for the Fort Fisher Armstrong (Gragg, Rod. Confederate Goliath: The Battle of Fort Fisher, pg. 19).

Fort Fisher was heavily armed with 8-Inch and 10-Inch Columbiads, Brooke Rifles and Smoothbores, an 8-Inch Blakely Rifle, and 32-Pounders - some of which had been banded and rifled, but it was the Armstrong which attracted attention - then and now.

Following the Second Battle of Fort Fisher, the captured 150-Pounder Armstrong was taken to the United States Military Academy at West Point where it remains to this day. (I believe the Armstrong was loaned to Fort Fisher State Historic Site in the early 2000s, but it was returned.) The tube now on display at Fort Fisher is a very nice looking replica - I believe made out of fiberglass weighted with concrete. I was told that carriage on which the replica is mounted was created to display the original during the period of its loan to the fort. A projectile for the 150-Pounder Armstrong Rifle is displayed in the Visitors Center at Fort Fisher.

According to Ripley, the original now at West Point is marked “Sir W.G. Armstrong & Co. No. 1207, 1864” on the left trunnion and “15737 Lbs, 150-Pdr., Prep. 809 Lbs.” on the right trunnion. “Prep. 809. Lbs.” would refer the the cannon’s preponderance of 809 pounds - the cannon is breech heavy by that amount (Ripley, pg. 140-141). The original Armstrong Rifle at West Point is mounted on a reproduction steel carriage which, according to a nearby interpretive sign, incorporates fittings from the original wooden carriage.

The matching 150-Pounder Armstrong Rifle at Fort Caswell was taken by the United States Navy. 19th Century photographs (likely taken soon after the war) show the Navy’s Armstrong at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis mounted with other heavy cannons. The Navy’s Armstrong seems to have been taken away for scrap - possibly during a First or Second World War scrap drive.

Fort Fisher State Historic Site will host a Commemoration of the 160th Anniversary of the Second Battle of Fort Fisher on Saturday, January 18th, 2025. See Fort Fisher’s Facebook page for more information: https://www.facebook.com/fortfishershs