A US Navy 32-Pounder Carronade manufactured in 1820 is displayed at Fort Macon in North Carolina

Learn more about The Cannons of Fort Macon

A carronade cast for the US Navy in 1820 and carried aboard the ship of the line USS Columbus is displayed at Fort Macon on Bogue Banks near Beaufort, North Carolina. The carronade represents the six carronades shipped from the Gosport Navy Yard in 1861 to be mounted for flank defense in the counterfire galleries of the fort. Fort Macon has four counterfire galleries which cover the ditch between the outer and inner walls of the fort. The carronades would be employed against any enemy infantry who managed to come over the outer wall of the fort.

During the April of 1862 Siege of Fort Macon, the six carronades were removed from the counterfire galleries and were placed on the northwest outer wall. The carriages were mounted at high angle (about 45 degrees) and the carronades used as ersatz mortars against US Army trenches.

After the US Army captured Fort Macon, 24-Pounder Flank Howitzers were brought to the fort for use in the counterfire batteries. After 1864 the carronades are not listed among the cannons present at the fort (Branch, Paul. Fort Macon: A History. pg. 245). I would presume that the six carronades were scrapped at that point.

The 32-Pounder Carronade on display at Fort Macon is on loan from the US Navy’s Naval History and Heritage Command. It was brought to Fort Macon State Park from the Norfolk Navy Yard in 2011, and it is displayed in the approximate location that the six carronades were mounted for use as mortars in 1862.

The carronade now at Fort Macon was manufactured for the US Navy in 1820. The interpretive sign states that the carronade was carried aboard USS Columbus. (I presume the carronade’s registry number matches one listed for USS Columbus. I was not able to make out the registry number on the breech of the carronade.) According to Silverstone’s The Sailing Navy, USS Columbus carried 32-Pounder carronades between 1842 and 1850. The carronades would have been mounted on the ship’s spar deck. During these years USS Columbus saw service in the Japanese and Chinese waters before being called back to the US Pacific coast to support United States Navy operations in the Mexican American War. The carronade may be a witness to this service. USS Columbus returned to Norfolk in 1848 and was laid up. Columbus was one of the ships burned to prevent capture when Virginia forces took the Gosport Navy Yard on April 20th, 1861.

Carronades, first manufactured by the Carron Iron Works in Britain, were employed to great effect from the 1780s onward on the upper decks of frigates and ships of the line as relatively light cannon capable of firing very heavy shot for their weight. (A 32-Pounder Carronade might about the same as or even less than the long 9-Pounders and 6-Pounders they initially supplemented and then later replaced on many warships.) Many lighter warships were almost entirely armed with carronades. USS Constitution carried 20 or more 32-Pounder carronades on her spar deck during the War of 1812, and most of the ships built under the Gradual Increase of the Navy Act following the War of 1812 were designed to carry carronades as part of their battery. If the Fort Macon carronade was not mounted aboard USS Columbus until 1842 (she carried 42-Pounder Carronades earlier in her service), the carronade may have been carried on any number of ships in the fleet. In the US Navy, carronades were superseded by chambered 32-Pounders of 27 Hundredweight and 33 Hundredweight in the 1845 system. Few saw service afloat during the American Civil War.

The carronade is tangible connection to the “Gradual Increase” period of the US Navy following the War of 1812, and it represents an innovative, if somewhat desperate, use of carronades during the siege. For those interested in American Seacoast Artillery, Fort Macon is a wonderful place to visit.