The 9-Inch Dahlgren of Sackets Harbor
9-Inch Dahlgren Number 695 and a 30-Pounder Parrott Rifle displayed at Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site in Sackets Harbor, New York. Photo by NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
9-Inch Dahlgren Number 695 and a 30-Pounder Parrott Rifle displayed at Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site in Sackets Harbor, New York. Photo by NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
9-Inch Dahlgren Number 695 as displayed earlier in the 20th Century at Sackets Harbor. Note that the “carriage” appears to be concrete. Photo by NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. From this Facebook Post.
My thanks and appreciation go to the staff of Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site for responding to my email providing modern and historic photos of the cannons. They also provided me with a copy of the relevant pages of “The Cannon At Sackets Harbor” by Gary Gibson (2004). The site’s Facebook page is also a rich source of photos and primary sources related to the site’s history.
The 9-Inch Dahlgren Shell Gun at Sackets Harbor, New York
A US Navy 9-Inch Dahlgren Smoothbore Shell Gun is displayed at Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site in Sackets Harbor, New York. The cannon, US Navy Registry Number 695, was manufactured at Fort Pitt Foundry in 1863. As manufactured it originally weighed 9,210 pounds. These numbers as well as a foundry number of “1472” and the Initials of the US Navy Ordnance Officer who inspected the cannon when it was newly manufactured - “JMB” for “John M. Berrien” - may be found on the cannon.
The 9-Inch Dahlgren was part of a shipment of twenty identical cannons which arrived at the Sackets Harbor Navy Yard in 1864. All twenty seem to have remained in storage at Sackets Harbor until just after 1900 when all but one were sent for display at various memorials around the country. At the historic site, the Dahlgren is displayed next to a 30-Pounder (4.2-Inch) Parrott Rifle manufactured in 1865 which may have originally been mounted on a United States Revenue Service Cutter. The 30-Pounder Parrott Rifle will be covered in its own post.
Of the nearly 1,200 9-Inch Dahlgrens which were produced for the US Navy from 1855 to 1864, only around sixty are known to survive. But of the twenty sent to Sackets Harbor, eleven are known to survive to the present day.
Other posts about Dahlgren cannons.
The Short Version - Why 9-Inch Dahlgrens in 1864?
After the Trent Affair in November of 1861, war with the British Empire seemed possible, for a moment even likely. Command of the Great Lakes had been critical during the War of 1812. It may have seemed necessary to send materials, including heavy cannon, to Sackets Harbor on Lake Ontario for the purpose of fitting out ships to defend the lakes. However, the crisis passed. The hundreds of new warships (or newly purchased former merchant ships) being commissioned for service in the Atlantic Blockading Squadrons or the western river squadrons all needed cannons, and the US Navy only had a limited supply. In fact, the navy had lost nearly 1,200 heavy cannons when the Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk, Virginia was captured.
The Navy - perhaps goaded by senior political figures - may have wanted to send heavy cannons to Sackets Harbor, but it was only in 1864 that the supply of cannons caught up with the demand. Even then, it wasn’t light cannons suited for arming converted commercial steamers which were sent. Those were still in short supply. The Navy sent heavy and powerful Dahlgrens which were in most cases only suited for purpose built warships.
The only purpose built warship on Lake Ontario was USS New Orleans which had been brought to near-completion in 1815 and housed in reserve ever since.
Were the Dahlgrens planned for New Orleans or other ships? Or were they sent just to mollify a politician - perhaps a famous one?
I’m afraid the complete answer to those questions must await research in the National Archives and perhaps the collected papers of William Seward. I share what I’ve learned below.
Circa 1920s photograph of the 9-Inch Dahlgren Number 695 at Sackets Harbor. Note that the display carriage appears to be wooden and is equipped with a rammer and ladle. Photo by NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. From this Facebook post.
Section Headings
John Dahlgren’s Shell-Firing “Soda Bottle” Cannons
9-Inch Dahlgrens are Large and Heavy Cannons for Large and Heavily Built Warships
The 1864 Shipment of 9-Inch Dahlgrens to Sackets Harbor and Where they Are Today
The 32-Pounder and 8-Inch Cannons which had been at Sackets Harbor
USS New Orleans - War of 1812 Ship of the Line and Mobilization Asset in the 1860s?
Why Were the 9-Inch Dahlgrens Sent? Questions Still to Answer.
USS Hartford’s main battery of twenty 9-Inch Dahlgren cannons in 1864 shortly after the Battle of Mobile Bay. Naval History and Heritage Command Photo NH53678
John Dahlgren’s Shell-Firing “Soda Bottle” Cannons
The 9-Inch Dahlgren was developed by US Navy Officer John A. Dahlgren in the 1850s. Dahlgren designed a new shape for his cannons. The breech which had to resist the greatest pressures on firing was far thicker than the chase (forward end) of the cannon which had to resist much lower pressures. The cannons tapered quickly from breech to chase and were sometimes called “soda bottles” for their distinctive shape. While Dahlgren designed larger 10-Inch and 11-Inch cannons for upper deck pivot mountings (and during the Civil War he designed massive 15-Inch cannons for subsequent Monitor-type ironclads), the 9-Inch was designed to be the main broadside armament of the new steam sloops and frigates of the US Navy. A steam sloop like USS Hartford carried twenty 9-Inch Dahlgrens on her main deck. The larger steam frigates like USS Minnesota carried twenty-eight 9-Inch Dahlgrens on their main decks.
Whereas the heaviest cannons of the War of 1812 were 32-Pounders which weighed around 6,000 pounds and fired a solid 32-pound round shot, the 9-Inch Dahlgren weighed only 50% more than the 32-Pounder but could fire a 90-pound round shot. However, Dahlgren intended his cannons to primarily fire explosive shells. These roughly 73-pound round projectiles were cast hollow and filled with gunpowder. The discharge of the cannon lighted a five or ten second fuse. Ideally, the shell would lodge itself in the wooden side of the enemy warship before exploding, tearing a large, jagged hole in the side of the ship. During the War of 1812, ships might be hit by dozens or even hundreds of round shot which would produce 5 or 6 inch holes which could be fairly easily plugged when needed. The effect on the sailors aboard might be horrific, but few ships sank. A single 9-Inch shell which hit and exploded near the waterline might sink the largest wooden ship. (Dahlgren discusses the difference between shot and shell in Chapter Six of his 1856 book Shells and Shell Guns.)
Shells could quickly destroy the wooden warships of the period, but the ability of Dahlgren’s cannons to fire heavier solid shot would prove important as iron-armored ships came into service during the American Civil War. Dahlgren’s cannons rendered very good service during the Civil War and were considered to be very reliable. They would continue in active US Navy service until the 1890s. (When USS Kearsarge sank on active duty in 1894, four of her seven heavy cannons were 9-Inch Dahlgrens.)
The 9-Inch Dahlgren, like the larger 11-Inch Dahlgren, was very reliable in service. In trials the Dahlgens had only burst when subjected to tests such as being loaded with a double charge of propellent and ten 90 pound shot. At the end of the war, Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance Henry Wise would write that “not a single gun of the Dahlgren system burst prematurely [in action]” (Tucker, Spencer. Arming the Fleet: U.S. Naval Ordnance in the Muzzle Loading Era. Naval Institute Press, 1989. Pp. 206 & 255.)
Coverted ferry boats with their heavily built decks designed to hold heavy wagons could carry 9-Inch Dahlgrens when more lightly built merchant ships could not. This photo taken aboard the converted ferry USS Hunchback shows the carriage, sights, firing hammer, tackle, and many of the tools used with a 9-Inch Dahlgren. Library of Congress Photo: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.80234/
9-Inch Dahlgren Cannons are Large and Heavy Cannons for Large and Heavily Built Warships but Lighter Cannons Were Needed
The only downside to the 9-Inch Dahlgren was that it seems to have been too heavy and too violent in its recoil for the many merchant ships taken into US Navy service for blockade duty during the Civil War. Merchant ships were not built with reinforced decks for heavy cannons, and including their carriages, 9-Inch Dahlgrens would weigh more than 10,000 pounds. Even aboard the heavy frigate USS Minnesota, the repeated firing of the 9-Inch guns during the Battle of Hampton Roads contributed to the damage of the tackle, mountings, and carriages of the Dahlgren guns (Gunner’s Report. March 10th, 1862.)
During the American Civil War, the US Navy grew from under 100 ships, fewer than half of which were in commission, to some 671 ships by the end of the war. While many were built for the navy, many others were merchant ships purchased for naval service. Some were for blockade duty on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Others were outfitted for service on western rivers. All had to be armed with a limited supply of cannons.
As can be seen by reviewing the armament of ships taken into service, most former merchant ships were armed with lighter cannons. (Statistical Data of Ships. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies.) Reviewing the official records, many converted merchant ships carried 20-Pounder and 30-Pounder Parrott Rifles (each weighing about 2,000 pounds and 3,500 pounds), 12-Pounder and 24-Pounder Dahlgren Howitzers (each weighing about 750 pounds and 1,300 pounds), older models of 32-Pounder (between 3,000 and 7,000 pounds), and older 8-Inch shell guns (between 6,000 and 7,000 pounds).
The only purpose built US Navy warship on the great lakes at the beginning of the war was the iron hulled side-wheel steamer USS Michigan. It appears that even Michigan never carried anything larger than an 8-Inch shell gun, and by 1865 it was armed with a mixture of 30-Pounder and 20-Pounder Parrotts and boat howitzers (entry in the Official Records).
Production of the 9-Inch Dahlgren concluded in 1864 after 1,185 had been produced. In a bit of an ironic twist, the US Navy had to order new designs of 32-Pounder and 8-Inch cannons which were needed in the fleet for lighter vessels. The resulting 32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds and 8-Inch shell gun of 6,500 Pounds first entered service in 1864, but many were not completed until after the war ended (The Big Guns. pp. 85-87). Based on orders and production, it would seem that by the middle of the war there were sufficient or even a surplus of 9-Inch Dahlgrens on hand, but the Navy lacked lighter cannons. The light 20-Pounder and 30-Pounder Parrott Rifles were produced throughout the war and a new intermediate 60-Pounder (5.3-Inch) Parrott Rifle weighing 5,400 pounds was introduced in 1864.
“An August Morning with Farragut - The Battle of Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864.” Painted in 1883 by William Haysham Overend. This evocative painting shows 9-Inch Dahlgren crews aboard USS Hartford in action against the Rebel ironclad ram CSS Tennessee. The painting is displayed in the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut. (via Wikimedia.)
9-Inch Dahlgrens Number 694 and 704, originally sent to Sackets Harbor, at Webster Rural Cemetery in Webster, New York
The 1864 Shipment of 9-Inch Dahlgren Shell Guns to Sackets Harbor and Where they are today.
The two cannons were part of a shipment of twenty 9-Inch Dahlgrens sent to Sackets Harbor, New York during the Civil War. As Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site noted in a Facebook Post, a letter dated June 2nd, 1864 described the recent arrival of the cannons at Sackets Harbor. According to “The Cannon At Sackets Harbor” by Gary Gibson 2004, the twenty Dahlgren cannons remained in storage at Sackets Harbor from 1864 until about 1905. According to information in the Registry published in The Big Guns by Olmstead, Stark, and Tucker, eleven of the twenty 9-inch Dahlgrens sent to Sackets Harbor survive to this day:
9-Inch Dahlgrens Number 585 and 802 at Great Lakes, Illinois
9-Inch Dahlgrens Number 678, 687 and 688 at Mackinaw City, Michican (May be seen here)
9-Inch Dahlgrens Number 694 and 704 at Webster, New York
9-Inch Dahlgren Number 695 at Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site
9-Inch Dahlgren Number 698 at Coleman, Michigan (May be seen: here)
9-Inch Dahlgrens Number 700 and 703 at Vicksburg National Military Park (Nos. 553 and 558, not from Sackets Harbor, are also displayed at Vicksburg.)
Of the surviving Sackets Harbor Dahlgrens, ten were manufactured by Fort Pitt Foundry in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Only Number 802 was manufactured at Seyfert, McManus, and Company in Reading, Pennsylvania. All of the surviving Dahlgrens were manufactured in 1863.
Given that roughly half Civil War era cannons which had been put on public display by the early 1900s were taken away for patriotic scrap drives during the World Wars, it is interesting to note that roughly half of the Sackets Harbor Dahlgrens survive.
Of the Sackets Harbor Dahlgrens which do not survive to the present day, it seems that two were sent to Charlotte, North Carolina. Another post on the Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site Facebook page quotes a June 1913 newspaper article ”Two cannons and their carriages were placed aboard [railroad] cars at Sackets Harbor one day last week and were shipped to Charlotte [NC], where they will be mounted in front of the club house of the naval reserve there. The guns have been at Sackets Harbor since 1864, and were sent there, in that year to be stored. They were to be held there for shipment at a moment's notice, for the Civil war was riot then. There were 20 in the shipment made in 1864, and of that number only one now remains . . . . The guns weigh five tons each, and a loading outfit went from Watertown to load them aboard [railroad] cars. The cannons have been stored for a half century at navy point. It is possible that the village of Sackets Harbor will make an effort to obtain the remaining gun for the village.”
9-Inch Dahlgren Number 687 displayed at Mackinaw City. This gun was manufactured at Fort Pitt Foundry in 1863 and was part of the shipment of 20 such cannons to Sackets Harbor in 1864. The cannon is displayed on an original post-war US Navy iron carriage. Photo courtesy of Layne J. Chartrand. Originally posted in the History of the American Civil War Navies Facebook Group - used with permission.
9-Inch Dahlgren at Vicksburg National Military Park. Of the four 9-Inch Dahlgrens at Vicksburg, two of them originally came from Sackets Harbor - Numbers 700 and 703. I believe the one displayed in the row of cannons at the visitors center may be from Sackets Harbor. (Photo taken by the author circa 1995.)
Photo of the 9-Inch Dahlgrens in storage at Sackets Harbor taken in the late 19th or early 20th century. Note the written caption on the photo that they were for the “Old Battleship New Orleans.” To what extent was the caption true? Photo by NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation from this Facebook post.
The 32-Pounder and 8-Inch Cannons which had been at Sackets Harbor
Why exactly did the US Navy sent the equivalent of the entire battery a major warship such as USS Hartford to Sackets Harbor in 1864? As I have noted above, 9-Inch Dahlgrens are heavier than ideal for installation aboard merchant ships taken into emergency naval service. If the intention was to be able to quickly turn merchant ships on the lakes into warships, lighter cannons like the 30-Pounder Parrott Rifle would be much more suited to the task.
In fact, in the 1850s there were lighter cannons at Sackets Harbor: 32-Pounders and 8-Inch Shell Guns.
Another Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site Facebook post shares a letter sent by the US Navy Bureau of Ordnance to Commander H.B. Sawyer, Commanding Naval Station, Sacketts Harbor, New York. The letter details the way in which the stored 32-Pounder cannon and 8-Inch shell guns stored at Sackets Harbor were to be preserved for future use.
“You are requested to examine the 8 inch and 32 pounder cannon at Sacketts Harbor, and have them put in good order, agreeably to the following extract from the regulations for the preservation of guns, viz.
Guns should be covered externally with coal tar put on in hot weather when the metal is warmed by the rays of the sun, or with other suitable lacker [sic]. Before the coating is put on, the gun is to be perfectly cleaned with a wire brush. The bores and the vents after being freed from rust, should be greased with a mixture which will protect the metal and at the same time may be readily removed when the guns care required for service. For this purpose it is proper to use oil and tallow, tallow and beeswax, or beeswax softened with spirits of turpentine, as convenience and economy may require. Tampions with a score cut in the lower part to let out water, should be kept in the muzzles. In lacquering the outside of the guns, care is to be taken not to fill up the distinguishing marks and numbers.
Bills for any expense incurred in carrying out the above directions, are to be forwarded to this Bureau for approval. How are the guns shot and shells stowed? Respectfully, Your Obedient Servant, Chief of the Bureau”.
If the above letter points to the presence of 32-Pounders and 8-Inch shell guns in the 1850s, where were those cannons in the 1860s? My guess, and it is only a guess pending further research, is that the cannons were shipped in 1861 to US Navy yards on the Atlantic Coast which were outfitting the hundreds of merchant ships being taken into naval service for the blockade. The US Navy lost nearly 1,200 heavy cannons - many of them the old 32-Pounders - when the Gosport Navy Yard in Virginia was seized by the Confederates in April of 1861. With the Confederate Navy unlikely to appear on Lake Ontario, I would imagine that the Navy thought it necessary to move the guns at Sackets Harbor to their Atlantic squadrons or to the gunboats being fitted out for service on the western rivers..
However, when the “Trent Affair” briefly raised the very real risk of war with the British Empire in November of 1861, cannons at Sackets Harbor may have seemed, if only briefly, very much needed.
USS New Orleans at Sackets Harbor circa 1880. This photo was taken after the ship house which had enclosed the ship collapsed. A section of the roof of the old ship house survives on top of the ship. Naval History and Heritage Command Photo NH 65000.
USS New Orleans - War of 1812 Ship of the Line and Mobilization Asset in the 1860s?
Sackets Harbor had been the site of a major ship building effort during the War of 1812 as US Navy Commodore Isaac Chauncey vied for control of Lake Ontario with the Royal Navy squadron under James Yeo. The two sides built ever larger ships - with each side having to cede control of lake when the other built a more powerful ship until some of the largest ships in the world were being built on the shores of Lake Ontario at the end of the world. The two largest American ships, USS New Orleans and USS Chippewa remained incomplete on the stocks at the end of the war. Though Chippewa was broken up in the 1830s, a large building was built around the incomplete USS New Orleans to preserve the ship as a mobilization asset in case tensions with the British Empire ever rose again. (Robert Malcomson’s Warships of the Great Lakes: 1754-1834 is a great account of the War of 1812 on the Great Lakes.)
An article by Richard Palmer on USS New Orleans notes a proposal by Secretary of State (and former New York governor) William H. Seward in the fall of 1861 to take the incomplete New Orleans and convert her to a steam powered warship. Seward wrote in a letter to governors of Loyal states, “But at Sacket’s Harbor we have on the stocks and under cover an eighty gun ship, of which, until very recently, the brave but misguided Tatnall was commander. This ship is still sound, except in a few parts, and a recent examination of her by competent persons, has resulted in the adoption of the opinion, that she can be set afloat, ready for service, in ninety days. In addition to this, it is believed that she can be turned into a propeller with entire success, and thus be made a floating fort, which would, in case of war, secure us the command of the lake, and enable us to prevent the construction of a rival fleet, and destroy, if necessary, the forts on the Canadian shore. This, then, is a method of securing our shores on Lake Ontario - at once practicable, economical and decisive.” (Letter of William Seward as quoted in “The Great Warship that Waited and Waited” by Richard Palmer, 2015. Thousand Islands Life.)
While converting an old ship of the line into a modern steam frigate sounds fanciful, the US Navy considered such conversions for its salt water “liners”, and if the Civil War had required larger numbers of deep-draft ocean going ships, ships such as USS Vermont and USS New Hampshire could have been considered for conversion. Both of those ships were still on the stocks in ship houses at the beginning of the Civil War. With no need for additional heavy steam frigates, both were completed as storeships, but both of the slowly built and carefully seasoned wooden hulls lasted into the 20th century - the former USS New Hampshire lasting until 1921! (Stephen Chapin Kinnaman’s A Crisis of Loyalties: The Destruction and Abandonment of the Gosport Navy Yard includes information about the potential value of the sailing ships of the line for conversion to steam. pp 242-244.)
Whether USS New Orleans. which had been hurriedly built of green timber in 1814-1815 could actually have been turned into a modern warship of the 1860s is cast into doubt by an account by British Army officers who visited the ship in 1863 described finding (at least a portion of) the ships wood to have rotted (Gibson, Gary. “The New Orleans Class Ships of the Line".” The War of 1812 Magazine. November 2015. pg. 105).
While one can imagine cutting down the old ship of the line into a razee frigate and installing a steam engine into its hold and embarking a battery of twenty 9-Inch Dahlgrens, I wonder if a better idea might have been to build a fleet of smaller editions of the “90-Day Gunboats” built in the Atlantic yards. Such ships, perhaps mounting two 9-Inch Dahlgrens as pivots might have been a more practicable solution than the ancient, rotting ship.
Nevertheless, USS New Orleans was maintained until the 1870s and was note sold to be dismantled until after 1880 when the old ship house had finally fallen apart around the old ship. Someone in the Navy thought the ship still had potential until after the Civil War, or maybe the ship provided a reason to keep an establishment at Sackets Harbor which might prove useful?
And as the photo of the lined up Dahlgrens at Sackets harbor shows, someone remembered a connection between these cannons and the old New Orleans.
Photos of an original circa-1814 model thought to represent USS New Orleans may be found here: https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/threads/new-orleans.8367/
Matthew Brady photo of a US Navy 9-inch Dahlgren on a pivot mount with its crew (possibly aboard USS Miami). US Naval 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-61000/NH-61933.html
Why Were the 9-Inch Dahlgrens Sent? Questions Still to Answer.
In future research, I would like to try to find:
Records of when (and if) the 32-Pounder and 8-Inch cannons which were present at Sackets Harbor in the 1850s were removed and to where they were sent.
Communication between William Seward (or New York authorities) and the United States Navy regarding USS New Orleans and cannons for Sackets Harbor.
US Navy Bureau of Ordnance communication regarding Sackets Harbor and its cannons.
Questions I would like to be able to answer:
Were Seward’s musings to the “Loyal Governors” about converting New Orleans to a Steam Warship reflected in his communications with the Navy Department in 1861? In 1862 or at any point afterwards?
What were the US Navy’s plans for the defense of the Great Lakes in the 1860s and beyond? Were ships to be built at Sackets Harbor as in 1812-1815 or were merchant ships to be purchased?
Did the US Navy send the twenty Dahlgrens to Sackets Harbor in response to requests from political leaders? Or was the Navy simply replacing the 32-Pounder and 8-Inch cannons which (I presume but do not know) were removed early in the war?
Essentially, I wish to answer with confidence whether the 9-Inch Dahlgrens were sent to Sackets Harbor in 1864 to mollify a politician (or politicians), were they sent out of bureaucratic inertia, or were they sent as part of a sincere effort of the US Navy to be ready to secure the Great Lakes.
The Cannons at Sackets Harbor. Photo by NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
For Further Reading:
Gibson, Gary. “The New Orleans Class Ships of the Line".” The War of 1812 Magazine. November 2015.
Malcomson, Robert. Warships of the Great Lakes: 1754-1834. Knickerbocker Press, 2004.
Palmer, Richard. “The Great Warship that Waited and Waited.” Thousand Islands Life. November 2015.
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.
Tucker, Spencer. Arming the Fleet: U.S. Navy Ordnance in the Muzzle-Loading Era. Naval Institute Press. 1989.
