The Cannons at Fort Fisher
The Land Face of Fort Fisher (October 2024)
With the anniversary of the January 13th-15th, 1865 Second Battle of Fort Fisher this week and the commemoration at Fort Fisher State Historic Site this coming Saturday, January 18th, I thought it would be helpful to take a brief look at some of the heavy cannons present at the battle.
The Cannons of the Fort
Fort Fisher had a single 150-Pounder Armstrong Muzzle Loading Rifle which is pictured in this 1865 photo. There was also an 8-Inch Blakely Rifle. Photo via the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/2013649009/
Fort Fisher mounted around ten 10-Inch Columbiads - this example being displayed at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina
Fort Fisher mounted five or more 8-Inch Columbiads as well as several 8-inch smoothbores of an earlier type. This example is displayed at Drewry’s Bluff (National Park Service Photo).
Fort Fisher mounted a large number of 32-Pounders like these two displayed at the new Fort Fisher State Historic Site Visitors Center. Many, like these, would have been among those captured at the Gosport Navy Yard in 1861, and a number, also like these, were banded and rifled to improve their power and accuracy.
A newly emplaced and newly manufactured 32-Pounder of 57 Hundredweight is displayed at Fort Fisher State Historic Site
Fort Fisher mounted two 7-Inch Brooke Rifles similar to this example displayed in Charleston, South Carolina.
Among the heaviest cannons present were the two 11-Inch Brooke Smoothbores mounted at Battery Buchanan to the south of Fort Fisher. These two Brooke Smoothbores - one 10-Inch and the other 11-Inch - are displayed at the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Georgia. (I took this photo of them in the 1990s. I need to get back!)
The armament of Fort Fisher at Capture from the Official Records. Series 1. Volume 46. Pt. 1. Pg. 409.
The 12-Pounder Whitworth now displayed at Fort Fisher State Historic Site was captured in 1863 just north of the fort. The defenders of the Fort used light cannons like this one to keep the blockaders at bay on the many miles of beaches which stretched north of the fort.
This 4-Inch Blakely was captured in the same 1863 Incident north of Fort Fisher as the Whitworth above. It is now displayed in Raleigh, North Carolina
The Cannons of the US Navy at Fort Fisher
Likely the most numerous cannon carried by the fleet was the 9-Inch Dahlgren. It was mounted in large numbers on the broadsides of such ships as USS Wabash, USS Minnesota, USS Colorado, and USS Brooklyn. This 9-Inch Dahlgren, preserved in Rollinsford, New Hampshire was carried aboard USS Susquehanna and may have been present at the battle.
Another 9-Inch Dahlgren which may have been present at Fort Fisher, this example served aboard USS Brooklyn and is currently displayed at Old Fort Jackson where it stands in for an 8-Inch Columbiad in the fort.
This page from Volume 6 of the Photographic History of the Civil War displays two pivot cannons of USS Wabash which were at Fort Fisher: a 10-Inch Dahlgren and an 8-Inch US Navy Parrott Rifle. No example of the 10-Inch Dahlgren is known to survive, and though 8-Inch US Army Parrott rifles have been preserved, no Navy 8-Inch Parrotts still exist.
Weighing nearly 16,000 pounds, the 11-Inch Dahlgren was mounted as a pivot on several ships in the fleet, and it formed the primary broadside armament of USS New Ironsides. This example is reported to have been mounted on USS Wabash at some point after the battle.
4.2-Inch (or 30-Pounder) Parrott Rifles were common in the fleet as light pivot guns - especially in smaller ships or those converted from merchant service. This 30-Pounder was not aboard the fleet at the battle, but it was nearby in the sunken wreck of USS Peterholf. It was recovered in the 1970s and put on display at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
The 100-Pounder Parrott (or 6.4-Inch Parrott) had its reputation tarnished by the five which burst during the First Battle of Fort Fisher. During the second battle, 100-Pounders were moved to the unengaged side on some ships, while on other ships, especially in situations where their range was needed, they saw active service. This US Navy Parrott was mounted on a US Army carriage in the 1870s at Fort Sumter.
While no true US Navy 8-Inch Parrott Rifles are known to exist, this US Army 8-Inch Parrott displayed in Westerly, Rhode Island is nearly identical to those which served as heavy pivots in the fleet at Fort Fisher.
The 15-inch Dahlgrens mounted in the turrets of the four US Navy monitors present were the largest cannons at the battle - weighing 43,000 pounds and firing shot up to 440 pounds. One of these Dahlgrens burst in the turret of USS Saugus on January 13th without causing significant damage or casualties. This example is on display at the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defense. This gun was dredged from the harbor of Hong Kong in the 1980s. It is thought to have been part of the armament of USS Catawba which had been sold to Peru after the US Civil War. This photo is © BrokenSphere / Wikimedia Commons and is used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Though far smaller than the heavy Dahlgrens, some ships were close enough to the fort to employ their smallest cannons. During the battle, USS Tacony fired seventy-one round from its Dahlgren Rifled 12-Pounder Boat Howitzer. A similar cannon is displayed in the town hall of Webster, Massachusetts.
