The Columbiads of Charleston
The Columbiads of Forts Moultrie and Sumter - It’s tragically ironic that the Columbiad, named after “Columbia”, the personification of the young Republic that they were created to defend, ended up being used in combat in a war between Americans. Between them, Forts Moultrie and Sumter have an extensive collection of Columbiads illustrating most types that saw service. Four additional Columbiads may be found in the Charleston area as well. The first image shows an 8-inch Model 1844 Columbiad on the parade ground amid the ruins of Fort Sumter. On either side of the 8-inch are massive 15-Inch Columbiads, Model 1861. Keep in mind that the 8-inch Columbiad is not a small cannon. As originally cast, it would have weighed in around 9,100 pounds - around a ton more than the heaviest 32-pounders.
8-inch, Model 1844 Columbiad between two 15-inch 1861 Rodman Collumbiads on the parade ground at Fort Sumter
Model of Fort Sumter as it appeared just before the first battle in April of 1861. Note the 10-inch and 8-inch Columbiads mounted on the upper, barbette level of the fort.
The next image shows the 10-inch Model 1844 Columbiad. Though it was banded and rifled by the Confederates, the banding only minimally changes the size and shape of the piece - which would have weighed about 15,000 pounds as originally cast. These Model 1844 Columbiads were tremendously powerful cannon for the 1840s, and they were designated to be mounted on barbette carriages on the upper level of Fort Sumter where they could command the approaches to the harbor and, firing exploding shells, make it all but impossible for wooden ships to force entrance to the harbor. The 8-inch, Model 1844, was discovered buried at Fort Sumter during the 1959 excavations. It is damaged, missing a trunnion and part of the barrel at the muzzle. It is thought it may have been damaged during the April 12th, 1861 Battle of Fort Sumter and buried intentionally or unintentionally after that battle - the fort being largely reduced to ruins under Federal bombardment in 1863-1864.
10-inch, Model 1844 Columbiad, Banded and Rifled, on Display at Fort Sumter
The two 10-inch Columbiads, Model 1844, which are in the second and third images likely were also at Fort Sumter in April of 1861, but the modifications made to them show that as powerful as they certainly were for the 1840s, in the face of the threat of ironclad ships, they lacked the power needed to meet the new threat. The Model 1844 Columbiads had been designed to fire exploding shells. Since shells are cast hollow to hold a charge, they are lighter than solid shot of the same diameter, and the Model 1844s were not really strong enough to fire the heavy shot needed to damage armored ships. Lacking the ability to produce enough heavy guns which could threaten ironclads, the Confederates banded and rifled older models - first cannon such as the 42-pounder in Post #8. General P.T.G. Beauregard pushed to have heavier ordinance converted to rifles - the conical shape of a rifle projectile allowed it to be much heavier than a round ball and the banding reinforced the cannon to take the much higher strain upon firing. It seems that Beauregard began with 8-inch Columbiads like the Model 1858 which is preserved at Fort Moultrie (Fourth photo). Seeking even more powerful conversions, he arranged for 10-inch Columbiads to be rifled and banded. The third image is of a conversion that must rank among the most unique of the war. As Warren Ripley describes in “Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War”, this Model 1844 had been damaged and likely had lost one of its trunnions. The Confederates removed the remains of the trunnions, and placed an inner wrought iron band over the whole of the breach end of the Columbiad. Since the Columbiad lacked trunnions, they cast a trunnion band in bronze. Finally, another outer band was placed over the breach of the gun - this iron band being secured to the bronze trunnion band with long bolts. According to Ripley, Beauregard seemed pleased at the conversion which could now fire a roughly 200-pound projectile with greater accuracy than before. The fact that another Model 1844 (the one now at Sumter in the second photo) was converted and the fact that both of them survived the war without bursting suggest that the conversion was at least reasonably successful.
10-inch, Model 1844 Columbiad, Rifled and Banded by the Confederates. A bronze trunnion band replaced a broken trunnion. On Display at Fort Moultrie.
8-inch, Model 1858 Columbiad, Banded and Rifled. On display at Fort Moultrie.
The pre-war Columbiads had been pushing up against the limits of casting technology. In the years leading up to the war, US Army officer Thomas Jackson Rodman would create a technique that would allow much larger guns to be cast in iron. Rodman worked out that the traditional manner of casting a gun solid, allowing it to cool from the outside in, and then boring out the barrel would not work beyond a certain size tube. As such a gun cooled, the outside was the first to cool, and it would contract slightly as it did so, but as metal further and further toward the center began to cool and harden, it would contract beneath metal that had already contracted. Rodman’s innovation was to cast the guns with a tube going into the area where the bore would eventually be made. Into this tube was run water to cool the cast gun from the inside while fires burned on the outside of the casting. Cooling from the inside out, the metal contracted onto successive layers of already contracted metal. The fifth photo shows two 10-inch Model 1861 Columbiads cast by Rodman’s method. And the sixth photo shows the two 15-inch Model 1861 Columbiads on front pintle barbette carriages at Fort Moultrie. While the 10-inch Columbiads are indeed large: 15,000 pound weapons quite capable of throwing 128 pound shot as well as the lighter shells, the 15-inch Rodman Columbiads weigh in at 50,000 pounds and throw a 440 pound shot or 350 pound shell. The 15-inch Columbiads are massive, and Rodman successfully cast 20-inch versions weighing 116,000 pounds capable of firing 1,000 pound shot.
The 15-inch Rodmans are post-war additions to Fort Moultrie, but the US Navy used similar 15-inch guns in their monitors at Charleston. The Navy model, though in a similar shape to the Dahlgrens, was cast using Rodman’s hollow-casting techniques. The 15-inch in USN service proved quite capable of quickly cracking the armor of Confederate ironclads.
Cannon Row at Fort Moultrie - 10-inch Model 1861 Rodman Columbiad in foreground.
15-Inch Model 1861 Rodman Columbiads on Display at Fort Moultrie
The Confederates had nothing with the power of the Federal 15-inch weapons. Among their most effective ordinance were their own 10-inch Columbiads, Model 1861, cast at the Tredegar and Bellona foundries in Virginia. Although these Columbiads resemble their Federal counterparts, neither Tredegar nor Bellona were able to cast using Rodman’s techniques. Confederate Columbiads were cast solid. (And therefore, even though they sometimes are called “Confederate Rodmans”, that title is misleading and incorrect.) The Columbiads are also visually distinctive with a somewhat shorter overall length. They usually have a rougher appearance, not being as finely turned upon the lathe, and they have longer trunnions than the Federal models. The US Army used wrought iron carriages which only required short trunnions. The resourced-starved Confederacy had to make due with wooden carriages - hence the longer trunnions. The seventh photo shows a dismounted Confederate Columbiad on cannon row at Fort Moultrie. The eighth photo shows a Confederate Columbiad mounted on a reproduction wooden carriage.
Finally, I will note that a visitor to Fort Moultrie can see two additional Confederate Columbiads (ninth photo). As you drive towards the fort, keep an eye out for two two of the 13,000 pound tubes which are mounted on either side of the road atop concrete pedestals. These gate-guards marked the rear gate to the fort compound as it existed in World War II. The signage on the pedestal shows the growth of the base as larger, heavier batteries of modern guns and mortars were built all over Sullivans Island in the late-19th and early 20th century. But that is a story for another group.
10 Inch Confederate Columbiad on display as part of “Cannon Row” at Fort Moultrie
10-Inch Confederate Columbiad on a reproduction wooden center-pintle barbette carriage at Fort Moultrie
Two Confederate Columbiads on display near Fort Moultrie as “Gate Guards”
In addition to the Columbiads at Forts Moultrie and Sumter, four more Confederate Columbiads may be seen in the Charleston area. Two are on display at White Point Garden (colloquially called “The Battery”) in Charleston. These two are displayed on wrought-iron barbette carriages originally manufactured for US Model 1861 Rodman guns. Two others may be seen at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston. All four of the guns are identified by Mike Ryan in “The Historic Guns of Forts Sumter and Moultrie” as having been at Fort Sumter after the end of the Civil War.
10-Inch Confederate Columbiad at White Point Garden in Charleston. It is mounted on a wrought iron front-pintle barbette carriage manufactured for a US Model 1861 Rodman.
The other 10-inch Confederate Columbiad at White Point Garden
Two Confederate Columbiads at Magnolia Cemetery
Additional Views of Cannons pictured above
Muzzle view of the 10 Inch, Model 1844 on Display at Fort Sumter
Breech View of the 10 Inch, Model 1844 on Display at Fort Sumter
Detail of Rifling of the Bronze Trunnion 10-inch Columbiad
Top of Bronze Trunnion band on the 10-inch Model 1844 Columbiad at Fort Moultrie
10-inch, Model 1844 Banded and Rifled at Fort Johnson immediately after the Civil War. Ripley believed this to be the same gun presently at Fort Sumter. Library of Congress Photo
Another view of Fort Johnson. The rifled and banded Model 1844 which Ripley believed was the Fort Sumter Columbiad can be seen towards the back. Also pictured are two Confederate Columbiads and a double-banded Brooke. Library of Congress Photo
An interesting addition to this story: In 1877 the schooner Philadelphia left Charleston with a cargo of old railroad iron and 26 cannons which were destined to be scrapped. The ship sank some 20 miles off Cape Romain, SC. In the mid-2010s, Long Bay Salvage, which had purchased salvage rights to the wreck, raised at least six Columbiads from the wreck. One of these Charleston Columbiads is now on public display at Fort Macon State Park in North Carolina. An article in the newsletter of the Friends of Fort Macon about that Columbiad can be read here.
As always, please refer to Warren Ripley’s Book Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War and Mike Ryan’s excellent article “The Historic Guns of Forts Sumter and Moultrie” for much more information.
