The Guns of CSS Peedee
The three cannon of CSS Peedee on display at the Florence County Veterans Center in Florence, SC.
CSS Peedee was a wooden gunboat built for the Confederate Navy at Mars Bluff Shipyard on the Great Pee Dee River in South Carolina. The ship was commissioned in October of 1864, but she was scuttled by her crew to prevent capture in February of 1865.
The ship’s three cannon: a 9-inch Dahlgren smoothbore, a 7-inch Brooke Rifle, and a 6.4-inch Brooke Rifle remained on the bottom of the Great Pee Dee River after the war. Between 1995 and 2006, the cannons were rediscovered by the CSS Pee Dee Research and Recovery Team. The three cannons were recovered from the river in 2015. After conservation, the three cannons were put on display in 2019 at the Florence County Veterans Affairs Center in Florence, SC.
The 7-Inch Brooke Rifle cast at Selma in 1864 is marked S-46 and the 6.4-inch Brooke Rifle, also cast at Selma in 1864, is marked S-53. (The Selma Ordnance and Naval Foundry marked each gun they produced with a sequential number.)
The 9-inch Dahlgren Smoothbore, FP 573, was cast at the Fort Pitt Foundry in 1862. The gun went on to become part of the armament of USS Southfield, a gunboat sunk by the ironclad CSS Albemarle in 1864. The US Navy was unable to recover the gun, but it seems to have been recovered by the Confederates and used to arm CSS Peedee.
Today the three cannon are form a display adjacent to Florence National Cemetery at the Florence County Veterans Affairs Center. The carriages are reproductions of four-truck naval carriages. In service the cannon would have either been mounted on pivot mountings or two-truck Marsilly Carriages.
A University of South Carolina article by James D. Spirek and Jonathan Leader describing the history and recovery of the cannon may be read here.
An additional article by James D. Spirek specifically about the 9-inch Dahlgren “Serendipity and IX-Inch Dahlgren Smoothbore Cannon “FP 513” Serendipity and IX-Inch Dahlgren Smoothbore Cannon “FP 513” may be found here: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1321&context=sciaa_staffpub
9-Inch Dahlgren Smoothbore
9 Inch Dahlgren of CSS Peedee
7-inch Brooke Rifle
7-Inch Brooke Rifle
6.4-Inch Brooke Rifle
6.4-Inch Brooke Rifle
A 7-inch Brooke Shell and a 6.4-Inch Brooke shell recovered from the wreck of CSS Peedee are on display at the Horry County Museum in Conway, SC.
