The Whitworth Rifles of the Naval Battery on Morris Island
Two 5-Inch Whitworths of the Naval Battery on Morris Island: July - August, 1863. Library of Congress Photo: https://www.loc.gov/item/2018667728/
USS Unadilla captured the blockade runner S.S. Princess Royal on January 29th, 1863. Aboard the ship were four 5-Inch Whitworth Muzzle Loading Rifles. Of those four Whitworths, two survive to the present day. One is displayed at the Washington Navy Yard. The other survivor is at West Point.
On July 22nd, 1863 Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren ordered two of the four 5-Inch Whitworth Rifles along with two 150-Pounder Parrotts “to be placed in a battery ashore for the work against Sumter.” He ordered Commander Foxhall A. Parker of USS Wabash to “detail and organize the personnel for this battery.”
On August 23rd, 1863, Commander Foxhall made the following report to Rear Admiral Dahlgren:
“Sir, - I have the honor to report to you that, agreeable to instructions from General Gillmore, the naval battery under my command opened upon Fort Sumter with two 8-inch Parrott and two 80-pounder Whitworth guns, upon the 17th instant, since which period we have been engaged from daylight to dusk each day up to the present time.
The whole number of Parrott shells expended amounts to seven hundred and three; of which three hundred and seventy-three struck the fort, two hundred and fifty-two fell short or went over it, and seventy-eight "tumbled."
From the Whitworth guns two hundred and twenty-two solid projectiles were fired; of which ninety-eight hit and one hundred and twenty-four missed the fort.
Upon the 19th instant, one of the Whitworths was entirely disabled, by the reinforce bands starting forward, and upon the 21st I discontinued firing from the other, as the shot were continually jamming in the bore, in ramming home one of which four men were killed by a premature explosion of the charge.
Although shot and shell were constantly passing over and around us, through the mercy of God they harmed us not.
The officers and men under my command have done their whole duty to the country and to the navy, and day, as a reward for their labors, have the proud satisfaction of beholding Fort Sumter a shapeless mass of ruins, with its last gun dismounted and fallen among the debris.
Foxhall A. Parker, United States Navy” - in Gillmore, Quincy Adams. Engineer and Artillery Operations Against the Defenses of Charleston harbor in 1863. D. Van Nostrand, 1865, pg. 310.
5-Inch Whitworth on Morris Island - Detail of Above Photo
General John W. Turner reported that “there appeared to be much difficulty experienced at times in loading these guns by the projectile wedging when part way down. It could then be rammed home only by heavy blows of a handspike".” Turner also wrote that the two Whitworths in the Naval Battery on Morris Island “were very unsatisfactory in point of accuracy, shooting very wild, seldom hitting Fort Sumter at a distance of 3,980 yards. In comparison with the 8-Inch Parrotts in the same battery, they fell short in accuracy and subsequently one of them became disabled by the gun apparently sliding through the reinforce to the rear. A displacement of nearly and inch took place closing the vent completely” (quoted in Ripley, pg. 146).
Of the two surviving Whitworths, the example at West Point carries a plaque which states that it was used on Morris Island against Fort Sumter in 1863. The West Point Whitworth may very well be one of the two appearing in the 1863 photograph of the Naval Battery.
Whether the Whitworth now at the Washington Navy Yard also appears in the 1863 photo is uncertain, though I think that it is unlikely. In a report to the US Senate in April of 1864, John Dahlgren wrote that "Whitworth has not been able to obtain the confidence of the (British) government sufficiently to introduce his gun at all; I can myself bear witness to the inefficiency of three of his 70-pounders - one tried in the experimental battery here, and two placed in the naval battery on Morris Island to play on Sumter - all becoming dangerous after very limited firing." I think that the “experimental battery here” refers to the battery at the Washington Navy Yard - even though Dahlgren was aboard USS Harvest Moon as he wrote his report. It would make sense that an example was sent to the Washington Navy Yard for testing in the controlled conditions there while two were placed in a battery in the much more demanding conditions on Morris Island where gunners struggled to keep sand out of the rifled cannons. Sand in the rifling was thought to be a principle cause, along with unreliable projectiles, of the bursting of many Parrotts on Morris Island.
5-Inch Whitworth Rifle at the Washington Navy Yard. The plaque reads “Whitworth 5-Inch Muzzle Loading Rifle, one of four such British-made guns captured in the Blockade Runner Princess Royal.”
5-Inch Whitworth Rifle at the Washington Navy Yard.
5-Inch Whitworth Rifle at the Washington Navy Yard.
5-Inch Whitworth Rifle at West Point. Photograph taken by Civil War Talk user “SJU” and used with permission. Note, I believe the cannon at left is a 7-Inch Single Banded Brooke.
5-Inch Whitworth Rifle at West Point. Photograph taken by Civil War Talk user “SJU” and used with permission.
5-Inch Whitworth Rifle at West Point. Photograph taken by Civil War Talk user “SJU” and used with permission.
5-Inch Whitworth Rifle at West Point. Photograph taken by Civil War Talk user “SJU” and used with permission.
Illustration of the Whitworth appearing in: Gillmore, Quincy Adams. Engineer and Artillery Operations Against the Defenses of Charleston harbor in 1863. D. Van Nostrand, 1865.
Two US Navy 150-Pounder (8-Inch) Rifles in the Naval Battery on Morris Island. Library of Congress Photo: https://www.loc.gov/item/2018667730/
