It's a small world, Jax! In the summer of '66 I worked for the NYS Conservation Department at a Conservation Education Camp near Cuba, NY. One of the 13 to 15 year old campers was so thrilled with his instruction on stream improvement and trout habit enhancement that he gave me a cowboy hat on the last day of camp as a thank you gift. He lived in Horseheads, NY. I bet you know where that town is!
Back to historically significant cannons, for about 25 years now, Mike and I have been interested in the story of Fort Pulaski in Georgia. We have made three visits to this island fortress located about 17 miles east of Savannah, Georgia where the Savannah River meats the Atlantic Ocean. It remains our favorite fort. A Third System masonry fort designed by Simon Bernard, a noted French Military Engineer, hired by President James Madison, this fort was located on swampland in the middle of the Savannah River called Cockspur Island. It took a West Point graduate who later became very famous during the Civil War to design and build a drainage system of canals, sluice-ways and moats before the cypress log grillage could be laid down for a foundation. His name was Robert E. Lee and the year was 1829.
He came back early in 1862 as a Confederate Army commander to help the garrison prepare for the coming Federal assault from Captain Quincy Gilmore's Artillery and Infantry troops. Gilmore's breeching batteries had been built on Big Tybee Island and were located from slightly less than one mile to about two miles away from the fort. 36 big guns had been emplaced, and despite being denied a 15" Rodman Gun, he had 5 big James conversion rifles made from the old 42pdr, 32pdr, and 24pdr smooth bore seacoast guns, rifled with the James System rifling, they were delivered to Capt. Gilmore as 2 84pdrs, 2 64pdrs and 1 48pdr, also he received 5 30pdr. Parrott rifles. These were all emplaced in his closest batteries, McClellan and Sigel at only 1,650 yards from the south- east salient of the fort. Backing up these 'highest technology artillery weapons', Gilmore had a bunch of 8 and 10 inch Columbiads and a whole bunch of 13" Seacoast Mortars, M1861.
Confederate Colonel Olmstead had only 14 guns in the fort which could bear on the powerful Federal breeching batteries. Two of them were rifles with which to bombard the Federals, 4.5" Blakely Seacoast Rifles mounted on Wooden, Seacoast, Center Pintle, Barbette Carriages mounted upon the Terraplein. Unfortunately for the Confederate artillerymen, the Terraplein became untenable shortly after the federal bombardment began at 8:10 A.M. on April 10, 1862. By 12 Noon on the following day the 8 foot thick walls of the fort's south-east corner had been pierced and the ammunition was changed to 84pdr. and 64pdr. shells which went through the enlarging hole and skipped across the parade ground to slam into the dirt berm and masonry wall which protected the main magazine where 40, 000 pounds of gunpowder was stored. They then exploded, removing critically needed protective dirt and masonry. Commander Olmstead held out until the heavy door of the magazine showed the effects of shell fragments and, only at that time, surrendered the fort and garrison at 2:30 P.M., just about 30 hours after the bombardment began. Federal troops repaired only the southeast corner, and today you can still see hundreds of holes and shell craters, the effect of that 30 hour bombardment on the walls of Fort Pulaski, Georgia.
We always wondered what those big James conversion rifles looked like. Now we were about to find out! Woodlawn Cemetery in Titusville, Pennsylvania was easy to find, and the big rifle on a hill toward the center of the cemetery was not hard to find either. They have a very nice example of the 42 Pdr. Seacoast Gun at the Tredegar Foundry Museum in Richmond, Virginia mounted vertically. Standing next to it, you can really judge it's large size. This was the raw material Ames and other northern foundries used to create these James conversion rifles early in the war, before Parrott could turn out quantities of his large, gain-twist-rifled, seacoast guns. Enjoy the pics.
Tracy and Mike
Taken just after the battle by a photographer who was about half way between the fort and the muzzle of the large, 84pdr James Rifle in battery McClellan on Lazaretto creek, Big Tybee Island. The fatal breeches can be seen clearly. Big shells passed through these and threatened the forts main magazine with it's 40,000 pounds of gunpowder!
The large James rifle in the Titusville cemetery fired these James bolts and shells. The 'Birdcage' design is unique and expensive, but functioned well. The ribs were covered by lead, tin and greased canvas which, due to the hollow base, were pressurized upon firing and forced into the cannon's rifling.
Mike studies the markings on the right trunnion. You can see that this James System conversion rifle was banded. Not all of these were. There are 4 84pdr. conv. rifles in Mansfield, Ohio, none of which are banded, two 16 groove and two 18 groove James conversions. These were pre-war or very early war conversions. Banding was quickly determined to be necessary for durability of these guns.
No doubt this conversion started life as a U.S. M1845 42pdr. Seacoast Gun.
Measuring the cylindrical reinforcing band diameter at the vent, we get a 82.5" circumference reading with our flat tape and divide by Pi (3.1416) and get a calculated 26.26" diameter. Unconverted, the M1845 42pdr. would have been 23.0" dia. in this area, but the thickness of the reinforcing band was close to 1.75 thick, so the breech area of the original 42 pdr. tube must have been turned down to a little under 22.5" dia. for this to be possible.
This shot gives you the registry number, 120 and the number of grooves, 9 and the inspector's initials, B.H. We forgot to measure the width of those rifling grooves and to look up the inspector's name. Anybody know? Depth of rifling is just over 1/16 inch, about .070".
Close-up of the James System rifling.
The breech ring and the vent field have both been turned off during lathe ops. to make room for the shrink fit, wrought iron, reinforcing band.
The original tube, a M1845 42pdr. (7") sooth bore Seacoast Gun was cast at West Point Foundry in Cold Spring, NY under the direction of Robert Parker Parrott. The foundry number was 137.
On the left trunnion face we see the date of casting.
