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John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren was a United States Navy officer who founded his service's Ordnance Department and launched major advances in gunnery.
The Rodman gun is any of a series of American Civil War–era columbiads designed by Union artilleryman Thomas Jackson Rodman (1815–1871). The guns were designed to fire both shot and shell. These heavy guns were intended to be mounted in seacoast fortifications. They were built in 8-inch, 10-inch, 13-inch, 15-inch, and 20-inch bore. Other than size, the guns were all nearly identical in design, with a curving bottle shape, large flat cascabels with ratchets or sockets for the elevating mechanism. Rodman guns were true guns that did not have a howitzer-like powder chamber, as did many earlier columbiads. Rodman guns differed from all previous artillery because they were hollow cast, a new technology that Rodman developed that resulted in cast-iron guns that were much stronger than their predecessors.
Fort McClary is a former defensive fortification of the United States military located along the southern coast at Kittery Point, Maine at the mouth of the Piscataqua River. It was used throughout the 19th century to protect approaches to the harbor of Portsmouth, New Hampshire and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery. The property and its surviving structures are now owned and operated by the State of Maine as Fort McClary State Historic Site, including a blockhouse dating from 1844.
The Parrott rifle was a type of muzzle-loading rifled artillery weapon used extensively in the American Civil War.
Dahlgren guns were muzzle-loading naval artillery designed by Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren USN, mostly used in the period of the American Civil War. Dahlgren's design philosophy evolved from an accidental explosion in 1849 of a 32-pounder being tested for accuracy, killing a gunner. He believed a safer, more powerful naval cannon could be designed using more scientific design criteria. Dahlgren guns were designed with a smooth curved shape, equalizing strain and concentrating more weight of metal in the gun breech where the greatest pressure of expanding propellant gases needed to be met to keep the gun from bursting. Because of their rounded contours, Dahlgren guns were nicknamed "soda bottles", a shape which became their most identifiable characteristic.
The Brooke rifle was a type of rifled, muzzle-loading naval and coast defense gun designed by John Mercer Brooke, an officer in the Confederate States Navy. They were produced by plants in Richmond, Virginia, and Selma, Alabama, between 1861 and 1865 during the American Civil War. They served afloat on Confederate ships and ashore in coast defense batteries manned by the Confederate States Army.
Field artillery in the American Civil War refers to the artillery weapons, equipment, and practices used by the Artillery branch to support the infantry and cavalry forces in the field. It does not include siege artillery, use of artillery in fixed fortifications, or coastal or naval artillery. Nor does it include smaller, specialized artillery classified as small arms.
The Strip District is a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States. It is a one-half square mile area of land northeast of the central business district bordered to the north by the Allegheny River and to the south by portions of the Hill District. The Strip District runs between 11th and 33rd Streets and includes four main thoroughfares—Railroad Street/Waterfront Place, Smallman Street, Penn Avenue, and Liberty Avenue—as well as various side streets.
Fort Adams is a former United States Army post in Newport, Rhode Island that was established on July 4, 1799 as a First System coastal fortification, named for President John Adams who was in office at the time. Its first commander was Captain John Henry who was later instrumental in starting the War of 1812. The current Fort Adams was built 1824–57 under the Third System of coastal forts; it is part of Fort Adams State Park today.
The columbiad was a large-caliber, smoothbore, muzzle-loading cannon able to fire heavy projectiles at both high and low trajectories. This feature enabled the columbiad to fire solid shot or shell to long ranges, making it an excellent seacoast defense weapon for its day. Invented by Colonel George Bomford, United States Army, in 1811, columbiads were used in United States seacoast defense from the War of 1812 until the early years of the 20th century. Very few columbiads were used outside of the U.S. and Confederate Armies; nevertheless, the columbiad is considered by some as the inspiration for the later shell-only cannons developed by Frenchman Henri-Joseph Paixhans some 30 years later.
The Sandy Hook Proving Ground was a military facility along the Atlantic coast of New Jersey established by the Secretary of War on August 7, 1874, to serve as the United States Army's first proving ground for the testing of ordnance and materiel. The facility was located at Sandy Hook, a narrow coastal spit of land, approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) in length and 0.5 miles wide, in Middletown Township in Monmouth County. The facility was operated in conjunction with the adjoining Fort Hancock. Essentially abandoned in 1919 for a larger facility, the area was left to degrade and most of the structures still remain today. The proving ground and parts of Fort Hancock are now property of the National Park Service and mostly closed to the public.
Seacoast defense was a major concern for the United States from its independence until World War II. Before airplanes, many of America's enemies could only reach it from the sea, making coastal forts an economical alternative to standing armies or a large navy. After the 1940s, it was recognized that fixed fortifications were obsolete and ineffective against aircraft and missiles. However, in prior eras foreign fleets were a realistic threat, and substantial fortifications were built at key locations, especially protecting major harbors.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was a thriving and important city during the American Civil War, and provided a significant source of personnel, war materiel, armament, ammunition, and supplies to the Union Army. Situated at the confluence of the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers, Pittsburgh was an important transportation hub for both riverine and rail transport, as well as overland via its system of roads.
Thomas Jackson Rodman was an American artillerist, inventor, ordnance specialist, and career United States Army officer. He served as a Union Army officer during the American Civil War, in which he was noted for his many improvements and innovations concerning the artillery used by the Union forces.
The Wiard rifle refers to several weapons invented by Norman Wiard, most commonly a semi-steel light artillery piece in six-pounder and twelve-pounder calibers. About 60 were manufactured between 1861 and 1862 during the American Civil War, at O'Donnell's Foundry, New York City: "although apparently excellent weapons, [they] do not seem to have been very popular". Wiard also designed a rifled steel version of the Dahlgren boat howitzer, among other gun types. Further, Wiard unsuccessfully attempted to develop a 15 in (381 mm) rifled gun for the US Navy and proposed a 20 in (510 mm) gun. In 1881 he unsuccessfully proposed various "combined rifle and smoothbore" weapon conversions of Rodman guns and Parrott rifles.
George Bomford (1780–1848) was a distinguished military officer in the United States Army and an inventor and designer of weapons and defensive installations. He served as the second Chief of Ordnance for the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps.
Sylvanus Sawyer was a United States inventor.
Alexander Caldwell McClurg was an American bookseller and military adviser from Pennsylvania. He was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where his father owned a prosperous foundry. Graduating from Miami University, McClurg briefly studied law before moving to Chicago, Illinois, to join a bookselling house. During the Civil War, McClurg served as a captain with the 88th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment. After his advisory skills were noticed by General Alexander McDowell McCook, McClurg spent the rest of the war as an adviser to various generals. His most prominent position was as Chief of Staff and Adjunct General to Major General Jefferson C. Davis and the XIV Corps. After the war, McClurg returned to his bookselling house as a junior partner. McClurg eventually became senior partner and the house became known as A. C. McClurg & Co.
John Paul Jones Park is a public park located in Fort Hamilton, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The park borders Shore Road, Fourth Avenue, 101st Street, and Fort Hamilton Parkway. The park is managed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, which acquired the property from the city of Brooklyn in 1897.
The 10-pounder Parrott rifle, Model 1861 was a cast iron muzzle-loading rifled cannon that was adopted by the United States Army in 1861 and often used in field artillery units during the American Civil War. Like other Parrott rifles, the gun breech was reinforced by a distinctive wrought iron reinforcing band. The gun fired a 9.5 lb (4.3 kg) projectile to a distance of 1,850 yd (1,692 m) at an elevation of 5°. The 10-pounder Parrott rifle was capable of firing shell, shrapnel shell, canister shot, or solid shot. Midway through the war, the Federal government discontinued the 2.9 in (74 mm) version in favor of a 3.0 in (76 mm) version. Despite the reinforcing band, the guns occasionally burst without warning, inflicting injury on the gun crews. The Confederate States of America manufactured a number of successful copies of the gun.
References
- ↑ "A Great Cannon Foundry". Scientific American (September 10): 165. 1864.
- ↑ Donald B. Webster, Jr. (July–August 1962). "Rodman's Great Guns". Ordnance: The Journal of the Army Ordnance Association (July–August). Archived from the original on 2008-07-04. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
- ↑ "A Twenty-Inch Gun; Casting at the Fort Pitt Foundry" (PDF). The New York Times (Feb. 21). 1864. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
- ↑ Simpson, Edward; Simpson, Edward (1885). Report of the Gun Foundry Board, February 16, 1884. United States. Gun Foundry Board. Govt. Print. Off. p. 39. OCLC 5228492.
Dahlgren Fort Pitt Foundry.
- ↑ Carl Prine (July 13, 2008). "Fort Pitt foundry known for 'monster' weapons". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review .[ permanent dead link ]
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