• Type: 12-pdr. (or 16-pdr.) Blakely Rifle, Type 1
• Tube Composition: Steel
• Bore Diameter: 3.5 (or 3.75) inches
• Tube Length: 84 inches
• Current Disposition: Grant Park in Galena, IL.
• Special Notes: This cannon may be one of the most historical, and most frequently misidentified, Blakelys in the United States. The gun known as the "Galena Blakely" is believed to have been present and participated in the bombardment of Fort Sumpter on April 12, 1861. It is considered to be the first rifled cannon to be fired in combat on the American continent. This cannon is also believed to hold the distinction of being the only rifled cannon used in action against the Union garrison at Fort Sumpter on April 12, 1861.

British Captain Theophilus Alexander Blakely was a prolific designer of rifled cannon, in a variety of models. Since his own government did not adopt his designs, he sold his weapons overseas; several of his guns were purchased by the Confederacy and used during the Civil War.

South Carolina Governor F.W. Pickens wrote a letter to Confederate Secretary of War L. P. Walker on April 9, 1861 concerning the arrival of a Blakely gun in the Charleston area. He wrote that the gun was:

"...a fine rifled cannon from Liverpool of the latest maker--Blakely gun--an improvement upon Armstrong, steel rolls and coils with an elevation of seven and one-half degrees to a mile. It throws a shell or twelve-pound shot with the accuracy of a dueling pistol and with only one and a half pounds of powder. Such, they write me, is this gun, and I hope to have it in position by tonight."

At 4:30 A.M. on April 12, 1861, Confederate artillery batteries ringing the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina opened fire upon the Federal garrison occupying Fort Sumter. Of these batteries, the "Point Battery," emplaced on Cummings Point of Morris Island, possessed a then truly novel weapon...an English-made Blakely rifled gun...which consistently hurled twelve-pound iron projectiles to breach the walls of the fortress, 1250 yards distant. The gun fired only eleven shot and nineteen shells during the Fort Sumpter bombardment due to limited ammunition, but it has been noted that the bolts from this rifle penetrated the fort walls as deeply as 11-inches.

Commanded by Captain J.P. Thomas, the Blakely gun literally reverberated with history. For not only was it a participant in the initial engagement of the American Civil war... it was the first rifled cannon to be fired in combat on the American continent.

General P. G. T. Beauregard wrote the following to Confederate Secretary of War L. P. Walker:

"We have a remarkable rifled cannon, 12-pdr., superior to any other here. Others ought to be ordered."

The piece was a gift to the people of South Carolina from Charles K. Prioleau of Frazer & Co. of London and is said to have born a plaque inscribed... "Presented to the State of South Carolina by a citizen resident abroad in commemoration of the 20th December, 1860" --the day the state seceded from the Union.

The rifle drew some attention in the northern press, with an article and picture published in Harpers Weekly.

After its participation in the opening salvo of the War, the Blakely disappears from the pages of history until nearly the closing days of the conflict. South Carolina, whose interior was until 1865 nearly untouched by Union forces, was suddenly center stage for the invasion of troops led by William Tecumseh Sherman.

Sherman's army rolled inexorably northward. On the morning of March 3, 1865, elements of the Seventeenth Army Corps approached the South Carolina hamlet of Cheraw. Confederate skirmishers presented only a token resistance before withdrawing across the Big Pedee River... burning the bridge behind them. The Union troops... including the 45th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, the "Washburne Lead Mine Regiment"... entered the unoccupied town and discovered a sizable store of ordnance abandoned by the retreating forces. This Confederate material had recently been transported from Charleston, upon the evacuation of that city... muskets, sabers, small arm and artillery ammunition, limbers, caissons ... and twenty-five pieces of artillery.

Several of the captured cannon were turned upon the fleeing force across the Pedee. One participant in the cannonade was a Blakely rifled gun...with a brass commemorative plate mounted upon its breach.

Private James G. Birney Palmer, Company A, 32nd Wisconsin Infantry, referred to this capture in a letter written from his camp near Goldsborough, North Carolina, on March 27th:

"These stores had been removed from Charleston previous to the evacuation. The most valuable pieces of artillery were brought along. The 3rd Michigan Battery has two pieces, English made, one of them with the following inscription upon it. 'Presented to the Sovereign State of South Carolina, by one of her citizens residing abroad in commemoration of her noble conduct on the 20th of Dec. 1860'"

This captured cannon, along with another Blakely, finished the War fighting for the Union in the service of the Third Battery, First Michigan Light Artillery.

On April 26, 1865, General Joseph Johnston surrendered the last of the principal Confederate armies to Union General Sherman. The long dying was over. The volunteer forces were dismantled and the weaponry retired. And the Blakely rifle of Charleston and Cheraw languished at the United States Arsenal in Rock Island, Illinois until 1896 when an old soldier had an idea.

Jo Daviess County Treasurer Jonathan White had marched with Company D of the "Washburne Lead Mine Regiment." He had been among the troops entering Cheraw, South Carolina on that March day of 1865. Now, in April of 1896, he related to ex-Galena Major Thaddeus Bermingham the history of a distinctive artillery piece seized during the South Carolina invasion ...a Blakely rifled gun, with a commemorative plate mounted upon its breach. White suggested that the cannon, then stored at Federal arsenal in Rock Island, be secured from the government and presented to the Galena Grant Park Commission for permanent display in the Park itself. He hoped the formal presentation could be made during the Grant's Birthday Celebration held on April 27.

Impressed with the suggestion, Bermingham penned a letter to congressman Robert Hitt, who promptly replied:

"Washington, D.C. April 14-- T.J. Bermingham, Esq., Galena, Ill.

Dear Sir: I have your interesting letter of the 11th, and will today endeavor to obtain from the Secretary of War authority to take the Rock Island gun that has such a history to Grant Park for the Grant Birthday celebration on the 27th, and I hope he will give an order that it can be made a permanent feature of that memorial park.

Very truly yours, R.R. Hitt"