An Interesting Little Mystery re: a Siege Gun on Bayou Teche?

So I still don't know how a siege gun would have gotten to the Battle of Ft. Bisland. Since the Confederates were on the defensive, and had built two redoubts and a very long entrenchment, would it have been more likely that the siege gun would have been Confederate, since the Union troops were on the move and it would have been a huge ordeal to carry such a gun with them overland to the place of the battle? Or . . . could the siege gun have been on one of the Union gunboats that participated in the battle? I have seen no evidence, however, of any those gunboats having so large a gun. (Unfortunately, the man who found the fragment is no longer living, else I could ask him where on the battlefield he found the fragment, which in turn might tell us who fired it.)
 
Someone say gunboats?

ETA: Aha... found "Fort" (or "Camp") Bisland...

There is some uncertainty about the armament of some gunboats known to have been in the area, such as the sometimes-CSS-sometimes-USS Diana. The recorded armaments of the USS Estrella, Arizona, and Sachem do not appear to have had anything larger than a 32-pounder (~6.4"). However, the USS Clifton, which was known to be in the area not long after, had a few Dahlgren IX-inchers. I'm not familiar enough with the action to place her there at that time, but there's one possibility.
 
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Someone say gunboats?

ETA: Aha... found "Fort" (or "Camp") Bisland...

It was found at Fort Bisland, or rather the battleground in front of (to the east of) the fort. (Alas, around 1940 the Army Corps of Engineers excavated a 600-foot wide drainage channel through the exact site of the fort! And also through the resting site of whatever remained of the CSS Cotton.)

I wish I knew where Camp Bisland was. I've never heard of anyone finding any sign of it. When you superimpose a map of the battlefield and camp onto a modern aerial photo of the battlefield area, the camp ends up being in what is now a swamp. But those hand-drawn maps could be a little off.

I myself am very interested in gunboats. I just last night finished reading Guns on Western Waters, which was excellent. Tonight I start The Monitor Boys.
 
Not familiar with that one - can you elaborate?
CSS J. A. Cotton

Type: Ironclad gunboat Paddle : two, sidewheels Speed 13 knots
Dimensions: 229ft x 36ft x 7ft, 824 tons
Guns: 1 -32pdr SB, 2 -24pdr SB, 1 -9pdr MLR
Armour: 1” iron and cotton bales over engines and machinery, not protection aft of the wheels.
Builder: originally, Howard, Jeffersonville Indiana.
Conversion completed at New Orleans 1862
History:

CSS J A COTTEN.jpg


General arrangement drawing by the author from contemporary sketches.
Built for the New Orleans and Bayou Sara Mail Line Co.

Converted into a gunboat in 1862 by the CSN, clad partially in iron under the command of Lt E W Fuller CSN. She operated in Berwick Bay and Bayou Teche where from 1st – 6th November she fought a series of actions against USS Calhoun, Colonel Kinsman and Estrella, in support of CSA Diana. Casualties and damage were light on both sides. On January 15th 1863 of Brashear City La, she was run ashore and burned after a two day engagement with her adversaries of the previous November.
 
Here's the Cotton's wreck charted on a ca. 1870 map of Bayou Teche. It was right after this she was blown up with kegs of gunpowder and removed in pieces from the Bayou. As I write in my recent book about the history of Bayou Teche:

The Cotton proved sturdier than expected and [salvager] Kingsbury shortly confessed, “I did not think I should have had near the difficulty I have had in destroying her.” He reluctantly called in professional divers from New Orleans, who planted waterproof gunpowder charges at weak spots in the wreckage. “We have made 8 blasts since the 9th. . . ,” he informed Howell. “One of the blasts[,] the can contained 263 lbs. powder, [and] was placed at the hull directly under her port engine. I think it was very effectual, as large masses of the machinery & timber were thrown high into the air.” But, he noted, “[N]early all her timber, as it is blown to pieces, immediately sinks, which will take considerable time for me to remove.” Finally, the Cotton began to give way. Reclaiming some of her iron, Kingsbury sold it as scrap to fund modifications to the wrecking flat. One intriguing iron artifact may have escaped the melting furnace. “Yesterday we removed large masses of timber from the wreck,” Kingsbury recorded. “Among the mass was an iron cannon, which fell off the mass of timber in hoisting the same.”

Unfortunately, when building a large canal around 1940 the Army Corps of Engineers plowed right through the spot where the Cotton had been sitting on the bottom of the bayou, so if that cannon and any other artifacts from the gunboat had remained, they're now lost. But who knows, maybe the cannon is still down there and will one day be rediscovered?

Cotton.jpg


Note the boat's name is misspelled "J. B. Cotten" instead of "J. A. Cotton."
 
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Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper XVII (14 November 1863)  p 125  enhanced.jpg
Here's an engraving of the wreck of the Cotton in Bayou Teche from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper XVII (14 November 1863). Note the person in a hat standing amidships. (I know right were this spot is, but, like I said, it no longer exists . . . there's 600-foot-wide drainage channel now running through this location; the channel cut across the course of the Teche, which in turn was cut off from the channel by two enormous flood gates on either side of the channel. This illustrates the value of environmental impact reports! Indeed, the same channel plowed through the spot on which Fort Bisland itself had stood.)
 
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CSS J. A. Cotton

Type: Ironclad gunboat Paddle : two, sidewheels Speed 13 knots
Dimensions: 229ft x 36ft x 7ft, 824 tons
Guns: 1 -32pdr SB, 2 -24pdr SB, 1 -9pdr MLR
Armour: 1” iron and cotton bales over engines and machinery, not protection aft of the wheels.
Builder: originally, Howard, Jeffersonville Indiana.
Conversion completed at New Orleans 1862
History:

Do you have a drawing like this for the CSS Diana, also sunk (scuttled) on Bayou Teche?
 
Here you go:
Name: CSA Diana

Type: Ironclad Gunboat Paddles: two, side-wheels Speed: 12.5 knots
Dimensions: 165ft x 26.3ft x 5.75ft, 465 tons
Guns: 1 - 30pdr MLR, 2 -12pdr howitzers, 2-32pdr SB
Armour: 4.25ins iron over boilers and machinery, there was no armour aft,

CSA DIANA.jpg



General arrangement drawing by the author from an eyewitness sketch.

Captured at Fort St Phillip and taken into USN, who turned her into a tinclad. Recaptured by the Confederate Army, extra armour added and used by them as a transport until 14/04/1863 when she was destroyed to prevent capture . This vessel was never the property of the Government.
Commanded and manned by the CS Army she carried a battery of field guns in her action in support of CSS J. A. Cotten , 15th January 1863
 
In
View attachment 153978 Here's an engraving of the wreck of the Cotton in Bayou Teche from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper XVII (14 November 1863). Note the person in a hat standing amidships. (I know right were this spot is, but, like I said, it no longer exists . . . there's 600-foot-wide drainage channel now running through this location; the channel cut across the course of the Teche, which in turn was cut off from the channel by two enormous flood gates on either side of the channel. This illustrates the value of environmental impact reports! Indeed, the same channel plowed through the spot on which Fort Bisland itself had stood.)
In fairness I assume the drainage channel was essential, and in those days there were no archeological surveys such as have been done during the construction of London's Crossrail deep level underground line.
 
In

In fairness I assume the drainage channel was essential, and in those days there were no archeological surveys such as have been done during the construction of London's Crossrail deep level underground line.

The purpose of the canal was to divert flood water from the Atchafalaya swamp so that the town of Morgan City, on the southern end of the swamp, would not flood as it did in 1927. (Morgan City was known during the Civil War as Brashear City, and was held by both sides at one time or another; Banks launched his three invasions of the Teche from this place, and the Union had a supply depot there and kept several gunboats moored there at one time or another when not on duty.)
 
Have I mentioned how much I enjoy this hive-mind activity?

So these were the (stripped) bow gun pivot/turntables?
sxwsEFZ.jpg


If so, that'd answer your question here.
so if that cannon and any other artifacts from the gunboat had remained, they're now lost. But who knows, maybe the cannon is still down there and will one day be rediscovered?
 
They look to be examples of John Roy's work, should be three, one has obviously been destroyed.

Look at how the two are arranged in series, perpendicular to the planks. Could all three have been arranged that way, or was there verbiage on how the bow guns were set up?
 
I live about two blocks from Bayou Teche and have canoed the entire 125-mile length of it.

We in the Teche area are lucky (from a purely historical perspective) to have had a fair amount of gunboat activity on the bayou during the Civil War. The Cotton, Diana, Estrella, Calhoun, Arizona, Kinsman, Clifton, and Glide (#2) were all active on the Teche, and the CSS Hart/Stevens was built and scuttled on the Teche before it was finished. (Also, the remains of a sunken vessel found along the bayou a few years ago and studied by archaeologists is believed to be the gunboat Tensas -- but the verdict is still out on that one.)

Here's a blog article I wrote about the Glide, whose activity on the bayou I didn't learn about until three months ago. . . .

http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2017/05/another-civil-war-gunboat-on-teche-uss.html
 
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