The two most famous, and by far, the largest Confederate cannon at Columbus, Kentucky were the Lady Polk and the Belmont, 6.4 inch Anderson rifled columbiads made at the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia. Both were cast solid in the molds of huge Model 1861 10-inch smoothbore columbiad cannons, but bored and rifled as 6.4-inchers. The 10" Columbiad design was chosen with expectations that the thick walls of the barrel would provide sufficient strength for the guns to fire rifled projectiles. Both guns were a little over ten feet long, and weighed nearly 15,000 pounds each. Their solid iron rifle bolts were known to weigh up to 128 pounds each.ARTILLERY PROFILE
- Model: 6.4-inch Anderson Rifles
- Type: Rifled Columbiads
- In Service With: Keiter's Tennessee Light Artillery Battery, CSA
- Under the Command of: Captain William Keiter
- Named Guns: "Lady Polk", and "Belmont" (a.k.a. the "Lady Davis")
- Current Disposition: Melted down in 1942 as part of a scrap metal drive for World War II
- Misidentification:
- In some references, these guns are mistakenly referred to as a Dahlgrens, or a Whitworth Rifles.
- After the bursting of Lady Polk, union forces mistakenly identified the Belmont gun as "Lady Davis"
- Some Confederate references call these cannons: Heavy 32-pdr. Rifles, based on the 6.4" bore size being commonly called 32-pdr., based on the equivalent weight round ball of the same caliber.
- Casting Foundry: Tredegar Iron Works, Richmond, Virginia
- Casting Mold: Model 1861 10-inch Smoothbore Columbiad
- Tube Composition: Cast Iron
- Manufacturing Process: Traditionally solid Cast Iron, bored, and rifled
- The manufacture of a smaller bore, with extra thick cast iron barrel walls of the 10" Columbiad design, was believed to make these guns strong, and safe enough for use as a rifled cannon.
- Year of Manufacture: 1861
- Bore: 6.4-inch Rifle
- Rifling Type: 5 equal lands & grooves
- Tube Length: over 10 feet long
- Tube Maximum Outer Diameter: 32 inches
- Tube Weight: nearly 15,000 pounds
- Projectiles: 128 lb. Solid Iron Rifle Shot
The Lady Polk, and the Battle of Belmont
The huge gun named Lady Polk, in honor of Frances, the wife of Confederate army commander General Leonidas Polk, was first fired during the November 7, 1861, Battle of Belmont, Missouri. It was used against the Union Army from across the Mississippi River at Fort De Russy, Kentucky.
The rifled cannon fired projectiles with flanged copper plates attached to the bottom. The flanges fit into grooves of the rifling, which added a spin to the projectile and increased its range and accuracy.
On the first attempt to load the cannon, the gun crew found the rounds slightly too large to load in the bore. The problem was solved by using a file on the flanged plate. After firing a few rounds, the barrel temperature increased, and bore expanded enough that no more filing was necessary. The cannon and crew performed well in battle, and their fire aided in forcing the Union troops to retreat. One last round was loaded into the gun, and it was left unfired as the gun barrel cooled.
Lady Polk's Terrible Explosion Nearly Kills Leonidas PolkFour days after the battle, General Polk visited the gun emplacement during an inspection tour, and the officer in charge, Captain W. N. Keiter, offered to fire the loaded round to demonstrate the weapons range and accuracy. With Polk and his aides standing by, Kieter assembled the eight man gun crew. The men took their positions around the great gun, a primer was inserted into the vent, and upon Keiter's command the lanyard was pulled.
The Lady Polk fired, the barrel burst, and set off a powder magazine foolishly built next to her.
Ten of the thirteen men standing around the Lady Polk were instantly killed as she exploded with a flash and roar and engulfed the emplacement in a dense cloud of smoke and dust. "Great God, they are blown to atoms!" cried one of the first men to rush to the scene. Another described what was left of the gun crew: "Here were an arm and a severed head, over there a memberless trunk of a human body disemboweled."
Polk was found lying unconscious beside his dead horse, but he recovered and continued to serve for two and one-half more years, until he was killed at Pine Mountain, Georgia, by a Union shell that tore through his chest.
The NEW ORLEANS PICAYUNE newspaper of November 14, 1861, wrote this article about the bursting of the Lady Polk cannon at Columbus:
A most shocking and unfortunate accident happened just now, which has cast a depressing gloom over the whole army at this point. The 128 pounder rifled gun, mounted on a pivot inside of a circle elevation, exploded with a terrible crash, which could be heard for many miles. A great loss of life was sustained, and many persons mangled and wounded in the most tragic manner...
I counted five dead bodies on the spot, horribly mangled, while several were badly, and others but slightly, wounded. Limbs, pieces of skull oozing brains, were scattered all about, and presented a never-to-be-forgotten sight.
Gen. Polk was close by the gun, but was not hurt, which is certainly providential. The General was terribly shocked, and had his clothes torn in shreds, and his face burned somewhat, but without injuring him externally or internally...
Several of the gunners must have been buried inside of the elevation, under the fragments and ruins of the once beautiful and valuable gun. There is no doubt but that some must have been thrown into the river, as the gun was mounted almost at the edge of the bluff, where from its highest elevation, it commanded the opposite Missouri shore for several miles.
This gun was the pride of the army, and the terror of the gunboats, and its value was tested in the late battle, when it played at the gunboats, and dispersed the advancing column of the enemy. The loss of this gun cannot be so easily replaced, and it will be greatly missed in the defense of Columbus...
The amount of the killed may be ten, while a great many are wounded.
Lady Polk is Replaced with Belmont
A replacement gun was sent to Columbus to replace the Lady Polk. Named in honor of the battle, the Belmont, she was a twin sister of the Lady Polk cannon.
Just after the Battle of Belmont, a Memphis newspaper article mistakenly named the Lady Polk, the "Lady Davis" instead. When the Yankees learned that a cannon named the "Lady Polk" had burst, they wrongly concluded that there must have had two big rifled cannon during the battle. In the confusion, the Union always called the Belmont, the "Lady Davis" in their official reports.
After the Lady Polk burst, Lieutenant W.Y.C. Humes of Bankhead's Tennessee Light Artillery Battery was promoted to Captain and given command of Keiter's Battery. All the heavy artillery was later shipped down river to Island #10 when Columbus was abandoned.
Only a few days after the Federal Navy began to bombard Island #10, on March 19, 1862, the Belmont gun burst while firing on the Yankee iron clad gunboats. The Belmont did not kill any of her gun crew.
What happened to the remains of those two famous cannon?
"I wish you to stop at Island No. 10 and take on board the fragments of a gun known as the Lady Davis, which burst in the hands of the rebels..."
This was actually the misidentified remains of Belmont, known to the Union as "Lady Davis"...
"I wish you to stop again at Columbus and to take on board the fragments of a gun known as the Lady Polk, which also burst in the hands of the rebels...."
"...they are to be placed at the disposal of Sister Angela, superior of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, who are the principal nurses in our military hospitals, and that they are to be recast into a statue of peace for one of the religious establishments of which Sister Angela is the superior..."
Mother Angela Gillespie was in charge of the nuns in several local Union military hospitals. General U. S. Grant described her as "A woman of rare charm of manner, unusual ability and exceptional executive talents." Sister Angela was also very close to General William T. Sherman, as they had been childhood friends, and the Sister was also a cousin of Sherman's wife.
For a few years after the war the remains of these two cannon were used as benches at Locus Grove Park at the Mound City Navy Yard in Illinois. After the Navy Yard was closed in the 1870s, the Sisters of the Holy Cross took possession of their two broken cannons. They arranged the iron barrel remains into an outdoor display at their St. Mary's College for girls in Notre Dame, Indiana.
As luck would have it, Lady Polk and the Belmont were removed from their display, never being cast into a Statue of Peace as originally planned. Instead the two Confederate cannons were destined for a greater wartime purpose. During a 1942 scrap drive, both cannons were donated to be melted down, to support the war effort of World War II.
Here is an Excerpt from William G. Stevenson's Thirteen Months in the Rebel Army. London, Sampson Low & Company, 1862. Pages 76 - 77.
Catalogue of the Museum of Flags, Trophies and Relics Relating to the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Present Rebellion: Forming the Most Complete and Interesting Collection Ever Brought Together in the United States: to be Exhibited at New York, April 4, 1864, and on the Succeeding Days, for the Benefit of the United States Sanitary Commission. United States, C.O. Jones, printer, 1864.
Another relic was on display at Louisville, Kentucky:
The Lost Cause: A Confederate War Record. United States, Courier-Journal Job Printing Company, 1898.
From "Reports of Capt. A.B. Gray, C.S. Army Chief Engineer", part of Miscellaneous Documents of the House of Representatives, Washington, DC, 1883.
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