Ordnance Papers

[USS ALASKA]

USE AND MANUFACTURE OF FIELD ARTILLERY IN THE CONFEDERACY
JUSTIN A. STANAGE
Department of History

ABSTRACT
This paper explores what the main types of field artillery used in the American Civil War were, how they were made, and the ammunition used. This paper will also touch upon how this field artillery demonstrated the manufacturing capability of the Confederate States of America.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiovvjKytaNAxWzLFkFHZ-9B9YQFnoECC4QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fscholarworks.iu.edu%2Fjournals%2Findex.php%2Fiusburj%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2F19818%2F25895&usg=AOvVaw0ZWQzDYIENf8JNFM8cvFrv&opi=89978449

Unsure of copyright, please use above link.

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[USS ALASKA]

The Guns at Filipstad: Some Reflections on the John Ericsson Bicentennial
Howard J. Fuller
King's College, London
Department of War Studies

As far as I know, the guns at Filipstad are the only ones of their kind left in the world today. And what guns they are. Two 15-inch, cast-iron, muzzle-loaded smoothbores— "Dahlgrens"—each weighing some 42,000 pounds (21 tons) and capable of firing a 450 pound solid shot. They were the terror of the American Civil War. So what are these mammoth specimens doing in Filipstad, Värmland, in rural Sweden?

https://ijnh.seahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2012/01/Fuller-Fillipstad-PDF.pdf

Please use above link.

Information on these two weapons from @LHR Lead 's excellent website...

Record Listing

Record Listing

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[USS ALASKA]

Sirs, to go with other threads that mention Robert J. Schneller, some free reading...

Schneller published his biography of Dahlgren Quest for Glory two years later.

A Quest for Glory/A Biography of Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren
Robert J. Schneller Jr.
476 pages, available March 2020, paperback, 60 b&w photos and drawings, 6 maps, $29.95

An interesting paper I read online:

The Battle of Hampton Roads, Origins of Ordnance Testing against Armor, and U.S. Navy Ordnance Development during the American Civil War
By Robert J. Schneller, Jr.
U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command

"A State of War Is a Most Unfavorable Period for Experiments": John Dahlgren and U.S. Naval Ordnance Innovation During the American Civil War by Robert J. Schneller, Jr. U.S. Naval Historical Center
International Journal of Naval History
Volume 2 Number 3/Volume 3 Number 1
December 2003/April 2004

@Rhea Cole 's thread https://civilwartalk.com/threads/why-were-monitors-turrets-armed-with-both-11-15-cannons.190510/

...to highlight a few.

Reprinted from the American Society of Arms Collectors Bulletin 57:12-36

The Last Smoothbores
The Development of John A. Dahlgren's Heavy Cast-Iron Ordnance For the United States Navy in an Era of Transition, 1848-1865
Robert J. Schneller, Jr.

The period in which Dahlgren lived (1809-1870) bore witness to vast transformations in the navies of the world. Shortly before his birth, sailing ships-of-the-line had reached their zenith at the battle of Trafalgar. By the end of his life, forerunners of twentieth-century battleships had emerged. Sails, smoothbores, and wooden hulls gave way to man-made power, big guns, and all-metal ships. Six principal technological developments catalyzed this revolution: steam power, shell guns, rifled guns, iron hulls, screw propellers, and armor plate. Dahlgren lived to see the United States Navy introduce all of these innovations. His heavy, cast-iron muzzle-loaders were the last smoothbores that the navy adopted.

https://americansocietyofarmscollectors.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1987-B57-The-Last-Smoothbores-The-Development-of-.pdf

Please use above link.

Cheers,
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Union and Confederate Views on Guncotton
Yoel Bergman
Tel Aviv University
May 2015
Associate Researcher at the Cohn Institute for the History the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel-Aviv University/Independent Scholar

Abstract
This essay investigates why guncotton was not commonly used by both sides of the American Civil War, despite it being a more powerful explosive than the standard explosive (gunpowder/black powder). The question hitherto has not been fully answered; it is proposed that both sides did realize its superiority yet chose different modes of action. The Union army tested the material in America, but chose the British course of action, to wait until the material, with its known instability, was improved. The Confederate navy was willing to take the risk and looked in mid-1864 for large amounts in Europe for use in certain types of sea and river mines ("torpedoes"). Large quantities did arrive, but were too late to be used. The types of torpedoes to be employed with guncotton are not known but it is estimated that the material was intended for those types where gunpowder limited their effectiveness.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yoel-Bergman/publication/279170487_Union_and_Confederate_Views_on_Guncotton/links/607936bb881fa114b406e35b/Union-and-Confederate-Views-on-Guncotton.pdf?_tp=eyJjb250ZXh0Ijp7ImZpcnN0UGFnZSI6InB1YmxpY2F0aW9uIiwicGFnZSI6InB1YmxpY2F0aW9uIn19

Please use above link.

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[USS ALASKA]

Free book...if you can read cursive...

Collection: Bruce C. Clarke Library Digital Repository
Sub-collection: Rare Books
Title: Brooke's Reports Upon the Construction of Rifle and Other Cannon for the Naval Service of the Confederate States.
Author: Brooke, John M.

Abstract
Report by John M. Brooke to the Secretary of the Navy, S. R. Mallory. Brooke, a Florida born Annapolis graduate, was formerly a United States Navy Officer. At the outbreak of the Civil War he resigned his commission joining the Virginia State Navy and later the Confederate States Navy as Chief of Ordnance and Hydrography. He helped with the reconstruction of the USS Merrimack into the ironclad vessel the CSS Virginia. He had charge of the Confederate experiments, with submarine boats, and was one of the contributors to the development of the torpedo. Report includes tracings of cannons and projectiles. Collected here are the results of experiments demonstrating the applicability of certain principles of construction of rifles and other cannon. Under order of S.R. Mallory, Secretary of the Navy, Navy Commander, John M. Brooke collected the results of experiments undertaken by England, France and the United States to improve ordnance and includes illustrations which present a general view of the subject.

Publisher: Richmond, Virginia
Date: 1863
Date Digital: 2016
Call number: RB 623.4 B79
Release statement: Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Repository: Bruce C. Clarke Library
Library: Combined Arms Research Library Digital Library

https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/api/collection/p15040coll5/id/2519/download

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USS ALASKA

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Notes On Ammunition Of The American Civil War, 1861-1865 by Berkeley R Lewis

Notes on ammunition of the American Civil War, 1861-1865.

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I actually read about 1/3 of this, lacking time to complete it.

 

[USS ALASKA]

Journal Article
From Breechloaders to Monster Guns: Sir William Armstrong and the Invention of Modern Artillery, 1854-1880
Marshall J. Bastable
Technology and Culture
Vol. 33, No. 2 (Apr., 1992), pp. 213-247
The Johns Hopkins University Press

From Breechloaders to Monster Guns: Sir William Armstrong and the Invention of Modern Artillery, 1854-1880 on JSTOR

Marshall J. Bastable, From Breechloaders to Monster Guns: Sir William Armstrong and the Invention of Modern Artillery, 1854-1880, Technology and Culture, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Apr., 1992), pp. 213-247

www.jstor.org

Full article at above link on JSTOR with Google sign-in (In the upper right-hand corner of the linked page, there is a 'Log in' button. If you have a Gmail account, you have a Google sign-in and this will allow for free reading of 100 articles a month).

Cheers,
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Journal Article
British Response to the American System: The Case of the Small-Arms Industry after 1850
Russell I. Fries
Technology and Culture
Vol. 16, No. 3 (Jul., 1975), pp. 377-403
The Johns Hopkins University Press

British Response to the American System: The Case of the Small-Arms Industry after 1850 on JSTOR

Russell I. Fries, British Response to the American System: The Case of the Small-Arms Industry after 1850, Technology and Culture, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Jul., 1975), pp. 377-403

www.jstor.org

Full article at above link on JSTOR with Google sign-in (In the upper right-hand corner of the linked page, there is a 'Log in' button. If you have a Gmail account, you have a Google sign-in and this will allow for free reading of 100 articles a month).

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[USS ALASKA]

To go with posts #22 and #23 - and it is Parrott's birthday...

PUTNAM COUNTY HISTORIAN
Horace E. Hillery
Patterson, New York
PUTNAM COUNTTY IN THE CIVIL WAR - THIRD EDITION 1961
WEST POINT FOUNDRY
Maker of The Parrott Rifle, Famous Civil War Cannon

In that year, things began to happen at the West Point Foundry. Gouverneur Kemble went to Washington for four years as Congressman from his district. In a short time, Parrott was transferred to the West Point Foundry to supervise ordnance manufacture. But in a few months, he resigned his commission in the army to become Superintendent of the Foundry. Three years later, he married Miss Mary Kemble sister of Gouverneur Kemble. During these three years, the finishing branch of the Foundry was moved from New York to Cold, Spring. For the next thirty years, Parrott gave his energies to improving ordnance. The cliffs across the Hudson River became the target for testing his experiments. By the year before the Civil War, Parrott had produced a cannon made of cast iron which was to revolutionize artillery. The government had some of these when the War began. These cannons were of two types; those suitable for operation in mobile conflict and heavier guns for siege purposes.

Full article here - https://www.historicpatterson.org/PDFs/CivilWar13-24.pdf - first 3 pages.

Cheers,
USS ALASKA