- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Location
- East Texas
Part I - The Guns on Display Today
Fort McHenry National Monument and National Historic Site is best-known today as the place where our National Anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, was written by lawyer Francis Scott Key during the naval attack by the British on the night of September 13-14, 1814. However, the fort and its surroundings had a long and distinguished history afterward until it was finally deactivated and transferred to the National Park Service in 1931. During our Civil War it served as both a prison and a place to train recruits for the Union artillery branch and today boasts a fine collection of mid-ninteenth century artillery pieces. In the photo above, note the limbered fieldpiece along the path leading to the sally port.
Outside the fort proper is a reconstruction of the upper battery which during the 1814 attack was armed with large-caliber smoothbore guns mounted on naval trucks or garrison carriages like those here. The fire from these guns and those of a slightly-nearer-the-water lower battery added to guns within the brick fort itself. Most of the cannon at the time of the attack fired shells weighing 18, 24, or 36 pounds like those seen here.
These guns were manned largely by volunteer militia artillerymen and merchant seamen from ships within blockaded Baltimore Harbor. In the photo above, these original guns have wooden trucks with iron wheels and are attached to the wall by rope cables to prevent their excessive recoil when fired. The wooden levers or handspikes leaning against them were used in moving the heavy gun tubes on their carriages in order to elevate them and allow the wooden blocks seen at the rear to be positioned.
Following the War of 1812, seacoast fortifications underwent periodic additional strengthening and rearmament. The guns placed within them were of heavier caliber and in the 1850's rifling began to be introduced. The Lower Battery seen here replaced the earth-and-wooden one of the war with brick-reinforced earthen ramparts. The guns here are now ca. 1875 15-inch Rodman smoothbore guns of Civil War vintage that have been sleeved with rifled inserts.
Any casual visitor to Fort McHenry today would no doubt be confused by guns like this, probably associating them with the much more famous period of the War of 1812 rather than post-Civil War.
The Rodman below is the largest cannon remaining in position at Fort McHenry.
Next, Part II - Fort McHenry in the Civil War.
Fort McHenry National Monument and National Historic Site is best-known today as the place where our National Anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, was written by lawyer Francis Scott Key during the naval attack by the British on the night of September 13-14, 1814. However, the fort and its surroundings had a long and distinguished history afterward until it was finally deactivated and transferred to the National Park Service in 1931. During our Civil War it served as both a prison and a place to train recruits for the Union artillery branch and today boasts a fine collection of mid-ninteenth century artillery pieces. In the photo above, note the limbered fieldpiece along the path leading to the sally port.
Outside the fort proper is a reconstruction of the upper battery which during the 1814 attack was armed with large-caliber smoothbore guns mounted on naval trucks or garrison carriages like those here. The fire from these guns and those of a slightly-nearer-the-water lower battery added to guns within the brick fort itself. Most of the cannon at the time of the attack fired shells weighing 18, 24, or 36 pounds like those seen here.
These guns were manned largely by volunteer militia artillerymen and merchant seamen from ships within blockaded Baltimore Harbor. In the photo above, these original guns have wooden trucks with iron wheels and are attached to the wall by rope cables to prevent their excessive recoil when fired. The wooden levers or handspikes leaning against them were used in moving the heavy gun tubes on their carriages in order to elevate them and allow the wooden blocks seen at the rear to be positioned.
Following the War of 1812, seacoast fortifications underwent periodic additional strengthening and rearmament. The guns placed within them were of heavier caliber and in the 1850's rifling began to be introduced. The Lower Battery seen here replaced the earth-and-wooden one of the war with brick-reinforced earthen ramparts. The guns here are now ca. 1875 15-inch Rodman smoothbore guns of Civil War vintage that have been sleeved with rifled inserts.
Any casual visitor to Fort McHenry today would no doubt be confused by guns like this, probably associating them with the much more famous period of the War of 1812 rather than post-Civil War.
The Rodman below is the largest cannon remaining in position at Fort McHenry.
Next, Part II - Fort McHenry in the Civil War.