Dahlgren gun

Aside from use in naval service, boat howitzers saw service with the land forces as well. The boat howitzers were occasionally used in artillery batteries, but were more often used in infantry units, in a role that would later be called infantry support guns.

At First Bull Run, Company I of the 71st Regiment, NY National Guard, brought two boat howitzers with them. The unit had trained on boat howitzers while deployed at Washington D.C., and when called to Bull Run, brought two of them along. When the regiment retreated they left the howitzers behind for the Confederate forces to capture.

During the Antietam Campaign, Whiting's Battery (Company K, 9th NY Infantry (Hawkins' Zouaves)), employed five Dahlgren boat howitzers (two rifled, two smoothbore, and one of indeterminate type). The howitzers fired on Confederate skirmishers at Snavely's Ford and suppressed them (Johnson & Anderson, p. 78). The Confederate Grimes' (Portsmouth) Battery had two smoothbore Dahlgren boat howitzers, with which they fought near Piper's Stone Barn (Johnson & Anderson, p. 78). The boat howitzers appeared to be popular—when Grimes' battery was forced to turn in one of its guns, it chose to turn in a three-inch ordnance rifle rather than one of its boat howitzers (Johnson & Anderson, p. 24).

The 1st Regiment, New York Marine Artillery, also armed themselves with boat howitzers, using them for their designed use of amphibious expeditions. The unit participated in 16 raids along the North Carolina coast employing their boat howitzers. The New York Marine Artillery was issued twelve 12-pounder rifled boat howitzers made by Norman Wiard out of semi-steel, a low-carbon iron alloy. Other than the material used, the Wiard boat howitzers were identical to the Dahlgren 12-pounder rifled boat howitzers. The Wiard howitzers were not made in large numbers (Ripley 1984, p. 168).

Boat howitzers were used in the western theaters also. The Indiana Brigade used a Dahlgren boat howitzer in fighting near Grand Prairie, Arkansas, on July 5, 1862. (War Department 1885, p. 109).

While boat howitzers were never commonly used by either army, by the end of the war their use by land forces was very rare.

Thirty-two-pounder gun of 27 cwt. M.1855: little is known about this gun as few were believed to have been produced. The U.S. Navy had several different models of 32-pounders, which are hard to differentiate in records. Thirty-two-pounders were the primary armaments of older ships like USS Cumberland (commissioned 1842) (which was sunk by CSS Virginia) and USS Congress (commissioned 1842) (which struck its colors to CSS Virginia). Later ships were armed with mixtures of shell guns most of which were designed by Dahlgren. The 32-pounders were still useful in providing primary or secondary armament to smaller ships and river gunboats. While earlier 32-pounders primarily fired solid shot, and these guns were called shot guns (Department of the Navy 1866, p. B/xvi) these newer guns could also fire shell. The 32-pounder gun of 27 cwt. had a crew of six and a powder-boy.

Thirty-two-pounder gun of 4,500 pounds and VIII-inch Dahlgren shell gun: 383 of the 32-pounders (Dahlgren 1872, p. App.A)[3] and 355 of the VIII-inch Dahlgren were cast by Alger Builders, Fort Pitt Foundry, and Seyfert, McManus & Co. between 1864 and 1867. The 32-pounder had a crew of 10 and a powder-boy while the VIII-inch had a crew of 12 and a powder-boy. Some have argued that these guns are not Dahlgren designs, pointing out that while the guns generally resemble his designs, these guns used old-style breeching jaws instead of the breech loop found on other Dahlgrens and that there is no elevating screw running through the cascabel (Ten Brink 2000). It is also asserted that the guns would have to be elevated by quoins. This is not accurate, particularly for the VIII-inch Dahlgren, as a new iron carriage with an elevating screw beneath the breech of the gun was developed for VIII-inch (Department of the Navy 1866, p. III/66) and other carriages with breech elevating screws were also used (Department of the Navy 1866, p. I/83). It is also argued that the bores were too small for their late introduction and very few saw service during or after the American Civil War. These guns would most likely have been intended for small riverine and estuarine gunboats, which the navy scrapped as quickly as possible after the war. The documentary evidence also supports a conclusion that these two guns should be considered to be Dahlgen designs. In Mrs. Dahlgren's petition to the national government for compensation for the use of Admiral Dahlgren's inventions, both the 32-pounder gun of 4,500 pounds and VIII-inch shell gun are specifically described as designs of Admiral Dahlgren (Dahlgren 1872, p. App. A). Also, in February 1867, Cyrus Alger & Co. paid a royalty on the Dahlgren patent for production of "ten eight-inch guns weighing 64,270, $642.70." (Ripley 1984, p. 103) There can be little doubt that both of these guns should be credited as Dahlgren designs.

IX-inch Dahlgren shell gun: 1,185 guns were cast at Alger, Bellona, Fort Pitt, Seyfert, McManus & Co., Tredegar, and West Point foundries between 1855 and 1864. Fort Pitt Foundry also made 16 for the army in 1861. The IX-inch Dahlgren was the most popular and versatile of Dahlgren shell guns made. The IX-inch guns served as broadside armament on larger ships such as USS Susquehanna, which carried 12 IX-inch Dahlgren guns in broadside mounts in addition to her two pivot guns and USS Powhatan which carried 10 IX-inch guns in broadside mounts in addition to her two XI-inch Dahlgren pivot guns. These broadside guns would normally be mounted on a Marsilly carriage (see illustration). Smaller coastal blockade ships such as USS Fort Henry and USS Hunchback mounted IX-inch Dahlgrens on pivot mounts. IX-inch Dahlgrens were used on several river gunboats such as USS Essex and USS Benton. If mounted as either a pivot gun or a broadside gun the IX-inch Dahlgren had a crew of 16 and a powderman.

X-inch Dahlgren shell gun (light): 10 were cast at Seyfert, McManus & Co. and West Point foundries between 1855 and 1864. Pivot mounted on board ships such as USS Cumberland, USS Brooklyn and USS Merrimack (pre-CSS Virginia) with a crew of 20 and a powderman.

X-inch Dahlgren shell gun (heavy): 34 cast between 1862 and 1865. Designed from the beginning to fire shot against armored ships with heavier powder charges. Mounted on a pivot mount with a crew of 20 and a powderman.

XI-inch Dahlgren shell gun: 465 were cast at Alger; Builders; Fort Pitt; Hinkley, Williams & Co.; Portland Locomotive Works; Seyfert, McManus & Co.; Trenton Iron Works; and West Point foundries between 1856 and 1864. This is the only Dahlgren gun to have been designed both with and without a muzzle swell. The gun was typically mounted on a pivot or in a turret on a monitor. When mounted in a turret, the crew for an XI-inch Dahlgren was seven including powdermen. The crew for the gun when mounted on a pivot was 24 men and a powderman. XI-inch Dahlgrens were carried on Neosho, Marietta, Casco, Milwaukee, and (1 XI-inch and 1 XV-inch short) class monitors as well as the original USS Monitor. USS Kearsarge, USS Powhatan, and many other conventional ships carried XI-inch Dahlgrens on pivot mounts. A few larger river gunboats, such as USS Tuscumbia and USS Indianola also carried XI-inch Dahlgrens.

XIII-inch Dahlgren shell gun: The XIII-inch Dahlgren was originally intended for Passaic-class monitors but proved unsuccessful and the XV-inch Dahlgren was used instead.

XV-inch Dahlgren shell gun (short or Passaic): 34 were cast by the Fort Pitt Foundry between 1862 and 1864 (Ten Brink 2000). The first XV-inch guns' barrels were so short that the muzzle was inside the monitor's turret when the gun was discharged. The resulting blast and fumes in the turret would have made the gun impossible to work. The navy constructed smoke-boxes inside the turrets of the monitors equipped with the short XV-inch gun (see illustration), but the presence of the smoke-boxes slowed the rate of fire for the guns. When mounted in a turret, the crew for a XV-inch Dahlgren was 10 including powdermen. These were carried on Passaic (1 XI-inch and 1 XV-inch short) and early Canonicus-class monitors. 15-inch Dahlgren guns for the Russian version of the Passaic, the Uragan class, were produced at the new Aleksandrovsk gun factory in Petrozavodsk in Russian Karelia.[4][5][6]

XV-inch Dahlgren shell gun (long or "Tecumseh"): 86 were cast by the Alger, Fort Pitt, and Seyfert, McManus & Co. foundries between 1864 and 1872 (Ten Brink 2000).[7] The new XV-inch gun was lengthened 16 inches so that the muzzle was flush with the outside of the turret when fired, eliminating the need for the smoke-box, Carried on later Canonicus-class monitors.

XX-inch Dahlgren shell gun: four were cast by the Fort Pitt Foundry between 1864 and 1867 as part of the original planned armament for USS Puritan. Three of these, named 'Satan', 'Lucifer' and 'Moloch' were accepted by the U.S. Navy, but saw no service. The fourth gun, named 'Beelzebub' was sold to Peru,[8] where it became part of the defenses of Callao.[9]

The navy's demand for 15-inch guns to defeat the new Confederate ironclads placed Dahlgren in a dilemma. All of his earlier shell guns had been cast solid, then had the bore drilled out—the traditional way to make artillery. Dahlgren's efforts with the XIII-inch shell gun were unsatisfactory and it was not clear that he could solid cast a 15-inch gun. However 15-inch guns had been successfully cast using the hollow casting technique developed by Thomas Jackson Rodman. In his method the gun was cast around a pipe. As the casting cooled, a smaller pipe was inserted into the first and water was pumped through the small pipe. At the same time hot coals were placed against the outside of the casting. This caused the casting to cool slowly from the inside out. As the outer parts of the casting cooled, they compressed the already cooled inner parts, making a stronger gun. The Bureau of Ordnance ordered that the Dahlgren XV-inch and XX-inch shell guns be cast using the Rodman hollow casting method. This use of Rodman hollow casting with a Dahlgren designed gun led to friction between Dahlgren and the Bureau of Ordnance, as well as some confusion in nomenclature.

Estimated values are indicated by an asterisk. Estimates by (Ripley 1984, pp. 369–370), except for the estimate of the overall length of the X-inch (heavy) which is based on a bore length of 117.75 inches and the estimate of the weight of the XX-inch shell which is based on the weight of the shell for the Columbiad, Seacoast, 20-inch, Model 1864.

Estimated values are indicated by an asterisk. Estimates by (Ripley 1984, pp. 369–370).