Cannon & Projectile Inventors

Sir William Armstrong was one of Britain's greatest inventors — a hydraulic engineer who turned his talents to artillery in the 1850s. His breech-loading Armstrong gun, adopted by the British Army in 1859, featured a revolutionary screw breech mechanism and wrought-iron construction. Armstrong guns were exported to both sides during the Civil War, with the Confederacy receiving a number of them through blockade runners. His company, Armstrong Whitworth, would become one of the world's leading armament manufacturers.

Captain Blakely pioneered a banding system for his rifled cannon that resulted in at least five — and possibly as many as ten — distinct types of Blakely cannons being manufactured. The 3.5-inch caliber, 12-pounder Blakely weapons were developed in nine varieties, with a tenth variation being a 10-pounder mountain piece. Blakely rifles were also manufactured in 3.75-, 4.5-, and 6.3-inch, and 100-, 120-, 150-, 200-, 250-, 375-, and 650-pounder sizes. The most famous Blakely rifle in the Civil War was "The Widow Blakely" — used by the Confederates during the defenses of Vicksburg in 1863, and named for being "left alone" on its platform by Union fire.

John Mercer Brooke began his career as a U.S. Navy officer before resigning his commission to serve the Confederacy. He designed a distinctive banded cannon that was similar in appearance to the Parrott, but different in that the Brooke band consisted of several rings which were not welded together. Brooke cannon came in 6.4-inch, 7-inch, 8-inch, and 11-inch calibers, and its rifling was similar to the Blakely gun. Beyond his cannon work, Brooke holds a unique place in naval history for his key role in designing the iron armor plating used by the CSS Virginia (Merrimac) in its famous battle with the USS Monitor.

Dr. William LeRoy Broun served as a Confederate ordnance officer and was instrumental in establishing and expanding Southern artillery production capacity during the war. He worked closely with the Tredegar Iron Works — the Confederacy's primary cannon foundry — and played a significant role in both the procurement and manufacture of artillery for the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and other forces. After the war, he became a respected academic administrator.

John Dahlgren was a Lieutenant when he was assigned to the ordnance department at the U.S. Navy Yard, and his genius transformed naval artillery. He developed the weapons primarily for use on small boats that patrolled the waterways — the necessity for these weapons having been demonstrated during the Mexican War. The first weapon systems were adopted by the Navy in 1850. Dahlgren's distinctive "bottle-shaped" guns — curved at the breech to handle the maximum pressure of the explosive charge — became the standard U.S. naval cannon. His 11-inch Dahlgren smoothbores were carried by the Monitor class ships that revolutionized naval warfare. By the end of the war, as a Rear Admiral, he was responsible for everything from 12-pounder boat howitzers to massive 20-inch rifles.

General James was a Rhode Island industrialist and politician who developed a rifled cannon and companion projectile system that bore his name. The James shell employed a distinctive lead sabot attached to the shell's base which expanded into the rifling upon firing. James also developed a system for converting existing smoothbore cannon into rifled pieces, making his invention particularly valuable at a time when the armies desperately needed rifled artillery but could not wait for new production. The James rifle in 3.67-inch and 3.8-inch calibers saw significant service in the early part of the war.

Robert Parker Parrott spent some forty years perfecting his rifled cannon and companion projectile. In 1836, Parrott resigned his rank of captain and went to work as superintendent of the West Point Foundry at Cold Spring, New York. By 1860, he had patented a new method of attaching the reinforcing band on the breech of a gun tube — not the first to attach a band, but the first to rotate the tube while slipping the band on hot, causing the band to attach uniformly. The 10-pounder Parrott was patented in 1861, followed by the 20- and 30-pounder guns. He quickly followed with 6.4-, 8-, and 10-inch caliber cannons (the 100, 200, and 300-pounder Parrotts). By the end of the conflict, the Parrott gun was being used extensively in both armies. The famous "Swamp Angel" — an 8-inch 200-pounder Parrott — was used to bombard Charleston until it exploded on the 36th round.

John B. Read invented the expanding sabot system used on what became known as the Read-Parrott projectile. Read held patents from 1856 and 1857 for this expansion system, and a significant post-war controversy arose between Read and Robert Parrott — Parrott contending he had purchased the patents from Read before the war. Regardless of the legal dispute, Read's system was fundamental to the success of the Parrott projectile family. The Read-Parrott projectile employed a sabot made of wrought iron, brass, lead, or copper attached to the shell base that expanded into the rifling upon firing.

Thomas Rodman developed one of the most important manufacturing advances in artillery history — a casting process that dramatically improved the strength of large cannon. Traditional casting caused the gun to cool from the outside in, leaving internal stresses that could cause catastrophic failures. Rodman's process cooled the gun from the inside out by running water through a hollow core, creating a stronger, more durable weapon. In 1861, he contracted with the Fort Pitt Foundry in Pittsburgh to produce Columbiads using his method. The resulting Rodman guns were produced in 8-, 10-, 12-, 13-, 15-, and 20-inch models — the largest smoothbore artillery pieces in the war. The 20-inch Rodman gun, weighing 117,000 pounds, could fire a 1,080-pound shot.

Sir Joseph Whitworth was one of Britain's foremost mechanical engineers and precision instrument makers. In the late 1850s, he patented a revolutionary artillery system using a hexagonal bore design instead of the conventional lands-and-grooves rifling. The ammunition also carried the hexagonal design in order to follow the bore, allowing for exceptional range and accuracy far superior to contemporary weapons. Whitworth manufactured his cannons in both breech-loading and muzzle-loading models. If the Whitworth breech-loader malfunctioned, it could simply be used as a muzzle-loader on the battlefield. The Confederacy made particular use of Whitworth guns as sniper artillery pieces — their extreme accuracy made them invaluable for counter-battery fire. The Whitworth projectile, by its very hexagonal design, made an eerie whining sound during flight that was unmistakable to soldiers who encountered it.