Also known as: John A. B. Dahlgren, Admiral Dahlgren.
| Born | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1809 |
|---|---|
| Died | 1870 |
| Service | United States Navy, from midshipman to rear admiral |
| Ordnance role | Head of the Navy's Ordnance Bureau, 1862 |
| Known for | Dahlgren guns; commanded the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron |
Career and guns
John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren was born in Philadelphia and entered the Navy as a midshipman at sixteen. Assigned to the Navy's ordnance work at Washington in 1847, he became head of the Washington Navy Yard in 1861, head of the Navy Ordnance Bureau as a captain in 1862, and a rear admiral in July 1863 commanding the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
Dahlgren's ordnance is usually grouped as bronze boat howitzers and rifles, iron smoothbores, and iron rifles. He designed the smoothbore shell guns primarily for boats patrolling the waterways; their thick, curved breech, contoured to the pressures within, gave them their characteristic bottle shape.
On this site
Sources & further reading
- Melton, Jack W., Jr. Civil War Artillery Projectiles: The Half Shell Book. Blue Ridge, GA: Historical Publications LLC, 2018.
- CivilWarArtillery.com research archive: inventor biographies, manuals, reports, and patent files.
- United States Army, Ordnance Department. The Ordnance Manual for the Use of the Officers of the United States Army. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1862.