This encyclopedia collects identification-focused reference entries drawn from period ordnance manuals, technical texts, and the CivilWarArtillery.com research archive. Each published article cites the primary and secondary sources behind it. The catalog will expand as additional subjects complete review.
Projectiles & Ammunition
Absterdam projectile
The Absterdam projectile was a rifled projectile made in several patterns and sub-patterns, found chiefly as a 3-inch bolt with a base sabot.
Archer projectile
The Archer projectile was a Confederate rifled projectile made in bolt and shell forms with a lead sabot cast onto the base. Surviving examples are fo...
Armstrong projectile
The Armstrong projectile was a British rifled-artillery projectile coated in a soft metal skin that took the many shallow grooves of the Armstrong rif...
Artillery bolt
A bolt is an elongated solid projectile fired from a rifled gun, the rifled counterpart of the round shot. Carrying no bursting charge, it was used fo...
Artillery powder charges
The powder charge was the measure of black powder that propelled the projectile. It was bagged in cartridges and matched in size to the gun and the ef...
Artillery projectiles
Artillery projectiles are the shot, shell, case shot, canister, bolts, and specialized ammunition fired from cannon, howitzers, and mortars. American ...
Bar shot
Bar shot consisted of two masses of iron joined by a bar. Tumbling in flight, it was used chiefly at sea to cut rigging and damage spars.
Bashley Britten projectile
The Britten projectile was a British rifled system that used a lead coating on the base of an iron shell. On firing, the lead expanded into the groove...
Black powder
Black powder was the propellant and bursting charge of Civil War artillery, a mixture of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur. Grain size was matched to th...
Blakely projectile
The Blakely projectile was the ammunition of the British Blakely rifle, purchased by the Confederacy in a range of calibers. It is found chiefly as sh...
Bourrelet
The bourrelet is the raised, accurately turned bearing surface on an elongated projectile that fits the bore and centers the projectile as it travels ...
Brooke projectile
The Brooke projectile was the Confederate rifled projectile fired from Brooke guns, made in bolt and shell forms with a copper sabot, in field and hea...
Canister shot
Canister was a thin-walled metal cylinder packed with balls and sawdust that burst at the muzzle, spraying its load like a giant shotgun. It was the a...
Carcass incendiary projectile
A carcass was an incendiary projectile, a shell filled with a fierce-burning composition that flamed out through holes to set fires. It was used again...
Case shot
Case shot was an antipersonnel projectile that carried a load of musket or lead balls around a bursting charge, timed to burst in the air and shower t...
Chain shot
Chain shot was two balls or half-balls joined by a length of chain. Spinning in flight, it was used at sea to cut masts, spars, and rigging.
Dyer projectile
The Dyer projectile was a Federal rifled projectile, commonly 3-inch, made in shell and case-shot forms with a lead sabot. Captured examples were some...
Explosive shell
An explosive shell is a hollow projectile carrying a bursting charge and a fuze. On bursting it scatters fragments of its own body, and it was made in...
Fixed artillery ammunition
Fixed ammunition attached the projectile and its powder cartridge into a single round, so both were loaded together. It sped the loading of field guns...
Grapeshot
Grapeshot was a cluster of iron balls larger and fewer than canister, held together in a stand or quilted assembly. By the Civil War it was chiefly a ...
Hot shot
Hot shot was solid round shot heated red-hot in a furnace before firing, meant to set fire to wooden ships and structures. It required careful handlin...
Hotchkiss canister
Hotchkiss canister was a close-range antipersonnel round for rifled guns in the Hotchkiss line, packing balls in a case that broke up at the muzzle.
Hotchkiss case shot
Hotchkiss case shot was the antipersonnel form of the Hotchkiss rifled projectile, carrying balls and a bursting charge to burst in the air and shower...
Hotchkiss projectile
The Hotchkiss projectile was an American rifled-artillery ammunition system made in solid shot, shell, case shot, and related service forms. Its chara...
Hotchkiss shell
The Hotchkiss shell was the explosive form of the Hotchkiss rifled projectile, a three-part body with a lead band between iron sections that expanded ...
Hotchkiss solid shot
The Hotchkiss solid shot, or bolt, was the solid form of the Hotchkiss rifled projectile, using the same lead band and movable base but without a cavi...
James projectile
The James projectile was an early rifled system in which a lead sabot over a ribbed iron body expanded into the rifling. Fired from James rifles, it w...
Mortar shell
A mortar shell is a hollow explosive projectile fired at high elevation from a mortar. Nineteenth-century American examples are commonly spherical, wi...
Mullane projectile
The Mullane projectile was a Confederate rifled projectile whose copper or wrought-iron cup sabot, known as the Tennessee sabot, expanded into the rif...
Naval projectiles
Naval projectiles were the shot and shell fired by ships' guns, including heavy solid shot and bolts for piercing hulls and armor and shell for settin...
Parrott bolt
The Parrott bolt was the solid form of the Parrott rifled projectile, using the same expanding base sabot but cast solid for battering and penetration...
Parrott case shot
Parrott case shot was the antipersonnel form of the Parrott rifled projectile, carrying balls and a bursting charge to burst in the air over troops.
Parrott projectile
Parrott projectiles were rifled-artillery shot, shell, case shot, and bolts associated with Robert P. Parrott's gun system. Their expanding base cups ...
Parrott shell
The Parrott shell was the explosive form of the Parrott rifled projectile, with an expanding base sabot, made in the field and heavy calibers of the P...
Projectile sabot
A sabot is the part of a projectile that seals the bore and, in a rifled gun, engages the rifling. Civil War sabots ranged from wooden blocks on smoot...
Read projectile
The Read projectile was a Confederate rifled-artillery system that used a cupped wrought-iron sabot cast into the base of the shell. On firing, the th...
Rifled shell
A rifled shell is an elongated explosive projectile for a rifled gun, carrying a bursting charge and fuze and driven by a sabot or band that engages t...
Rotating and expanding bands
A rotating or expanding band is a ring of soft metal around a rifled projectile that is forced into the rifling on firing, spinning the projectile and...
Round shot
Round shot was the solid cast-iron sphere fired from smoothbore guns, the classic cannonball. It battered fortifications and materiel and was effectiv...
Sawyer projectile
The Sawyer projectile had a ribbed cast-iron body sheathed in lead that engaged the flanged rifling of the Sawyer gun. It was made in bolt and shell f...
Schenkl projectile
The Schenkl projectile used a tapered rear body and a papier-mache or composition sabot that expanded into the rifling when driven forward by propella...
Selma projectile
The Selma projectile refers to rifled projectiles made at the Confederate works at Selma, Alabama, part of the Southern output of ammunition for Brook...
Separate-loading ammunition
Separate-loading ammunition loaded the powder charge and the projectile as two pieces, one after the other. It was used with heavy guns whose rounds w...
Solid shot
Solid shot is non-explosive artillery ammunition intended to damage personnel, equipment, fortifications, ships, or other targets through impact. The ...
Spherical case shot
Spherical case shot was the smoothbore form of case shot: a hollow iron sphere filled with lead balls and a bursting charge, timed by fuze to burst in...
Spherical shell
A spherical shell is a hollow cast-iron ball carrying a bursting charge and fuze, fired from smoothbore guns, howitzers, and mortars. It burst into fr...
Stafford projectile
The Stafford projectile was a Confederate rifled projectile, associated with C. W. Stafford, made in 3-inch bolt and shell forms.
Trans-Mississippi projectile patterns
Trans-Mississippi projectiles are the distinctive, often improvised rifled projectiles made in the isolated Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, ...
Whitworth projectile
The Whitworth projectile was a mechanically fitting British projectile whose flat-sided body matched the twisted hexagonal bore of the Whitworth rifle...
Cannon & Weapon Systems
10-inch siege mortar
The 10-inch siege mortar was a short, heavy piece that lobbed a large shell at a high angle over walls and into works. It was a standard weapon of sie...
10-pounder Parrott rifle
The 10-pounder Parrott rifle was the light field Parrott, a cast-iron rifle with a wrought-iron breech band. Early guns had a 2.9-inch bore, later one...
100-pounder Parrott rifle
The 100-pounder Parrott was a heavy seacoast and siege rifle of 6.4-inch bore. It threw a shell of about a hundred pounds at long range but shared the...
12-pounder Model 1857 Napoleon
The 12-pounder Model 1857 Napoleon was a bronze smoothbore gun-howitzer and the most widely used field piece of the Civil War, valued for its versatil...
12-pounder field howitzer
The 12-pounder field howitzer was a light bronze smoothbore that lobbed shell, case, and canister at a higher trajectory than the gun, using a smaller...
12-pounder gun
The 12-pounder gun was a bronze smoothbore of 4.62-inch bore. The older heavy pattern was cumbersome for the field, and the type is best known in its ...
13-inch seacoast mortar
The 13-inch seacoast mortar was the largest common mortar of the war, throwing an enormous shell at high angle. The famous railway mortar called the D...
18-pounder gun
The 18-pounder gun was a heavy smoothbore of the siege and garrison class, firing an 18-pound shot. By the Civil War it was an older type, overtaken b...
20-pounder Parrott rifle
The 20-pounder Parrott rifle was the heaviest of the field Parrotts, with a 3.67-inch bore. It gave batteries longer range and a heavier shell than th...
200-pounder Parrott rifle
The 200-pounder Parrott was a heavy seacoast and siege rifle of 8-inch bore, one of the largest Parrotts, used in the great bombardments such as those...
24-pounder field howitzer
The 24-pounder field howitzer was a bronze smoothbore of 5.82-inch bore that threw shell and heavy canister at a higher trajectory than the gun. It wa...
24-pounder gun
The 24-pounder gun was a heavy smoothbore of 5.82-inch bore used in siege and garrison work. It threw a 24-pound shot and was among the standard heavy...
3-inch Ordnance Rifle
The 3-inch Ordnance Rifle was a wrought-iron rifled field gun prized for its accuracy and durability. It became the standard Federal rifled field piec...
3-pounder gun
The 3-pounder gun was a very light field gun firing a 3-pound shot. An older and small pattern, it was of limited use by the Civil War.
30-pounder Parrott rifle
The 30-pounder Parrott rifle was a siege and heavy field rifle of 4.2-inch bore, larger than the field Parrotts. It gave long range and accuracy again...
300-pounder Parrott rifle
The 300-pounder Parrott was the largest of the Parrott rifles, of 10-inch bore, a heavy seacoast and siege gun used in the war's great bombardments.
32-pounder field howitzer
The 32-pounder field howitzer was a bronze smoothbore of 6.4-inch bore, the largest of the howitzer class, firing shell and canister at high angle. It...
32-pounder gun
The 32-pounder gun was a heavy smoothbore of 6.4-inch bore used chiefly in seacoast and garrison defense, firing a 32-pound shot. Many were later rifl...
4-pounder gun
The 4-pounder gun was a light field gun of European pattern firing a 4-pound shot. Some served in the Civil War, especially in Confederate and irregul...
42-pounder gun
The 42-pounder gun was among the heaviest of the older smoothbore seacoast guns, with a 7-inch bore firing a 42-pound shot. Many were rifled and bande...
6-pounder field gun
The 6-pounder field gun was the light bronze smoothbore that formed the backbone of prewar field batteries. Its 3.67-inch bore fired a 6-pound ball, a...
8-inch siege mortar
The 8-inch siege mortar was a heavy mortar of the siege train, lobbing an 8-inch shell at high angle into fortifications, smaller than the 10-inch but...
9-pounder gun
The 9-pounder gun was a field gun of British pattern firing a 9-pound shot. Not a standard United States caliber, it appeared in the war chiefly throu...
Agar coffee-mill gun
The Agar gun, nicknamed the coffee-mill gun for its hopper and hand crank, was an early rapid-fire gun that fed and fired cartridges as the crank was ...
Armstrong gun
The Armstrong gun was a British rifled gun designed by Sir William Armstrong, notable for built-up wrought-iron construction and, in many examples, br...
Banded and rifled conversions
During the war many older smoothbore guns were converted into rifles by cutting rifling into the bore and shrinking a reinforcing band over the breech...
Blakely rifle
The Blakely rifle was a British rifled gun designed by Captain Blakely, imported by the Confederacy in a range of calibers from field pieces to very h...
Brooke rifle
The Brooke rifle was a Confederate cast-iron rifled gun reinforced with wrought-iron bands at the breech, resembling the Federal Parrott but often car...
Cannon
Cannon is the general term for a piece of artillery, a tube that fires a projectile by the force of a powder charge. Civil War cannon divide into guns...
Coehorn mortar
The coehorn was a small, portable mortar, light enough to be carried by a few men on its bed, used to lob shells into trenches and works at close rang...
Columbiad
The columbiad was a heavy American smoothbore designed for seacoast defense, able to fire both shot and shell at high or low angle. The Rodman guns we...
Dahlgren shell gun
The Dahlgren shell gun was an iron smoothbore naval gun of distinctive bottle shape, designed by John A. Dahlgren to fire shell, and a mainstay of Uni...
Gatling gun
The Gatling gun was a hand-cranked, multi-barrel rapid-fire gun patented by Richard Gatling in 1862. It saw only limited use in the Civil War but poin...
Grasshopper gun
The grasshopper was a light bronze field gun of the eighteenth century, nicknamed for the way it hopped when fired. It belongs to an era before the Ci...
Gun
In artillery a gun is a long cannon that fires with a flat trajectory and a heavy charge, for range and battering, as distinct from the howitzer and t...
Gun-howitzer
A gun-howitzer combined the roles of gun and howitzer in one piece, firing shot with a flat trajectory and shell at higher angles. The Napoleon was th...
Howitzer
A howitzer is a short cannon that throws a comparatively heavy shell at a higher angle with a lighter charge than a gun, to reach targets behind cover...
James rifle
The James rifle was a rifled gun, often a rifled bronze piece, firing the James projectile. It saw notable service in the reduction of Fort Pulaski.
Mortar
A mortar is a very short cannon fixed at a high angle to lob a heavy shell in a steep arc over walls and into works. It fired from a solid bed rather ...
Mountain howitzer
The mountain howitzer was a small, light bronze howitzer that could be broken down and carried on pack animals, made for service in rough country wher...
Parrott rifle
The Parrott rifle was a cast-iron rifled gun strengthened by a wrought-iron band shrunk over the breech. Made in field and heavy calibers, it was econ...
Rodman gun
The Rodman gun was a heavy iron smoothbore columbiad cast by Thomas Rodman's hollow-casting process, which gave it exceptional strength and allowed th...
Swivel gun
A swivel gun was a small cannon mounted on a swivel or pivot so it could be trained quickly through a wide arc, used on boats, walls, and defenses at ...
Whitworth rifle
The Whitworth rifle was a British gun with a twisted hexagonal bore, firing the flat-sided Whitworth projectile. It was famous for its long range and ...
Wiard rifle
The Wiard rifle was a rifled field gun designed by Norman Wiard, made of semi-steel and of distinctive form, intended to be a strong, mobile piece. So...
Williams gun
The Williams gun was a Confederate breech-loading, hand-cranked rapid-fire gun, a 1-pounder that fired quickly by turning a crank. It was first used i...
Fuzes, Primers & Ignition
Artillery fuze
An artillery fuze is the device that detonates an explosive projectile at the intended moment. Civil War fuzing systems fall into four classes: time, ...
Artillery lanyard
The lanyard was the cord, with a hook and handle, that the gunner jerked to fire a friction primer and so discharge the gun from a safe distance.
Bormann time fuze
The Bormann fuze was a flat metal time fuze used principally with spherical case shot. A graduated time channel allowed the gunner to expose the powde...
Cannon vents and vent pieces
The vent was the small channel through which fire reached the charge to fire the gun. A vent piece was a replaceable metal insert that let a worn vent...
Combination fuze
A combination fuze united a timed function and an impact function in one device, bursting the projectile at a set time or, failing that, on striking t...
Concussion fuze
A concussion fuze relied on the shock of firing or of striking to bring an internal weight against a primer, detonating the projectile. It was the lea...
Confederate copper time fuze
The Confederate copper time fuze was a Southern-made graduated metal time fuze modeled on the Bormann pattern, cast or formed in copper rather than th...
Friction primer
The friction primer was the standard means of firing Civil War cannon: a small tube set in the vent and ignited by jerking a serrated wire through a f...
Fuze and fuse terminology
In ordnance the spelling fuze is generally used for the igniting device fitted to a projectile, while fuse often denotes a simple burning cord or matc...
Fuze plugs and adapters
A fuze plug or adapter is the fitting seated in a projectile's fuze hole that holds the fuze and threads it to the shell. Plugs were of wood, metal, o...
Hotchkiss percussion fuze
The Hotchkiss percussion fuze was an impact fuze used with Hotchkiss and other rifled projectiles, firing the bursting charge when the projectile stru...
Paper time fuze
The paper time fuze was a powder composition wrapped in paper and cut to a set burning time at the factory, then seated in a fuze plug. It was a commo...
Parrott percussion fuze
The Parrott percussion fuze was an impact fuze for Parrott and other rifled projectiles, made in more than one pattern, that fired the charge when the...
Percussion cap
The percussion cap was a small copper cap charged with a fulminate that exploded when struck. In artillery it served in percussion primers and in the ...
Percussion fuze
A percussion fuze detonated an explosive projectile on impact rather than after a set time. Many patterns were used, generally relying on a plunger dr...
Portfire
A portfire was a slow-burning composition in a paper case used to ignite a gun's primer. It gave a steady flame and was a common firing device before ...
Quill primer
The quill primer was a tube, originally a goose quill, filled with priming powder and set in the vent to carry fire to the charge. It preceded the fri...
Schenkl combination fuze
The Schenkl combination fuze was a zinc-bodied fuze graduated to nine and one-half seconds, combining a settable time train with a percussion function...
Schenkl percussion fuze
The Schenkl percussion fuze was a brass impact fuze used with Schenkl and other rifled projectiles, firing the bursting charge when the shell struck t...
Slow match
Slow match was a slow-burning cord used to keep and carry fire for igniting guns, held in a linstock. It was an old method largely replaced by frictio...
Time fuze
A time fuze burst an explosive projectile after a preset number of seconds. It was the most widely used Civil War fuzing system, made either as a pape...
Wooden time fuze
The wooden time fuze was a tapered wooden plug bored with a powder train, cut or bored to the desired burning time and driven into the shell's fuze ho...
Carriages, Vehicles & Implements
Ammunition chest
The ammunition chest was the wooden, iron-bound box carried on the limber and caisson that held a gun's ready rounds, cartridges, fuzes, and primers.
Artillery carriage
The artillery carriage was the wheeled mount that carried the gun tube, absorbed its recoil, and allowed it to be aimed and moved. The field carriage ...
Artillery sights
Artillery sights were the devices for aiming a gun: a front sight on the muzzle and a rear sight at the breech, such as the tangent scale or the pendu...
Barbette carriage
A barbette carriage was a heavy fortification carriage that raised a gun to fire over the parapet rather than through an embrasure, giving a wide fiel...
Battery wagon
The battery wagon was a supply vehicle of a field battery, carrying tools, spare parts, harness, and stores needed to keep the guns and teams in servi...
Caisson
The caisson was a two-wheeled ammunition carriage bearing two chests and a spare wheel. Hooked to its own limber, it carried the bulk of a gun's ammun...
Cannon worm
The worm was a corkscrew-shaped iron tool on a staff used to draw a charge, cartridge remnants, or debris out of the bore.
Casemate carriage
A casemate carriage mounted a heavy gun to fire through an embrasure in a casemate, sheltering the gun and crew behind masonry while limiting the fiel...
Drag rope
A drag rope was a rope fitted with hooks and handles by which men could move a gun or carriage by hand where horses could not be used.
Elevating screw and quoin
The elevating screw and the quoin were the means of setting a gun's elevation. A screw beneath the breech raised or lowered it; a quoin was a wooden w...
Field carriage
The field carriage was the light two-wheeled, stock-trail carriage that mounted a field gun or howitzer, took its recoil, and hooked to a limber for t...
Fuze gouge and fuze setter
The fuze gouge and fuze setter were the small tools used to cut a paper or wooden time fuze to the chosen burning time and to seat it in the projectil...
Gunner's haversack
The gunner's haversack was a leather pouch used to carry a round from the ammunition chest to the muzzle, protecting the cartridge on the way.
Gunner's pincers
Gunner's pincers were a plier-like tool used in serving and preparing ammunition, such as handling primers and fuzes and small fittings.
Handspike
A handspike was a stout wooden lever used to shift the trail of a gun carriage in laying the piece for direction, and to move and lever heavy ordnance...
Limber
The limber was a two-wheeled cart carrying an ammunition chest and a pintle hook. Hooking a gun carriage or caisson to a limber formed a four-wheeled ...
Mortar bed
A mortar bed was the heavy timber or iron platform on which a mortar rested, holding it at a fixed high angle for plunging fire.
Prolonge
The prolonge was a stout rope with a hook and toggle used to connect a gun to its limber, letting a battery fire while slowly retiring or move the pie...
Sponge and rammer
The sponge and rammer was the two-headed staff used to serve a gun: a sponge head to swab the bore of embers between rounds and a rammer head to seat ...
Thumbstall
A thumbstall was a leather pad worn on the thumb to close the vent while a gun was sponged and loaded, keeping air from reaching any smoldering ember ...
Traveling forge
The traveling forge was a mobile blacksmith's shop on wheels, carrying a forge, bellows, anvil, and tools so a battery could shoe horses and repair ir...
Manufacture, Materials & Testing
Artillery range testing
Range testing fired guns under measured conditions to learn how far each gun, charge, and projectile would carry, and from these trials the range tabl...
Banding and hooping cannon
Banding, or hooping, reinforced a gun by shrinking one or more wrought-iron bands over the breech, where the pressure was greatest. It let cast-iron g...
Bronze and gunmetal
Bronze, or gunmetal, a copper-tin alloy, was the metal of the Civil War field gun. Tough and unlikely to burst dangerously, it was used for Napoleons ...
Cannon casting
Most Civil War cannon were cast from molten iron or bronze in foundries. Guns were traditionally cast solid and bored out, until Rodman's hollow-casti...
Cannon foundry marks
Cannon foundry marks are the markings cast or stamped on a gun, such as the foundry, weight, registry number, year, and inspector, that identify and d...
Cast-iron ordnance
Cast iron was the cheap, strong metal of heavy Civil War ordnance. Strong in compression but brittle, it was used for columbiads, seacoast guns, and, ...
Gunpowder manufacture
Gunpowder was made by grinding and mixing saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur, then pressing, corning into grains, and glazing the powder. The Confederacy...
Ordnance inspection marks
Ordnance inspection marks were the stamps and initials that inspectors placed on accepted guns, projectiles, and equipment to certify that they had pa...
Ordnance laboratory work
The ordnance laboratory was where ammunition was made up: cartridges filled, shells loaded and fuzed, fuzes and primers made, and pyrotechnics prepare...
Projectile casting
Shot and shell were cast of iron in moulds, the hollow shells formed around a core. Sabots of lead were often cast onto rifled projectiles as part of ...
Projectile markings
Projectile markings are the stamps, cast letters, and numbers found on shot and shell, such as maker's marks, arsenal initials, and inspection stamps,...
Proof firing
Proof firing tested a new gun by firing it with a charge heavier than service, to prove it would stand the strains of use before it was accepted.
Rifling cannon
Rifling a cannon meant cutting the spiral grooves into its bore with a rifling machine, giving the gun the lands and grooves that spin an elongated pr...
Rodman hollow-casting process
The Rodman hollow-casting process cast a large iron gun around a hollow, water-cooled core so it solidified from the inside outward, leaving the bore ...
Shell machining and finishing
After casting, shells and rifled projectiles were machined and finished: turned to size, the fuze hole bored and threaded, and sabots and bands fitted...
Steel ordnance
Steel promised guns stronger than iron or bronze, but reliable steel ordnance was still emerging in the Civil War era. Its full adoption came in the d...
Wrought-iron ordnance
Wrought iron, tough and resistant to bursting, was worked rather than cast. Its outstanding Civil War example is the 3-inch Ordnance Rifle, built of w...
People, Inventors & Ordnance Officers
Alexander B. Dyer
Alexander B. Dyer (1815-1874) was a United States ordnance officer who commanded Springfield Armory and became Chief of Ordnance in 1864. The Dyer pro...
Alexander Blakely
Captain Alexander Blakely was the British designer of the Blakely rifle. Unable to manufacture his own guns, he had them built by others and sold a ra...
Alfred Mordecai
Alfred Mordecai (1804-1887) was a distinguished United States ordnance officer and author of ordnance experiments and reports who resigned rather than...
Andrew Hotchkiss
Andrew Hotchkiss was an American inventor who patented the Hotchkiss rifled projectile in 1855. He died young, and his brother Benjamin carried on the...
Benjamin B. Hotchkiss
Benjamin B. Hotchkiss (1826-1885) was an American inventor who developed the Hotchkiss projectile system used in the Civil War and later founded an ar...
Charles T. James
Charles T. James (1805-1862) was a Rhode Island machinist and United States Senator who developed the James rifling system and projectiles, used with ...
Edward Porter Alexander
Edward Porter Alexander (1835-1910) was a Confederate artillery officer who directed the great bombardment before Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg and r...
George Bomford
George Bomford (1782-1848) was a United States ordnance officer best known for designing the columbiad, the heavy American seacoast gun, and for his l...
Henry Knox
Henry Knox (1750-1806) commanded the artillery of the Continental Army in the Revolution, brought the guns of Ticonderoga to Boston, and became the fi...
James G. Benton
James G. Benton (1820-1881) was a United States ordnance officer and author of A Course of Instruction in Ordnance and Gunnery, a standard text, who c...
James H. Burton
James H. Burton (1823-1894) was an armorer and ordnance officer, a master armorer at Harpers Ferry before the war who became a Confederate superintend...
James W. Ripley
James W. Ripley (1794-1870) was Chief of Ordnance of the United States Army in the first years of the Civil War, known for his caution toward new and ...
John A. Dahlgren
Rear Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren (1809-1870) headed the U.S. Navy's Ordnance Bureau and designed the Dahlgren guns, the distinctive bottle-shaped nava...
John B. Read
Dr. John B. Read was a Tuscaloosa, Alabama, surgeon and inventor who patented, in 1856, the wrought-iron cup sabot that Confederate foundries widely a...
John C. Tidball
John C. Tidball (1825-1906) was a United States artillery officer, a noted horse-artillery commander in the Civil War, and the author of a manual on h...
John Gibbon
John Gibbon (1827-1896) was a United States artillery officer who wrote The Artillerist's Manual, a standard reference of the era, before serving as a...
John Mercer Brooke
John Mercer Brooke (1826-1906) was the Confederate naval officer who served as Chief of Ordnance and Hydrography, designed the Brooke rifle, and helpe...
John Mullane
John Mullane was a Confederate inventor whose rifled projectile used a metal cup sabot, the Tennessee sabot, that expanded into the rifling on firing.
John P. Schenkl
John P. Schenkl was an American inventor who developed the Schenkl projectile and the Schenkl combination and percussion fuzes used in Civil War rifle...
Joseph Whitworth
Sir Joseph Whitworth (1803-1887) was a British engineer, a master of precision manufacture, who designed the Whitworth rifle and projectile with their...
Josiah Gorgas
Josiah Gorgas (1818-1883) was the United States ordnance officer who became Chief of Ordnance of the Confederacy and built a Southern ordnance industr...
Louis de Tousard
Louis de Tousard (1749-1817) was a French-born officer in American service whose American Artillerist's Companion helped shape the artillery of the ea...
Quincy A. Gillmore
Quincy A. Gillmore (1825-1888) was a United States Army engineer who directed the reduction of Fort Pulaski in 1862, a landmark proof of rifled artill...
Robert P. Parrott
Robert Parker Parrott (1804-1877) was the ordnance officer and foundryman who designed the Parrott rifle and its projectiles. As superintendent of the...
Samuel Ringgold
Samuel Ringgold (1796-1846) was a United States artillery officer who developed the mobile light-artillery tactics known as flying artillery. He was m...
Stephen V. Benet
Stephen V. Benet (1827-1895) was a United States ordnance officer who served through the Civil War era and later became Chief of Ordnance of the Unite...
Sylvanus Sawyer
Sylvanus Sawyer was an American inventor who developed the Sawyer rifle and projectile, a system using a ribbed body sheathed in lead that engaged fla...
Thomas J. Rodman
Thomas Jackson Rodman was the U.S. Ordnance officer whose hollow-casting process allowed far larger and stronger iron cannon, culminating in the 20-in...
William Armstrong
Sir William Armstrong (1810-1900) was a British engineer and industrialist who designed the Armstrong gun, known for its built-up wrought-iron constru...
William LeRoy Broun
William LeRoy Broun (1827-1902) was a Confederate ordnance officer who commanded the Richmond Arsenal and made a number of ordnance improvements, late...
William Wade
William Wade was a United States ordnance officer and metallurgist whose experiments on the strength of gun metals, with Thomas Rodman, advanced the m...
Arsenals, Armories & Foundries
Allegheny Arsenal
The Allegheny Arsenal at Pittsburgh was a United States arsenal that manufactured ammunition. It was the scene of a catastrophic explosion in 1862 tha...
Ames Manufacturing Company
The Ames Manufacturing Company of Massachusetts was a private firm that cast bronze cannon and made swords and other ordnance and equipment for the Un...
Bellona Foundry
The Bellona Foundry, a private cannon foundry near Richmond, Virginia, operated from 1819 and cast ordnance that served, in the Civil War, the Confede...
Benicia Arsenal
The Benicia Arsenal in California was the principal United States ordnance depot on the Pacific coast, storing and issuing arms and ammunition for the...
Confederate Ordnance Bureau
The Confederate Ordnance Bureau was the branch of the Confederate War Department that supplied the Southern armies with guns, ammunition, and stores, ...
Confederate Powder Works at Augusta
The Confederate Powder Works at Augusta, Georgia, built under Josiah Gorgas and directed by George W. Rains, was the great Southern gunpowder factory ...
Continental Artillery
The Continental Artillery was the artillery arm of the Continental Army in the Revolution, organized into regiments and commanded for most of the war ...
Cyrus Alger & Company
Cyrus Alger & Company of South Boston was a leading Massachusetts cannon foundry. Grown from Cyrus Alger's early shot-and-shell work, it supplied larg...
Fort Pitt Foundry
The Fort Pitt Foundry at Pittsburgh was a major Northern cannon works that cast heavy iron ordnance, including large Rodman columbiads, for Federal se...
Frankford Arsenal
The Frankford Arsenal in Philadelphia was a United States arsenal that specialized in ammunition, primers, and fuzes, a major source of these stores f...
Harpers Ferry Armory
The Harpers Ferry Armory in Virginia was the second national armory of the United States. It was burned at the outbreak of the Civil War, and its mach...
Kennebec Arsenal
The Kennebec Arsenal at Augusta, Maine, was a United States arsenal that stored and issued arms and ammunition, one of the network of arsenals maintai...
New York Arsenal
The New York Arsenal was a United States arsenal serving the New York region, part of the network of arsenals that stored and issued arms and ammuniti...
Phoenix Iron Company
The Phoenix Iron Company of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, began making wrought-iron cannon in 1855 and during the war produced the 3-inch Ordnance Rifle...
Sandy Hook Proving Ground
The Sandy Hook Proving Ground in New Jersey was a United States Army ordnance proving ground, established after the Civil War, for the testing of heav...
Selma Arsenal and Naval Foundry
The Confederate works at Selma, Alabama, were a major Southern ordnance center. The Selma Naval Ordnance Works cast heavy Brooke rifles and other guns...
Springfield Armory
The Springfield Armory in Massachusetts was the principal national armory of the United States, the chief maker of its shoulder arms, and a center of ...
Tredegar Iron Works
The Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia, was the principal ironworks of the Confederacy, casting cannon including Brooke rifles and columbiads a...
United States Army Ordnance Department
The Ordnance Department was the bureau of the United States Army responsible for designing, procuring, storing, and issuing guns, ammunition, and ordn...
United States Navy Bureau of Ordnance
The United States Navy's ordnance office, or Bureau of Ordnance, was responsible for the guns, ammunition, and ordnance stores of the fleet, the naval...
Washington Arsenal
The Washington Arsenal in the District of Columbia was a United States arsenal that stored and issued ordnance and served as a place of experiment and...
Watertown Arsenal
The Watertown Arsenal in Massachusetts was a United States arsenal that manufactured and stored ammunition and ordnance stores, and later took up the ...
Watervliet Arsenal
The Watervliet Arsenal in New York was a long-established United States arsenal that produced ordnance stores and equipment, and later became a center...
West Point Foundry
The West Point Foundry at Cold Spring, New York, was a leading private cannon works. Under Robert P. Parrott's long superintendence it produced the Pa...
West Point Ordnance Museum
The ordnance museum at the United States Military Academy at West Point holds a reference collection of guns and ordnance, and its descriptive catalog...
Documents, Patents & Records
Annual reports of the Chief of Ordnance
The annual reports of the Chief of Ordnance recorded the work of the Ordnance Department, its manufacture, procurement, and issues, and are a document...
Artillery in the Official Records
The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies are a vast published collection of wartime reports and correspondence, and a principal docume...
Artillery instruction manuals
Artillery instruction manuals, such as Instruction for Field Artillery, set out the drill, service, and tactics of the guns. They are key references f...
Artillery range tables
Artillery range tables gave the elevation required to reach a given range with a particular gun, charge, and projectile, letting a gunner set his piec...
Confederate ordnance manuals
The Confederate ordnance manuals were the Southern counterparts of the United States handbooks, largely modeled on them, specifying the guns, ammuniti...
Congressional ordnance reports
Reports and documents laid before Congress on ordnance, contracts, and procurement are a documentary source on the guns and ammunition bought and made...
Ordnance contracts and procurement
The government met much of its need for guns and ammunition through contracts with private makers, and the contract records document who supplied what...
Ordnance drawings and plates
Official ordnance drawings and plates specified the exact form and dimensions of guns, carriages, and ammunition, and they are precise references for ...
Ordnance museum catalogues
Descriptive catalogues of museum ordnance collections, such as that of the West Point Ordnance Museum, describe and identify surviving guns and projec...
U.S. Patent 13,679: Andrew Hotchkiss projectile
U.S. Patent 13,679, granted to Andrew Hotchkiss in 1855, covered the three-part rifled projectile with a flexible lead ring and movable base that beca...
U.S. Patent 29,272: Benjamin Hotchkiss projectile
U.S. Patent 29,272, granted to Benjamin B. Hotchkiss in 1860, covered an improvement in projectiles for rifled ordnance, continuing the development of...
U.S. Patent 33,099: Parrott projectile
U.S. Patent 33,099, granted to Robert P. Parrott in 1861, covered the Parrott projectile for rifled ordnance, with its expanding base sabot.
U.S. Patent 35,897: Schenkl fuze
U.S. Patent 35,897, granted to John P. Schenkl in 1862, covered an improvement in fuzes for shells, part of the Schenkl line of Civil War ordnance.
United States ordnance manuals
The United States ordnance manuals were official handbooks that specified the army's guns, ammunition, carriages, and stores. Their successive edition...
United States ordnance patents
Patents shaped Civil War ordnance: inventors North and South patented the projectile, sabot, and fuze systems that bear their names, and the patent re...
Battlefields, Forts & Ships
Artillery at Dorchester Heights
In March 1776 American artillery, including the guns brought from Ticonderoga, was placed on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston, forcing the Britis...
Artillery at Fort Fisher
Fort Fisher, the large earthwork guarding Wilmington, North Carolina, fell in January 1865 after one of the heaviest naval bombardments of the war, cl...
Artillery at Fort McHenry
In September 1814 the guns of Fort McHenry defended Baltimore harbor against a British fleet, and the bombardment they withstood inspired The Star-Spa...
Artillery at Fort Pulaski
The reduction of Fort Pulaski in April 1862 was a landmark demonstration of rifled artillery. Federal rifled guns on Tybee Island breached the masonry...
Artillery at Fort Sumter
The Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861 opened the Civil War. The fort later endured some of the heaviest artillery fire of the war d...
Artillery at Fort Ticonderoga
The capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775 gave the American cause a store of cannon, which Henry Knox hauled overland to Boston in the winter of 1775-17...
Artillery at Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 saw one of the largest artillery concentrations of the war. A great Confederate bombardment preceded Pickett's C...
Artillery at Mobile Bay
At Mobile Bay in August 1864 a Federal fleet forced the harbor entrance under fire from Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines, a hard exchange between heavy sea...
Artillery at Petersburg
The 1864-1865 siege of Petersburg relied on heavy siege artillery and mortars along entrenched lines, including the 13-inch seacoast mortar called the...
Artillery at Vicksburg
Vicksburg's river batteries commanded the Mississippi until the Federal siege of 1863. Its guns included the heavy Blakely rifle known as the Widow Bl...
Artillery at Yorktown
At the 1781 siege of Yorktown, allied American and French artillery bombarded the British works until Cornwallis surrendered, the decisive stroke of t...
Artillery defenses of Charleston Harbor
Charleston Harbor was ringed by forts and batteries and became the scene of a long siege from 1863. Heavy rifled siege guns, including the Parrott kno...
Civil War artillery batteries
A battery was the basic unit of field artillery, a group of guns with their crews, horses, limbers, caissons, and train, organized into sections and c...
Ordnance of CSS Virginia
The Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia, rebuilt from the USS Merrimack, was armed with a mixed battery of Brooke rifles and heavy Dahlgren smoothbores ...
Ordnance of USS Monitor
The USS Monitor carried two heavy 11-inch Dahlgren smoothbore shell guns in her revolving armored turret, a concentrated battery that could be trained...
Artillery Concepts
Artillery ballistics
Artillery ballistics is the study of how projectiles travel from the gun to the target. Civil War gunners used range tables, elevation, and an underst...
Artillery nomenclature
Artillery nomenclature is the system of naming and describing guns and their parts, by weight of shot, by bore, by pattern and model, and by the stand...
Caliber and pounder designations
Guns were designated either by the weight of the solid shot they fired, the pounder system, or by the diameter of the bore in inches, the caliber syst...
Field artillery
Field artillery was the mobile arm that marched and fought with the armies, its guns light enough to maneuver in battle, chiefly Napoleons, Ordnance R...
Garrison artillery
Garrison artillery was the heavy fixed ordnance that armed permanent forts and defenses, mounted on standing carriages and served by troops assigned t...
Horse artillery
Horse artillery was light field artillery in which every cannoneer was mounted, so the guns could move at the speed of cavalry and support the mounted...
Mountain artillery
Mountain artillery was very light artillery that could be broken down and packed on animals to go where wheeled guns could not, its chief piece the mo...
Muzzle-loading and breech-loading artillery
Nearly all Civil War cannon were muzzle-loaders, charged from the muzzle. Breech-loading artillery, loaded at the rear, was rare and mostly represente...
Naval artillery
Naval artillery was the ordnance carried aboard ships, mounted to fire in broadside or on pivots. Civil War navies used heavy smoothbore shell guns su...
Proof, inspection, and condemnation
Every gun passed through proof, inspection, and gauging before acceptance; those that failed were condemned. The process assured that ordnance issued ...
Rifling, twist, and grooves
Rifling is the pattern of spiral grooves cut into a gun's bore. The lands and grooves impart spin to an elongated projectile, and the rate of twist go...
Seacoast artillery
Seacoast artillery was the heavy fixed ordnance that defended harbors and coasts, mounted in permanent forts to fire on warships, including columbiads...
Siege artillery
Siege artillery was the heavier guns and mortars used to reduce fortifications, too weighty for the field but brought up in siege trains to breach and...
Smoothbore and rifled artillery
Civil War guns were either smoothbore, firing spherical projectiles from an unrifled bore, or rifled, firing elongated projectiles spun by grooves. Ri...
Windage and obturation
Windage is the gap between a projectile and the bore; obturation is the sealing of that gap. Reducing windage and obturating the bore made guns more e...
Historical Periods
American artillery in World War I
When the United States entered World War I in 1917, it had little modern artillery ready, so the American Expeditionary Forces fought largely with Fre...
American artillery in World War II
In World War II American artillery was among the most effective in the world, built around the 105mm and 155mm howitzers and a fire-direction system t...
Antebellum American artillery
In the years before the Civil War American artillery rested on standardized smoothbore systems, absorbed the lessons of the Mexican War, and stood at ...
Artillery in Reconstruction and the Indian Wars
After the Civil War the Army used its stock of wartime guns through Reconstruction and the Indian Wars, favoring light and mountain pieces on the fron...
Artillery in the American Civil War
The American Civil War was a turning point in artillery, fought as smoothbore guns gave way to rifled ones and as mass production filled the armies wi...
Artillery in the Mexican-American War
In the Mexican-American War American light field artillery, the famous flying artillery, proved decisive, its mobile smoothbore batteries maneuvering ...
Artillery in the War of 1812
In the War of 1812 American artillery served in field armies, in the seacoast forts, and aboard ships and lake squadrons, still relying on smoothbore ...
Artillery of the American Revolution
The artillery of the American Revolution was drawn from captured British guns, the ordnance brought from Ticonderoga, and French supplies, organized i...
Colonial artillery in British North America
Artillery in colonial North America consisted chiefly of European smoothbore guns mounted in coastal forts and towns and served by militia and royal g...
Ordnance in the Early Republic
In the decades after independence the United States built a national ordnance establishment, creating the Ordnance Department and its arsenals and mov...
Identification, Collecting & Safety
American artillery and ordnance bibliography
The literature of Civil War artillery ranges from the period manuals and reports to modern identification guides and studies. A bibliography gathers t...
Artillery and ordnance glossary
The study of artillery uses a precise vocabulary for guns, projectiles, fuzes, and their parts. A glossary defines these terms so that objects can be ...
Artillery projectile identification
Projectiles are identified by measured caliber, body form, cavity, sabot or band construction, fuzing, markings, and condition, weighed together rathe...
Cannon identification
Cannon are identified by type, material, bore, dimensions, and markings. Together these establish whether a gun is a smoothbore or rifle, its class an...
Fired, unfired, and incomplete projectiles
Whether a projectile was fired, never fired, or is incomplete is read from its sabot and rifling marks and its state. The distinction matters for iden...
Fuze identification
Fuzes are identified by class, material, form, graduations, threads, and markings. Because a fuze may still be part of a live projectile, examination ...
Measuring caliber and projectile diameter
Measuring the bore of a gun or the diameter of a projectile establishes its caliber, a first step in identifying and matching guns and their ammunitio...
Ordnance provenance and documentation
Provenance is the documented history of an ordnance object, where it was recovered or acquired and its chain of custody. Good documentation supports i...
Relic condition and conservation terminology
Collectors describe recovered ordnance with a vocabulary of condition and conservation, distinguishing dug from non-dug pieces and noting patina, corr...
Reproductions, replicas, and misidentification
The collecting field includes modern reproductions, replicas, and misidentified pieces. Recognizing them relies on knowledge of authentic construction...
Responsible collection and archaeological context
Responsible collecting records where and how a piece was found and respects laws and archaeological context, preserving the information that gives a r...
Unexploded ordnance safety
Historic artillery shells and fuzes can remain hazardous. Suspected explosive ordnance must be left undisturbed and reported to local law enforcement ...
Safety notice: This encyclopedia presents historical construction and identification information only. It does not provide instructions for handling, cleaning, disassembling, or deactivating ordnance. A suspected shell or fuze is hazardous until evaluated by qualified explosive-ordnance professionals.