Also known as: Monitor guns.
| Ship | USS Monitor |
|---|---|
| Battery | Two 11-inch Dahlgren smoothbore shell guns |
| Mount | A revolving armored turret |
Guns in a turret
The USS Monitor concentrated her whole battery in a single revolving armored turret: two heavy 11-inch Dahlgren smoothbore shell guns. Because the turret turned, the guns could be trained on a target without maneuvering the low, raftlike hull.
This arrangement, joining heavy guns, armor, and a turning turret, met the Virginia in Hampton Roads in the famous first duel of ironclads and pointed the way to the future of naval ordnance.
On this site
Sources & further reading
- CivilWarArtillery.com research archive: manuals, reports, and reference pages.