Civil War Technology-- Part 7: Longstreet, Railroads and Cannons

**  General Longstreet was able to move his corps from Virginia to Georgia by rail and took Union forces by surprise which led to victory at Chickamauga.

**  Improvements were made in steam engines plus safety measures.

**  Smoothbore cannons were best against infantry.  

**  Whitworth cannons had a range of 5 miles.  There were some at Fort Fisher.

**  Two main Union foundries:  West Point and Pittsburgh.

**  Trench warfare.

--Old Secesh

MCCWRT Artillery-- Part 7: Naming Those Cannons

These were mentioned at the McHenry County (Illinois) Civil War Round Table meeting on March 26, 2022, when the topic was Civil War Artillery.

**  The West Point Foundry, by the USMA was owned by Robert Parker Parrott.

**  The main Confederate foundry was Tredegar in Richmond.

**  The Lincoln Gun at Fort Monroe was a huge 15-inch Rodman cannon and designed to fire a huge projectile across Hampton Roads and the Chesapeake Bay to the Virginia shore. 

**  Fort Wool and Fort Monroe were across from each other in the Chesapeake Bay and so situated as to cause any enemy ship trying to pass them to come under direct fire from both forts.

**  Rodman guns were some of the Union's heaviest ordnance.

**  Whistlin' Dick was the name of cannon at Vicksburg

**  The Dictator was huge Union mortar.

--Old Secesh

Leeds Iron Foundry, New Orleans-- Part 1: Produced Supplies for Confederate Army and Navy

From the New Orleans Historical Organization by Paul Zachry & Kathryn O'Dwyer.

The Leeds Iron Foundry was  owned and operated by Charles Leeds and was located at DeLord and  Constance streets during the antebellum period of the 19th century.

The foundry was opened in 1824 and Leeds became a partner upon his father's death in 1844.  Before the Civil War, this foundry was the most prolific producer of "steel cotton bale presses" in the world and  was one of the most important foundries in the South.

It maintained several hundred employees for the production of various iron plantation equipment.  The Leeds Company was successful; enough that it actually issued its own banknotes, a common practice at the time.

The foundry produced supplies for the Confederate Army and Navy, including  two naval vessels and even an early submarine, the Pioneer 1.  In particular, the Leeds Foundry  built 3.3-inch Confederate bronze field  rifles and  6-pounder  bronze field guns.

--Old Secesh

John Quincy Adams Ward-- Part 1: the Man Who Made the Sheridan Statue at Albany

From Wikipedia.

(June 29, 1830-May 1, 1910)

American sculptor whose most-known work is the larger-than-life-size standing statue of George Washington on the steps of the Federal Hall National Memorial in New York City.

Born in Urbana, Ohio, founded by his paternal grandfather, Col. William Ward, an American Revolution officer.  After training as a sculptor in Brooklyn, N.Y., , he went to Washington, D.C., in 1857, where he made a name for himself doing busts of prominent men. 

In 1861, he worked for the Ames Manufacturing Company  in Massachusetts  where he made models for projects, including  gilt-bronze sword hilts for Union officers.  Ames was one of the largest bronze, brass and iron  foundries in the United States at that time.

He set up a studio in New York City and pushed for an American School of Sculpture and became one of the preeminent sculptors of his generation.

--Old Secesh

Submerged Civil War Relics Could Get a New Home-- Part 2

These 'sunken" weapons are still there. Divers occasionally look in the murky waters for items to sale and sometimes get arrested.

City councilman Greg Bjelke has gotten a $13,160 grant for Selma to study ways to protect the weapons above and below the water. Those recovered are sent to a museum.

Selma was a sleepy village before the war, but the Selma Ordnance and Naval Foundry (the CSS Tennessee was built here) grew to employ 10,000 workers producing pig-iron ingots from Alabama blast furnaces.

Union forces destroyed a million pounds of small arms, ammunition as well as 60,000 artillery shells and 15 siege guns. Another 8,000 pounds of horseshoes, five locomotives, 3 million feet of lumber and 10,000 bushels of coal also were destroyed.

--Old Secesh

Eagle Ironworks, Cincinnati, Ohio

Continuing with yesterday's post.

Before the war, this foundry was the first to develop and manufacture a practical steam fire engine.

The firm struggled financially after the war and soon ceased operations, but several companies continued using the name.

Miles Greenwood was born in 1807 in Jersey City, NJ and moved with his father in 1817to Ohio. In 1829, he joined Cincinnati's Horse Co. #1 and remained involved with fire fighting throughout his life. A Cincinnati suburb bearing his names shows how important he was to the community.


CIVIL WAR

A total of five northern companies produced Napoleons. Eagle Ironworks made 50 of them in 1862. The one in Galena was one of those.

Through research and development, the company could turn 800 muskets into rifles in a single day. They also made gun carriages, caissons, and cannons and even built an ironclad monitor.

Before the war, they had contracted to provide the iron for the Roebling Bridge, but the war interrupted its construction.

After seeing that he built a Union monitor, I had to find out more about it.

A Ship here, a Ship There. --Old B-Runner

Why It Takes me So Long to Do a Blog Entry

Case in point, this story on the 12-pdr Napoleon Civil War cannon at Galena, Illinois' Grant Park.

I got the information from the article, then did a search on the net for Galena's cannons and found more information.

Then, I looked up Miles Greenwood's Eagle Ironworks and found information on it. He could be called one of the arsenal's of the Union with all the war-related items they built. Then, I read that he built an ironclad in Cincinnati, which sent me off there. He built one and another foundry in the city built two. Then, there was a search for information on those. I came across other Union warships built there. I didn't know that warships were built in Cincinnati, especially monitors.

I then came across four Greenwood Napoleons that are at the Ohio state house.

I'll be writing about all this stuff.

No Wonder It Takes So Long. But, It is Sure Stuff I Don't Know About. --Old B-R

Two Civil War Cannons in Galena, Illinois-- Part 2

Upon further research on Miles Greenwood's Eagle Ironworks in Cincinnati, Ohio, I have to continue with more interesting stuff. This is why it takes me so long to do this blog. I get started on one story then get into related items and so on and so on.

According to the Ohio History Central, Miles Greenwood established the ironworks in 1832 on the banks of the Miami and Erie Canal in Cincinnati (a good way to get materials and move products). It became the largest in the Midwest.

The firm produced much for the northern war effort in the Civil War. Early on, they produced 12 anchors for pontoon bridges at the request of General Fremont. Through improvements in manufacturing, they were able to produce 3000 smoothbore muskets by the end of the war. They were also able to produce the difficult-to-make turrets for Union monitors.

Their success led to Southern sympathisers trying to burn the foundry down three different times.

Wait, There's Lots More. --Old B-Runner