The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1878-02-01
THE PARRoTr GUN.
Dr. John d. Read, Of TuskalOOsa, Ala,
the Inventor Of thni Celebrated Piece
Of OrLnauce-PaFfOtt GOt the Profits
tive the Honor To Whom il is Due.

L ouSSINSu IL usty VI SWO NEo utA "ASs
Gle in the Courter-Journal credited
to the New York Tribune, entitled
"Dtath of the Inventor of the Parrot,
Cum" which calls to mind II series OF
facts that deserve to be rescued from
oblivion. AS in the case of the electric
telegraph, Morse got all the glory ana
all the money, both of which Were
really due to Prof. Joseph Henry; so in
the matter Of rified ordnance, Capt. II.
L. Parrott, of Cold Spring, n. ", go,
all the glory aud nearly all the casl
that really We're due to DIR. Jno. b
Read, OF Tuscaloosa, Ala, Surgeon t,
the corps OF cadets of the University
oi Alabama. If the Courier-Journai
could afford the space 1 could prove
by documentary evidence that Parrott
was no more entitled to the name ana
the enoiulnents OF the <tParrOtt gum
than amy other owner of an iron foun-
dry. The "Parrott gun" owed is
success not to the gun, but solely t..
the projectile fred from it. For more
than n century previous to the yeal
1855, costly experiments had been made
by various European governments,
without developing anything better
than the gun OF Cavalli, which fired an
elongated projectile with cast iron fan
ge for entering the rifle grooves, an eX-
pedient speedily discarded for cast iron
guns, and the Lancaster gun, which
failed disastrously at the siege OF Sebas-
tOpOl. In 1856, there was but one ritled
cannon ON this cOntinent-a two-grOov-
ed "a FOUNDER at Fortress Monroe with
which some unsatisfactory experiments
had been made by army officers in the
year 1S49.
Obtaining permission from the Wal
H.. l,nA slx,A
cast for this gun at the Washington
Navy-yard. His design was to make
the body of his shells and shot of cast
iron, and the expanding cup at the
base of copper, which was to be forced
into the rife-grooves. 10 meet the
views of the Secretary Of War, who
wanted a projectile that could be fired
red-hot, he consented, against his bet
ter Judgment, to substitute wrought,
iron for copper. 90.
+ His projectiles, thus formed, were
fired from the twenty-fOur-pounde at
Fortress Monroe. The experiments
were SO satisfactory that the Ordinance
Department entered into u written
agreement for the compensation OF DIR.
Kead, provided his invention should
t,e adopted by the Government. Inn
lnedialely after the experiments Cap
NuuA L h1XOlO puISlGoOu O1S-AOuA III Ah-
terest in the invention at the rate OF
$50, 900, and experiments were conduct
ed at West Point and West Point foun-
dry until the close of the year 1859,
when the success Of the Read shell was
firmly established. TO make long
story short, Read left his drawings in
the hands Of Parrot; the war came on;
ParrOtt manufactured the shells; made
a slight alteration in the gun to strength
en- it and avert explosion, an ;ltera-
ton that would not have been ncceSs-
ary had he adhered to Reads sugges-
ton in regard to the depth of the.
stsafety-grOve;" increased the number
of rihe-grooves and the length of the
gun at the suggestion of Read; made an
enormous fortune, selling Parrott guns
to the United States, without any hin,
as to the Read shell; after the war, he
bull-dozed Read with all sorts of talk
about strebels having no rights" took
care, however, to secure from Read a
REIMBURSEMENT of his ssno rights" by a
payment OF $4,000 in July, 1865; died
rich and left Read poor. This is the
story in brief.
The Tribune article to which i have
referred says: "The Parrot guns were
first brought into actual use at the bat
tie of Bull Run" This know to be
an error. The first "Porrott guns"
though not then known by this name,
were used by the Confederate troops
against sloop-of-war, "Falcon" or
"Dolphin" by name, on the Potomac.
A small battery OF six-pounders, plant
ed ON the bank, opened on this sioop as
she was cruising around, in the sum-
mer of 1861. One shell from this bat
terry hit her in the stern, lodged in her
bows, and sent her to the navy. yard
for repairs. In one of the numbers OF
Harpers' Weekly, for April or May,
1861, may be seen an accurate wood
cut of the shell that did the damage,
with Il remark to this effect: that the
| "rebels'' had a murderous projectile,
evidently obtained from Europe, as
nothing like it was known to the Ord
nance Department of this country.
The next occasion on which the ter
ribie projectile was used was on the
10th of June, 1861, at the battle OF
Great Bethel, nine miles south of the
village of Hampton. Gen. J. b. Ma.
gruder, with II small command OF
eighteen hundred men, totally routed
a Federal column of more than four
thousand men, mainly through the in
strumentality of Il small battery of six.
FOUNDER rifled guns, adapted to the
Pond sholl Nauri,1ar in WRITING tr