Year: 1861




"The carriage of the gun was turned so as to
throw the shot into the bay, the design being
solely to test the gun, which had never before
been fired, and to ascertain its range Before
going further, ii may be we'll to recapitulate in
regard to the gun itself Its weight is 52,005
pounds; extreme length l6 feet length of
bore Is feet IL inches diameter of bore l2
inches, riaed 1t is mounted on an iron car
riage, placed on platform of solid masonry.
Like all riled projectiles, the shot are conical
the solid shot weighing 423 pounds. and the
shell 352 pounds, with bursting charge of
40 pounds. The charge Of powder used varies
according to circumstances from 40 to 45
pounds. The powder used on this occasion
and which no doubt viii be uniformly used
was the Rodman grain powder, the separate
grains of which varied from the size of wal
nut to hens egg.


All things being ready, the process of loading
the gun was commenced. Sergeant Weeh, at
the head of his black battalion of gunners, had
already cleared the decks, wheeled the monster
SO that his gage was over the waters and ar
ranged the platform or staging on which the
men could stand and be up even with the
muzzle. First, the swab, which two men insert
cleans the interior; then comes man with a
a red flannel bag, filed with powder, on his
shoulder it is the cartridge and the ramrod,
worked by four men, sends it home. Then
comes the process of getting the shot to its
place. mass of metal that four men carry
with difficulty. 1t is first rolled into an iron
cradle or wide trap, looped with a rope, through
which a piece of strong wood, several feet long,
is inserted. Thus slung, the men tug the shot
up the steps of the platform, some ten feet
high, to the mouth of the gun. Another lift
brings it Oh level, and it is laid into the
muzzle and pushed to its place. The gun is
then elevated by means of an iron bar the gun
being nicely balanced on its trunions. The
priming wire performs its Office, the fuse is in
serted, and the lanyard is attached. Then
Lieutenant Baylor, who, though everything
has been done under his minutest inspection,
has moved about more like modest spectator
than the responsible director, gives warning
that the gun has never before been fred, and
moves short distance to the rear, in which he
is initiated by the others.


The men who are to calculate the fight of
the shot are at their table. The flag is up
The man with the lanyard retires to its ex-
treme length. Ready says Sergeant Welch.
Lieut.. Baylor gives the word: Ready
frel' A terrific crash, sheet of fame, and
the trembling Of the earth follow. At the
same time there is a screech and scream
caused by the shot, black mass which you
can see, in its flight, yelling like an infuriated
devil let loose from the internal regions. We
count the seconds, and watch to see the shot
strike. A column of water away off on the
bay shoots up to the height of ships mast
The elevation Of the gun was about ten dgrecs,
little more than blank shot, consequently the
distance was not great, say two miles, the time
of flight fifteen seconds. The terrible engine,
the echoes of whose thunders had scarcely yet
died away over the waters and along the shore,
whose breath, dark sulphurous cloud, floats
before the wind-the thing which we would
naturally associate with the idea of glowing
| fiery monster, the embodiment of all the furies,
is next the object of attention. 1t is as passive
as anything can be. The Sergeant pats famil-
iarly its massive smooth breech, the smoke
curs slowly from the mouth of the chamber
from which the 420 pound shot has just been
vomited, and for the instant it is difficult to
reconcile the crash, the fame, the trembling
earth and the screech, with the thing that nei-
ther trembles nor glows, nor makes other sign
of its truly awful and almost supernatural en-
dowments


The next time q shell is fired at the same
range but it fails to explode. And here let
me remark that both shot and shell seemed to
be not the thing for the gun. The soft metal
with which they are coated. stripped and few
in all directions when only few hundred feet
from the gun, so that one might mistake the
pieces for charge Of grape from howitzer.
The idea of filing the grooves and thereby OBJ
tanning rotary motion must have been but
inperfectly realized.


The gun was again loaded with a solid shot,
and elevated twentyeight degrees. This and
the next shot, which was at the same elevation,
were very fine features of the experiment As
you watched the progress of the shot, which
in its circuit attained an elevation probably OF
not less than 500 Or 1000 feet, you might
easily convince yourself that it was Wild
screaming, roaring monster, dashing through
the skies, mad at the sun, or an affrighted
spirit from the bowels of the earth seeking
safety in the clouds. The range was about
three and half miles, the time thirty seconds


Two shells with percussion fuse were then
fred into a sand bank not more than % feet
from the gun. The result gave some idea Of
what the gun would do against sand batteries
The sand was thrown in every direction, and
the experiment seemed to prove that the shell
accurately fred would undermine and destroy
a sand battery quite as rapidly as battalion
of men with shoyels. The shells burst into q
great number Of pieces, the parts found weigh