CSS Stonewall

Here is one I did not know about: The CSS Stonewall, an ironclad warship built for the Navy of the Confederate States of America in Bordeaux, France. Confederate agent James Bulloch convinced French Emperor Napoleon III to break his own laws to construct the ship and her sister. She was intended to break the Union blockade via her iron ram. They were named the Cheops and the Sphinx while being built to imply that they were intended for the Egyptian Navy. The Stonewall was not finished in time to see action and was sold to the Spanish in Cuba when the Captain learned of Lee's surrender. It was then sold to the US Navy and transferred to the Navy of Japan under the new Meiji government and saw service as the Kōtetsu against the remaining forces of the Shogun.

Hanes Excelsior Percussion Cap Grenade

Here is one from the bad idea bin. The Hanes Excelsior Percussion Cap Grenade. It was patented in 1862 by an W. W. Hanes for use in the American Civil War. It is a cast iron orb filled with gunpowder like the classic "Rocky and Bulwinkle" bomb. However instead of the classic open burning fuze, it is instead liberally covered with 10 nipples for percussion caps, which are small pressure sensitive explosives used to ignite a larger charge. It only took the detonation of one cap to set off the grenade, so if it were dropped or handled roughly it would certainly blow up inadvertently. And percussion caps are not always easy to use in the best of situations. To imagine Civil War soldiers in a trench, scared, hungry and being shot at using this thing without blowing themselves up is a stretch of the imagination. There is no record of their use in battle, so we can hope that no one was killed with this thing, either or purpose or on accident. Very few exist today.

Smithsonian American History Museum

Just a few of the pictures that I took while visiting D.C. this summer. Most came out pretty poorly, so just the highlights.

Sam Houston's .36 caliber Harmonica lock rifle, made by Seneca Ohio gunsmith Henry Gross

Civil War-era 12 pound James Shell - with greater range and accuracy than the old solid iron cannonball, plus the James Shell contained explosives

Walker Colt .44 revolver, One of 1100 ever made. Among the most valuable pistols in the world

Model 1877 Battery Gatling gun, manufactured by Colt

Civil War "Zouave" uniform from the Fifth New York Volunteer Infantry

General Andrew Jackson's uniform and sword, worn during the Battle of New Orleans

USS Philadelphia, the only surviving gunboat built and manned by American rebels during the Revolution. Sunk by the British on 11 October 1776 in Lake Champlain.

Discovered and salvaged in 1935, in good condition due to the cold water. In addition to the guns and hull, hundreds of other items were recovered from the vessel including shot, cooking utensils, tools, buttons, buckles and human bones.

The 24 pounder shot that sunk her

George Washington's sword, used during his time as Commander of the Continental Army

And who was in the downstairs hall? Good old C-3P0

USS Constellation

USS Constellation in 1862 by Tomaso de Simone

I recently took a trip to Baltimore, Maryland and Washington D.C. and while there I went to see the USS Constellation, the last ship to fight in the Civil War still afloat. This is the second ship of the US Navy to bear the name Constellation. The first was a frigate built in 1797 and carried 38 guns and was only the second ship to be commissioned in the United States Navy. It was the first US Navy vessel to put to sea and the first US Navy vessel to engage, defeat, and capture an enemy vessel. The ship that I saw was a type known as a sloop of war and was built in 1854 in Gosport Naval Yard, Virginia.


USS Constellation
Length: 176 feet (between perpendiculars)
Beam: 40 feet, 6 inches (molded beam)
Draft: 21 feet
Displacement: 1,400 tons
Complement: 20 officers, 220 sailors, 45 marines







The Constellation served in the Mediterranean Squadron from 1855-1858 and was mostly used for diplomatic duties. In 1859 she was transferred to the USN African Squadron became its flagship. In two and a half years, she interdicted three slave ships, including the Cora, which was carrying a cargo if 705 slaves that were set free in Monrovia, Liberia.

Constellation spent most of the Civil War cruising the Mediterranean to deter Confederate commerce raiders, cruisers and blockade runners. In 1864 she was assigned to Admiral Farragut's West Gulf Blockading Squadron.

After the war, Constellation was tasked with bringing famine relief to Ireland. It then became the training ship for midshipmen from the US Naval Academy, serving as the ship for their summer training cruises. She has even been called the "Cradle of Admirals" because so many future high ranking officers served aboard her in their youth. She then became a stationary training ship for the Naval Training Center from 1894 to 1933. The Constellation was used as a relief flagship for the US Atlantic Fleet during WWII.



In its heyday around 1855, the Constellation was armed with sixteen 8 inch "Shell guns" and four 32 pounder, solid shot firing "Long Guns". A secondary battery of two 10 inch pivot guns mounted fore and aft on the spar deck. It carried five cutters and one launch with a 12 pounder howitzer. It would have also carried a large assortment of small arms, including Model 1840 and later 1860 cutlasses, boarding pikes, hatchets, and various muzzle loading pistols and long arms. These would be kept in the armory and issued out when close action was expected.



In 1862 the ship's armament was upgraded with one 30-pounder Parrott rifle at the bow and one 20-pounder Parrott rifle at the stern; also two additional 12-pounder boat howitzers were added.




One very nice thing about the Constellation is that you get to pretty much see the entire ship. Many old ship will let tourists walk on the deck and maybe in the gun deck, but the Constellation was almost completely open. Below the gun deck is the area that most of the crew would have spent their time. It was cramped and had very low ceilings, no more than 6 feet high. One could see that sharing the berthing area with 250 or so unwashed sailors off the coast of West Africa would have been pretty awful. On the other hand, the hammocks did look pretty comfy and were wider than the jungle hammock that I sleep in when I go camping. However they were hung a lot higher up. That might not sound bad, but it is said that the petty officers would cut the cords of anyone not getting up fast enough to suit them. Which would be a pretty crappy way to start your day of backbreaking labor and risking your life. I was able to go in most of the cabins, see period surgical instruments and read the large amount of placards and so forth of historical information. I was even able to go down into the hold and bilge areas (pics did not come out) which was even more cramped.


USS Constellation is the last Civil War era naval vessel still afloat and the last all sail warship built by the U.S. Navy. In 1963, the ship was preserved as a National Historical Monument the Inner Harbor of Baltimore. In 1999 a nine million dollar restoration project was completed and returned the ship's exterior to its Civil War era appearance.

USS Constellation at Pier 1, Baltimore Inner Harbor

Less Known Weapons of the Civil War

The "Late Unpleasantness", as it is known around here, was fought at the intersection of modern and incredibly effective weapons technology and the inflexible and Napoleonic tactics. This resulted in the wholesale slaughter of thousands of soldiers in both sides trying to fight an old war with new weapons or fight a new war with old weapons. I recently visited the Museum of History in Augusta, Georgia and got to see some of the less well known weapons of the War of Northern Aggression.

Sorry about the quality of the pictures, the light was low and flash not allowed, so we will have to make do with what we have.

First off we have the Rains Grenade, designed by Confederate Colonel George Washington Rains. It is certainly not the first hand grenade, and most are familiar with the old style, iron orb black powder grenade with a fuse, although we mainly see it in cartoons.
(Damn moose and squirrel!)

There were two problems with the orb grenades. Firstly, an exposed burning fuse was not really appropriate for the task. It was unlikely to go out, but could burn too slow, allowing the enemy to get away, or worse, throw it back, or it could burn too fast, and that probably wouldn't bother you more than once. Secondly, the orb grenades were pretty close to the size and heft of a shot put, and consequently, were difficult to throw very far. This meant you had to get well within the range of other weapons to use it in an attack and you were pretty close to the blast radius of the grenade itself. Something better was needed.

The Rains Grenade was equipped with a pressure fuse, which caused the grenade to explode on contact when primed and thrown. Also, the stick that the explosive was attached to allowed a soldier to really get a good throw, increasing the chance of hitting the enemy and surviving to tell the tale. This idea was also used in the famous "potato masher" grenades of Germany in WWI and WWII. While the smaller grenade did not have as large a blast radius, their light weight allowed more to be carried and them to be thrown a longer distance.
These weapons were more useful in a defense situation, as the user would likely be behind cover and/or higher up than the attacker, giving the defender a big advantage.

There were large shortages of appropriate weapons on both sides in the first months of the war. Confederate authorities ordered a large number of polearms, pikes and halberds and such produced as a stop gap measure. They were as cheap and easy to produce as they were next to useless. A generation or two before, many soldiers could probably only fire 2 rounds a minute and would have difficulty hitting a man sized target from 100 yards away. But the technology of war is never idle, and by the beginning of the war, range and rate of fire were much improved, making pikemen and bayonet charges into suicidal jobs.

Here we have on the left a Clover Leaf pike, (which to me is a Partisan or Ranseur, but hey) and on the right, a rather neat, if pointless, retractable pike. Why a pike would need to retract, I'm not really sure. But the mechanism was pretty interesting. Other than guarding prisoners, there would be no use whatsoever for these weapons and after the Summer of 1861, they were quickly discarded. Today they are pretty rare.

The middle gun is a Burnside Carbine, designed in 1856 by Union General Ambrose Burnside. I've always liked ol' Ambrose, even though he is a Yankee, because I used to wear big sideburns and it is said we get the term from him. Google him if you want, he had some pretty impressive facial hair.

Anyway, the Burnside Carbine was a breech loading .54 caliber rifle. Breech loading is infinitely easier and faster than muzzle loading a weapon. The main innovation of the Burnside is that the cartridge and breech block eliminated the problem of hot gasses escaping the chamber during firing. This is an uncomfortable and distracting problem at best, and anyone who has gotten gas in the eye knows it is no fun.

Less well known than the Spencer (the rifle on the bottom) and Sharps Carbines, about 55,000 of the Burnside Carbine were produced, and many were captured and used by Confederate Cavalry units. The Burnside Carbine suffered from complaints that the specially designed and strange, cone-shaped brass cartridge would get stuck in the chamber after firing. The Burnside propelled the bullet at about 950 feet per second and had a range of at least 200 yards. Like its better known cousins, its short length and light weight made it a popular weapon for the cavalry of the day.