Confederate Machine Cannon

On the Confederate side, attempts to increase rate of fire, even as General Rains pleaded for more copper to make percussion caps, continued with all the in-genuity at their command. General Gorgas distinguished himself by the innovation of a repeating small-bore cannon, 1.25-inch, of the turret principle. The pancake turret held 18 copper-lined muzzle-loaded chambers, radiating outward spoke-like. The inner ring of the pancake held the percussion nipples. A cam arrangement loaded and tripped a striker successively as the turret was turned. Of special importance was a load- ing groove in the cast-iron gun chassis to the right of the barrel, in line with the direction of rotation of the pancake. Inserting cartridges at this point and working the charging lever, the gunner’s assistant could keep the turret constantly loaded. Apparently only one was made; none were used in the field.    -

A straightforward approach to machine cannon design was used by the South in the siege of Petersburg. This particular piece, a cast-and-wrought iron five- chamber 2-inch revolver cannon, was captured 27 April 1865 at Danville, Virginia, and sent by the Union troops to the Ordnance Laboratory at West Point for study. Mounted on cast-iron wheels resembling the frame of a plow or harrow, this hand-crank percussion cap fired repeater was not particularly successful; it did little for the South.
More widely publicized, less practical, was the “celebrated gun presented by Robison (sic) and Cottam of London to Governor Vance of North Carolina.” This gun caused General Holloway to detour via Bull’s Gap ordnance depot on April 25, 1865, where reposed

Repeating turret magazine cannon of small bore and considerable in- genuity is credited to invention of Confederate Ordnance General Josiah Gorgas. South used several repeaters and rapid fire breech-loading Williams gun also.

the big brass cannon-like repeater which the Yankees had captured. The joke in a sense was upon the North at last. For nearly four years Union officers had steadastly refused to accept this cumbersome breechloader; now it was theirs as a booty of War!
The inventor, General O. Vandenberg, was an American but he went to Britain to try and market his design. Before the Royal United Service Institute he gave an address 9 May 1862 on his “new system of artillery, for projecting a group or cluster of shot.” The gun which General Holloway saw was of 85 barrels, caliber .54. Other Vandenberg guns had as many as 451 barrels.
The breechpiece contained the charges, in individual chambers, at the front of which each time the gun was loaded, the gunner placed little copper sleeves for ef- fecting a gas seal. When the breech was screwed into place the sleeves forced into the backs of the barrels and kept the action free from smoke—or so Vanden- berg hoped. There was a loading machine to charge all chambers at once with powder, and another to put in the bullets and ram them down.
While the center charge was ignited by the single percussion cap and fired all charges simultaneously, there were vents to be plugged that could restrict the fire. Thus only a portion of the shots could be discharged, and then the vents were opened and the piece was recapped, ready for a second discharge. As with the Gorgas gun, and the revolving 2-inch cannon, true sustained fire was not possible.
Vandenberg tried unsuccessfully to get the United States to buy his guns. On 18 February 1864 he ad- dressed General Ramsay, saying he would send or bring three of his guns to the United States and present them to the President or the Secretary of War as “an offering to our country and government.” Three guns were shipped over, and tested by Captain Benton, who
reported adversely on them. Being a thorough man and believer in the axiom “Never let the sun go down on an uncleaned gun,” Benton had the test Vandenberg gun cleaned. He found it took one man a total of 9 hours to adequately clean the barrels and action of the piece, which was sufficient cause for condemnation.
The three guns were eventually shipped back to Vandenberg in London in an effort to get rid of them. But the fates ruled otherwise. In April 1865, cavalry under Major General George Stoneman at Salisbury, North Carolina, captured the gun which the fair- minded Vandenberg had sent to Governor Vance (why play favorites?) and routed it up to West Point. Today, it reposes in solitary brass-burnished splendor in the museum, edification for the cadets as well as labor for whoever polishes the brass. Another Vandenberg gun is in the Rotunda Museum of the Woolwich Arsenal near London. The guns were made by Robinson & Cottam, of London, not generally recognized as armaments makers. Perhaps they were brass founders or general machinists.
The most effective of the Confederate guns was the Williams single-barreled rapid fire cannon. It was not a true machine gun but because of its cranked fore- and-aft breechblock was capable of being fired, using combustible cartridges of 1.56-inch caliber, at a rate of 65 shots per minute. Invented by Captain D. R. Williams, C.S.A., of Covington, Kentucky, it has been called the first machine gun successfully used in battle, but it was not properly a machine gun for it had no at- tached feeding mechanism nor multiplicity of barrels to give it rapid fire. The loader had to be quick, that’s all.
A hand crank on the right of the breech opened and closed the breechblock, firing the cap as the cartridge was shoved into the chamber. When the barrel heated

Spare barrel and anti-rifle fire shield was supplied with Union guns. Cartridges fell from hopper into open-chambered drum rotated by simple crank. One of these guns is recorded as having been used by Confederates against a Union observation balloon.

up, expansion sometimes prevented complete closing, stopping firing until the metal had cooled down.
A battery of six of these guns was in use by Giltner’s brigade of Texas troops under command of Captain T. M. Freeman. On 3 May, 1862, at the Battle of Seven Pines, Virginia, a battery attached to Pickett’s brigade created havoc among the Yankees. The guns were directed by the inventor. Some captured Union officers later asked to see these new Confederate “secret weapons”; their firepower had made a great effect.
Captain T. T. Allen, 7th Ohio Cavalry, expressed amazement at the rapid fire and devastation of the little guns at the battle of Blue Springs, East Tennessee, on 10 October, 1863. For all this success, only a few of these cannon were made. Two batteries of six guns each were made at Lynchburg, Virginia, and the Tredegar Works cast four batteries, 24 guns. One set of six was made at Mobile, Alabama, and served in the artillery of General Simon Bolivar Buckner, C.S.A. One of these latter guns with accessories was captured at Danville in 1865. The breech obturating plug served, according to Chinn, as the basis for the first breech- loading field gun adopted by the U. S. Army.