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Blakely rifle or Blakely gun is a series of rifled muzzle-loading cannon designed by British army officer Captain Theophilus Alexander Blakely in the 1850s and 1860s.Hazlett, James C., Edwin Olmstead, and M. Hume Parks. Field Artillery Weapons of the American Civil War, rev. ed., Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983. , p. 196.On May 14, 1860, Captain "A.T. Blakely" presented a paper published at pages 316324 in Volume 7 of the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (18361869) entitled "On the practical application of a principle announced to the academy by R. Mallett, Esq.; and some remarks on rifled cannon" with a reply by "Dr. Hart" and further reply by Captain Blakely, available on JSTOR open access as Remarks on Artillery [1] Blakely was a pioneer in the banding and rifling of cannon but the British army declined to use Blakely's design.Ripley, Warren. Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War. New York: Promontory Press, 1970. . p. 148. The guns were mostly sold to Russia and the Confederacy during the American Civil War.Riley, 1970, p. 150. Blakely rifles were imported by the Confederacy in larger numbers than other Imported English cannon.Huey, C. A. Imported English Artillery. In Current, Richard N., ed., The Confederacy. New York: Simon and Schuster Macmillan, 1993. . Macmillan Compendium. Sections from the four-volume Macmillan Encyclopedia of the Confederacy. p. 86. The State of Massachusetts bought eight and four models.Ripley, 1970, pp. 154-155.Citing Kersis, Sydney C. and Thomas S. Dickey, Field Artillery Projectiles of the Civil War, 1861-1865. Atlanta: Phoenix Press, 1968, Hazlett, p. 196, states that at least two batteries of 3.5-inch Blakely guns were in Federal service."Ripley, 1970, p. 155 wrote: "The 9-inch fired a 248-pound bolt with a charge of 30 pounds and the 11-inch burned 37.25 pounds with a 375-pound projectile."
Blakely rifles had innovative design features using two layer construction and layers of rings which allowed rifling of larger cannons. Blakely's manufacturing innovations allowed larger guns of lighter weight and greater resistance to explosion. The Confederacy used the Blakely rifles in seacoast fortifications, fortifications at Vicksburg, as naval guns and, in the smaller sizes, as artillery in land battles.
Blakely was a pioneer in this two tube, or two layer, design.Hansen, Les D. Blakely gun. In Historical Times Illustrated History of the Civil War, edited by Patricia L. Faust. New York: Harper & Row, 1986. , p. 66. Nonetheless, the British government rejected his designs. The contemporaneous of Sir William George Armstrong were of similar design, but unlike Blakely, Armstrong had his own foundry at the time. Because Blakely believed that Armstrong had infringed his patents, he stopped offering his designs to the British military when Armstrong became superintendent of the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich.
Blakely contracted with companies including Fawcett, Preston, & Company of Liverpool, Josiah Vavasseur of London, George Forrester and Company of Liverpool, Low Moor Iron Company, and the Blakeley Ordnance Company of London (established 1863) for the manufacture of his guns.Hazlett, 2004, pp. 197205.Hazlett noted a slight difference in spelling of Blakeley Ordnance Company and does not "speculate" as to whether Blakely had an interest in the company. Olmstead, Edwin, Wayne E. Stark and Spencer C. Tucker. The Big Guns: Civil War Siege, Seacoast and Naval Cannon. Bloomfield, ONT, Alexandria Bay, NY: Museum Restoration Service, 1997. , p. 136 identifies the company as founded by Blakely despite the misspelling. The Blakely Company was not incorporated until 1863. Blakely and John Dent acquired Josiah Vavasseur's company. Vavasseur became manager and engineer of Blakely's company, which lasted until 1867. Blakely Ordnance Co. in Grace's Guide To British Industrial History. [3]. Last edited August 12, 2017, Retrieved September 22, 2023. The cannon foundries produced about 400 guns to Blakely's design. Most were made of iron.
The foundries that manufactured Blakely rifles produced them in 2.5-inch (6-pounder), 2.9-inch, 3.5-inch (12-pounder), 3.75-inch (16-pounder), 4-inch (18-pounder), 4.5-inch (20-pounder), 6.4-inch (100-pounder), 7-inch (120-pounder), 7.5-inch (150-pounder), 8-inch (200-pounder), 9-inch (250-pounder), 11-inch, and 12.75-inch (450-pounder shells or 650-pounder solid shot) bores.Hazlett, 2004, p. 197. All of the caliber rifles did not come to the United States.Ripley, 1970, p. 154.
Two Blakely "siege" rifles were used in the Confederate defense of Fort Pulaski in 1862. The Confederate commander of Fort Pulaski near the coast outside of Savannah, Georgia during the Siege of Fort Pulaski, Colonel Charles H. Olmstead, used two Blakely rifles in his ultimately unsuccessful defense which ended with the fort's surrender on April 11, 1862 after a 112-day siege.Wise, Jennings C. The long arm of Lee, or, The history of the artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia : with a brief account of the Confederate Bureau of Ordnance. Volume 1. [6] Lynchburg, VA: J.P. Bell and Co., 1915. , p. 66. Attribution: Public domain.Olmstead wrote an article about Fort Pulaski published in 1917 and available on JSTOR open access [7]. Olmstead, Charles H. Fort Pulaski in The Georgia Historical Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 2 (June, 1917), pp. 98105.Olmstead, 1997, p. 136. These rifles were taken to West Point as old trophies numbers 152 and 153 but returned to Fort Pulaski National Monument in the 1930s.Olmstead, 1997, p. 188.Ripley 1970, p. 155.
"The Widow Blakely" was a rifle that the Confederates used during their 1863 defense of Vicksburg, Mississippi.Grabau, Warren E. Ninety-eight days : a geographer's view of the Vicksburg Campaign. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2000. On May 22, 1863, a shell exploded in the gun's barrel while the Widow Blakely was firing at a Union gunboat. The explosion only took off part of the end of the muzzle.Smith, Timothy B. The Union Assaults at Vicksburg: Grant Attacks Pemberton, May 17-22, 1863. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 2020. , p. 333. The Confederates cut away part of the barrel and continued to use the rifle as a mortar until Vicksburg fell to the Union Army under the command of Major General Ulysses S. Grant.U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Historical marker about "Widow Blakely" rifled cannon at Vicksburg National Battlefield Park, as shown at [8] and shown in larger type at [9].Retrieved September 2, 2023. "The Widow Blakely": 7.5-inch Blakely Rifle at Civil War Artillery [10] Retrieved September 2, 2023 relates the muzzle explosion, the cutting down of the barrel from 124 inches to about 100 inches, gives a link to "Actual reports from the Official Records listing 'The Widow Blakely'", and has additional photos of the gun. A gun at West Point which was misidentified as Whistling Dick was returned to the Vicksburg National Battlefield Park when it was identified by historian Ed Bearss as "Widow Blakely."Ed Bearss The Vicksburg River Defenses and the Enigma of "Whistling Dick" The Journal of Mississippi History, volume XIX, issue 1, 1957, pages 2130.
Two Blakelys, the largest guns in the Confederate arsenal, were mounted in 1863 at Charleston, South Carolina. These were delivered, along with shot, to Wilmington, North Carolina in August 1863 from Liverpool by the blockade runner Gibraltar.Olmstead, 1997, p. 139. These were ordered to the defense of Charleston, South Carolina harbor by Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard and Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon. The rifles had inside diameter by long bronze air chamber behind the seat of its charge.Olmstead, 1997, pp. 139140. General Roswell S. Ripley improperly loaded the chamber of one of the guns with powder to reduce the size of cartridge bags.Olmstead, 1997, p. 140. This cracked the chamber and caused other damage on the first fire and it had to be replaced. The rifle had a flanged shot and shell with four grooves and a right-hand twist for rifling. The rifles were never fired against Union forces or ships.Ripley, 1970, p. 158. They were loaded with excessive charges and blown up when Charleston was evacuated on February 18, 1865. Pieces of the rifles survive at West Point and Charleston, South Carolina.Ripley, 1970, pp. 158-159.
Principal characteristics of Blakely rifled seacoast guns were: Total length of gun: ; bore: ; diameter of air chamber: ; length of bore to bronze chamber: ; total length of bore to bottom of chamber: ; maximum diameter of cast iron: ; diameter of cast iron muzzle: ; diameter over steel hoop: ; weight: 27 tons.Holley, 1865, p. 45.
An rifled British 68-pounder cannon of 95 hundredweight was captured by Union Army forces at Fort Morgan, Alabama on August 23, 1864. The cannon was originally a smoothbore manufactured by Low Moor Iron Company in 1862. It was banded and rifled with three grooves of right-hand twists in the manner of a Blakely. Olmstead describes the piece as "Identified As A 'Blakely'", casting doubt as to its identity and noting that it is covered in black enamel, obscuring any markings. This cannon is in the Washington Navy Yard.Ripley, 1970, p. 157. The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies list two 8-inch Blakelys as in the Confederate defenses at Fort Morgan.
Four Blakely seacoast rifles and four smoothbores were taken from Liverpool, England in August 1871 by the USS Worcester and off loaded at Boston Navy Yard. These were manufactured for use on Confederate cruisers. The rifled cannon number 95 is on private property at Bernhards Bay, New York on Oneida Lake.
Four surviving 3.5-inch Blakely's have been placed at Shiloh National Military Park.Olmstead, 1997, p. 284.
A July 3, 1862 letter from Frank M. Coker of the Sumter Flying Artillery to his wife mentions that during the Seven Days Battles he was ordered to carry a large Blakely rifled gun down the line.Head, Sylvia and W. T. Millican, F. M. C. Old Letters in JSTOR "Old Letters" [11] The Georgia Review, Vol. 15, No. 3 (FALL 1961), p. 250
The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia had a variety of artillery pieces at the Battle of Antietam. Many Confederate pieces were inferior models compared to most of those used by the Union Army of the Potomac.Hartwig, D. Scott. To Antietam Creek: The Maryland Campaign of September 1862. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012. , p. 83. Blakely rifles were among the better rifled models used by the Confederates at that battle.Hartwig, 2012, p. 84. Confederate batteries performed well despite being hampered by the frequent deployment of four different cannon in a battery.Krick, Robert E.L. Defending Lee's Flank in Gallagher, Gary W., ed. The Antietam Campaign. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999. . pp. 192, 194. John B. Brockenbrough's battery, which was heavily engaged in the battle north and west of the Dunker Church, had four different cannon, including a Blakely rifle.Krick, 1999, p. 194.
Chew's Battery fought at the Battle of Fairfield, one of the cavalry battles on July 3, 1863, the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg.Wittenberg, Eric J. Gettysburg's Forgotten Cavalry Actions: Farnsworth's Charge, South Cavalry Field, and the Battle of Fairfield, July 3, 1863, revised and expanded edition. New York: Savas Beatie LLC, 2011. , pp. 122123. Blakely rifles, as the most commonly imported British artillery guns, continued in service through the war. Chew's Battery served through the rest of the war concluding with the Appomattox campaign.Longacre, 2002, pp. 270, 274, 329.
An example of an 18-pounder, 4-inch caliber based on bore dimension was captured in the Union attack on Confederates salvaging the blockade runner Hebe near Fort Fisher, North Carolina on August 23, 1863 has been placed in the Washington Navy Yard. Ripley wrote that this should be catalogued as in field service due to its known employment.Ripley, 1970, p. 152.
The U.S. National Park Service has noted that Blakely rifled cannon were used at several battles of the American Civil War in the Shenandoah Valley (Jackson's Valley campaign; Valley campaigns of 1864)."Blakely Rifled Gun (12-pound). A Confederate import from England, the 12-pounder Blakely Rifled Gun found its way into several battles in the Shenandoah Valley. Most Blakely rifles were muzzleloaders that featured steel or cast-iron barrels with wrought iron bands to reinforce the rear of the barrel near the breech. The Blakely was most effective firing shot and shell projectiles, not so effective with canister. Length: Barrel 4.9 feet. Weight: 2,000 lbs. (800 lbs.). Caliber: 3.5 inch (12-pounder). Effective Range: 1,850 yds. (1.1 miles). Friction Primer and lanyard action. Horse drawn, wooden carriage. Seven or eight-man crew, fired 2-3 rounds per minute. Deployed in batteries of four, or mixed with other gun types. Many variations: 6-pound, 12-pound, 20-pound, 100-pound, 150-pound, etc." United States National Park Service. Civil War Weapons in the Shenandoah Valley [12] Last updated: May 25, 2023. Retrieved September 2, 2023. Attribution: Public domain. U.S. Government publication.
The commerce raider CSS Alabama carried a 100-pounder Blakely rifled gun in the forecastle.Scharf, John Thomas. History of the Confederate States Navy from Its Organization to the Surrender of Its Last Vessel New York: Rogers & Sherwood, 1887. , p. 797. Attribution: Public domain.DeMik, Roger. RAIDER: a Rare View of C.S.S. ALABAMA in South Africa in Military Images Vol. 16, No. 2 (September-October 1994), pp. 2021. Published in JSTOR [13]. The wreck of the Alabama, which was sunk by the USS Kearsarge on June 19, 1864, off Cherbourg, France was found in 1984 and the 3.5-ton Blakely rifle that was the Alabama's forward pivot gun was recovered from the wreck.deKay, James Tertius. The Rebel Raiders: The Astonishing History of the Confederacy's Secret Navy. New York: Ballantine Books (Presidio Press), 2003. ; First hardcover edition 2002, p. 251. Surviving 7-inch Navy rifles are at the Washington Navy Yard and at Cannes, France.Olmstead, 1997, p. 226. Historian Warren Ripley noted that if the shell from Alabama's Blakely rifle which lodged in the Kearsarge's Rudder had exploded, the outcome of the battle might have been different.Ripley, 1970, p. 93.
The CSS Florida (cruiser) also carried two 7-inch and four 6-inch Blakely guns.Scharf, 1887, p. 790. American Civil War Artillery - Rifled and Imported Cannon October 19, 2019. At War Machines and Weapons. [14] Retrieved September 2, 2023. A 7-inch Blakely rifle displayed as a trophy at Washington Navy Yard was taken from the "Anglo-Rebel Pirate Florida".
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