Existing comment:
Defending Charleston 1861-1865
The 1st South Carolina Artillery Battalion occupied Fort Moultrie for the Confederacy in December, 1860. Fire from Fort Moultrie's guns helped force the surrender of Fort Sumter in April, 1861.
Rifled artillery appeared shortly before the Civil War and changed coast defense drastically. Rifled guns shot harder, farther, and more accurately than smoothbore cannon and could demolish masonry forts such as Moultrie and Sumter - Union rifled guns pounded Sumter to rubble in 1863. To cope with rifled guns, the Confederates turned Fort Moultrie into a massive earthwork to protect their own heavy rifles and smoothbores.
Civil War artillery were aimed with simple open sights.
8-inch Columbiad rifled and banded
To meet the threat of Union ironclad fleets, General Beauregard, the Confederate commander in Charleston ordered captured smoothbores to be rifled and banded. These guns fired solid iron bolts intended to pierce the armor plating.
One cannon mounted in a fort was equal to several cannon mounted on ships.
32-pounder smoothbore
When the Civil War began in 1861, Fort Moultrie was armed with 32-pounder smoothbores and light 8-inch columbiads. You can see two 32-pounders mounted on Mordecai front pintle carriages which allowed 180° rotation.
10-inch Confederate Columbiad Smoothbore
In an age where rifled artillery was not considered totally perfected, smoothbore guns were still being used. (Remainder of text illegible)
Range of artillery used at Fort Moultrie during the Civil War.
32-pounder
32 pound shot
1900 yards (1.1 miles)
8-inch Columbiad Rifled and Banded
157 pound bolt
4000 yards (2.3 miles)
10-inch Columbiad
123 pound shot
5600 yards (3.2 miles) |