Civil War Armament

During the Civil War, advances in technology increased the power, range, and accuracy of artillery. Union armories produced new, larger rifled cannon, while the South, with few foundries, often relied on existing weapons and increased their firepower by rifling and banding older smoothbore cannon. Confederates used a wide variety of weapons at Fort Moultrie, including both smoothbores and rifled cannon. Banding strengthened cannon by heating a wrought-iron band, slipping it over the cast-iron barrel, and letting it cool and shrink tightly in place around the breech so it could withstand the pressure of a greater powder charge; additional bands added more strength. Rifling, which cut spiral grooves in a weapon's bore, gave a projectile a stabilizing spin, allowing rifled cannon of similar size to outrange smoothbores and fire projectiles that were usually more accurate and destructive than old round shot and shells. New elongated shells were aerodynamic, larger, heavier, and could be filled with explosives. Mortars and cannon were fired by attaching the hook of a lanyard to the friction primer and pulling the cord so the primer's flame ignited the powder charge. The short-barreled mortar fired spherical shells with timed fuses in an upward arc, while cannon fired in a low trajectory.

Sullivan's Island, South Carolina · United States