Harbor Defense

After the Civil War ended, America’s attention turned away from warfare and seacoast defenses such as Fort Moultrie deteriorated. Another crisis soon arose when disputes with Great Britain in 1872 over the Alabama claims led to the addition of two immense Civil War Rodman cannon to the fort’s armaments. They remained in service through the Spanish American War, although by then seacoast mortars and Battery Jasper’s disappearing guns provided Charleston’s best defense. Developed shortly before the Civil War by General Thomas Rodman, the fifteen-inch Rodman smoothbore was made possible by an innovation in gun-casting technology. A skilled fifteen-man gun crew could load it with forty pounds of black powder and a four-hundred-thirty-four-pound ball, aim it, and fire it once every four minutes. Originally, four men lifted and loaded the heavy projectile by hand. These large Rodmans formed part of Charleston’s defense against major enemy ships such as Spanish Admiral Cervera’s fleet, but the Spanish fleet never appeared off Charleston, and the Rodmans were no match for the naval rifles on the admiral’s armored cruisers.

Sullivan's Island, South Carolina · United States