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 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.
Development and production The Blakely rifled artillery gun was designed with a cast-iron core and included wrought-iron or steel banding to reinforce the breech.Blakely's patent, February 27, 1855, described Blakely's ordnance improvement as: "a method of forming guns with an internal tube or cylinder of cast iron or steel, enclosed in a casing of wrought iron or steel. I sometimes form the outer surface of the inner tube somewhat conical, the greatest diameter being just in front of the trunnions, and tapering both ways, and apply the outer casing in the form of collars or rings driven thereon. And in some cases I apply two or more layers of such rings, according to the strength sought to be obtained, the trunnions being of one piece with one of the rings. The other casing may, however, be applied in the form of collars or rings, heated and shrunk upon the cylindrical surface of the inner cylinder or tube...." Hazlett, 2004, p. 196. Blakely himself noted that the cannon was to be built up tube after tube, compressing the inner tubes and extending the outer tubes by a certain calculation. This was to be done to prevent the inside breaking before sufficient strain was sent to the outside as would be the case with any thick tubes made in one piece.Blakely, 1860, p. 317. Blakely wrote that, "paradoxically," by using this method of two layer construction, a thick tube would be strengthened by diminishing its thickness and would weigh half as much.Blakely, 1860, pp. 319, 321. Blakely wrote that he had shown that no rifled cannon of considerable size had succeeded when made in one mass.Blakely, 1860, p. 321.A detailed discussion of the Blakely rifle can be found at the public domain source, Holley, 1865, pp. 36, cited in full in references.Holley, Alexander Lyman. A treatise on Ordnance and Armor ... With an appendix, referring to gun cotton, hooped guns, etc. New York: D Van Nostrand, 192 Broadway; London: Trubner and Company, 1865. . pp. 3650.
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 Armstrong guns 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, 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. . 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.
Types, variations
Because Blakely continued to experiment with designs, he produced five to as many as ten different designs, which were manufactured, some with variants.Melton, Jr., Jack W. Basic Facts on Artillery: Civil War Cannon. Artilleryman Magazine, May 5, 2022 Updated Sep 4, 2022. The Blakely rifled guns fired ammunition weighing between and . At least nine varieties of 3.5-inch (12-pounder) rifles alone were produced. Rifling types included flat-sided bores or bores with grooves cut in them into which flanges on the shells would fit.Hazlett, 2004, p. 205.
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.
Confederate use
Confederate forces used various sizes of Blakely rifles in several ways during the American Civil War.
First use against Fort Sumter
Blakely was more successful in selling cannons to the Confederacy than to the British military or the Union. One of the first guns sold was a 12-pounder Blakely delivered to the Confederates for use against Fort Sumter at the beginning of the American Civil War.Smith, Graham. Civil War Weapons. New York: Chartwell Books, Inc., 2011. , p. 234."The following are particulars of the first gun sent by Captain Blakely to the Confederates, obtained from a drawing dated May 15, 1860. The gun, made by Fawcett, Preston & Co., was of cast-iron, reinforced by a solid wrought-iron hoop made thin at the edges. Total length of gun 84 in. Length of bore 73.5 in. Diameter of bore 3.5 in. Diameter of cast-iron under hoop 9.1in. Maximum diameter of hoop 12.1 in. Length of hoop 22.i in. Diameter of muzzle. 6.0 in." Holley, Alexander Lyman. A treatise on Ordnance and Armor ... With an appendix, referring to gun cotton, hooped guns, etc. New York: D Van Nostrand, 192 Broadway; London: Trubner and Company, 1865. . Public domain. Holley also noted that the rifle fired 3,000 rounds during the war. Ripley, 1970, p. 149. That gun was the first rifled cannon fired in the war. The cannon was bought by Charles K. Prioleau in London and sent to Charleston before the surrender of Fort Sumter. The gun was used from Morris Island where it accurately sent projectiles against Fort Sumter, 1,250 yards (1,193 meters) away. It was likely the gun which fired a shot scattering debris from the stone cheek of the casemate embrasure, wounding four Union soldiers.
In other fortifications
On January 3, 1862, Union gunboats shelled Confederate batteries blockading traffic on the Potomac River in the inconclusive Battle of Cockpit Point also known as the Battle of Shipping Point, in Prince William County, Virginia. The Confederates retained the batteries. On March 9, 1862, Union gunboats again approached the Confederate defenses and discovered them abandoned. They captured two guns rifled in the Blakely method that ended up in the Washington Navy Yard. Historian Warren Ripley wrote that he did not think these are and Blakelys, but British 32-pounder and 42-pounder smoothbores reworked in the Blakely rifling fashion.Ripley, 1970, pp. 156-157.
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. 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 . 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.