Blakely rifle

Blakely rifle or Blakely gun is the name of a series of rifled muzzle-loading cannon designed by British army officer Captain Theophilus Alexander Blakely in the 1850s and 1860s.[1][2] Blakely was a pioneer in the banding and rifling of cannon but the British army declined to use Blakely's design.[3] The guns were mostly sold to Russia and the Confederacy during the American Civil War.[1][4] Blakely rifles were imported by the Confederacy in larger numbers than other Imported English cannon.[5] The State of Massachusetts bought eight 9 in (23 cm) and four 11 in (28 cm) models.[6][7][fn 1]

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.

  1. ^ a b 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. ISBN 978-0-252-07210-9, p. 196.
  2. ^ On May 14, 1860, Captain "A.T. Blakely" presented a paper published at pages 316–324 in Volume 7 of the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (1836–1869) 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]
  3. ^ Ripley, Warren. Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War. New York: Promontory Press, 1970. ISBN 978-0-88394-003-7. p. 148.
  4. ^ Riley, 1970, p. 150.
  5. ^ Huey, C. A. Imported English Artillery. In Current, Richard N., ed., The Confederacy. New York: Simon and Schuster Macmillan, 1993. ISBN 978-0-02-864920-7. Macmillan Compendium. Sections from the four-volume Macmillan Encyclopedia of the Confederacy. p. 86.
  6. ^ Ripley, 1970, pp. 154-155.
  7. ^ 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."


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