| Railroad artillery never
fulfilled the implied promises of heavy shells and long
range -- the problem, of course, was the restriction of
having to be on a railroad (not easily and quickly built)
and having limited traverse capability. But these problems
were not serious enough to prevent several countries from
trying to create and use this form of artillery -- and the
Confederacy appears to have been the first to try. |
| The Confederacy is well-known
for trying to use technological advances to try to overcome
its obvious weaknesses. Submarines, armored warships, mines
(torpedoes), interior railroad lines and others were tried
with some success. This article will look at the Lee-Brooke
gun, ordered into being by the man who became known for
taking risks -- General R. E. Lee. |
| Only five days after being
given command of the Army of Northern Virginia (June 1st,
1862), Lee sent several letters asking about the possibility
of creating a railroad gun {OR
Series 1, Vol. 11, Pt 3, Page 574,
OR Series 1, Vol. 11, Pt 3, Page 574A,
OR Series 1, Vol. 11, Pt 3, Page 575}. The gun
would be mounted on a flat car, protected by the armor the
Navy had just proved in combat in Hampton Roads and operated
on the Richmond & York River RR. Lee was in a hurry to get
the gun ready so that it could support the upcoming battle
with McClellan. Lee understood that the Union's siege
artillery would be devastating to the Richmond
fortifications if they could get in position. But the weight
of the siege guns would require them to use the Union
occupied portion of the York River RR to get to their firing
positions. Lee's first intended use of his gun would be to
prevent the Union trains from advancing west on the railroad
with the siege guns. {OR
Series 1, Vol. 11, Pt 3, Page 574.htm} |
| With what could only be
described as lightening speed, the Army and Navy
bureaucracies managed to get agreement from all concerned,
armor found and shipped to the construction site, railroad
rolling stock found, gun and ammunition found and prepared,
railroad and army crews found and trained to work a new
weapon with little communication between gun and locomotive,
and the actual construction accomplished -- all in
twenty-three days. |
| Construction of the gun car
was performed in the Richmond & York River RR Richmond
yards. The road had only be operational about two years and
was still using temporary wooden buildings. The company's
Master Carpenter, William S. Miller, was in charge of the
work {NA,
R&YR 6-25-62}and S Y Landrum painted the iron
face of the car (to prevent the iron armor from rusting) {NA,
RR 6-24-62}. As discussed below, a Union cartographer
saw the gun/train in action and sketched, then later
painted, the scene. He shows what many have assumed to be
true -- the gun car had to have had a tender of some kind.
The gun car was very cramped, the gun crew numbered 14 men
and an officer, there was some portion of the 200 shots of
powder and projectiles and probably some infantry for
close-in protection. Private Robert Sneden's drawing shows
two cars between the locomotive and the gun car, with cotton
bales stacked to protect the infantry and whatever else was
on those cars. The tenders have not been found in any
documentation of the gun car or the battle nor in any of the
surviving company documents (of which, the 1862 Annual
Report is the only Annual Report missing today).
Additionally, Sneden was with the command unit of the Union
force involved in combat and was almost directly ahead of
the approaching train, so it is possible that he "saw" more
than was actually there. |
| When the car was completed,
Lee asked Secretary of the Navy to provide and officer and
crew to man the gun and car {OR
Series 1, Vol. 11, Part 3, Page 610}. No reply
has been found, but Lee shortly was assigning an army crew
{OR
Series 1, Vol. 11, Part 3, Page 615}. The crew
was thirteen junior enlisted soldiers, Sergeant Daniel
Knowles and Lieutenant James Barry -- from the United
Artillery, originally from Norfolk {NP,
SB 7-16-62}. About thirty-three members of this
unit had volunteered and served on the Virginia during her
battles in Hampton Roads. Unfortunately, the names of the
Lee gun crew are not known, so it is impossible to say if
any had been in those historic battles. The unit had spent
most of two years at Drewry's Bluff, probably manning the
big guns there. |
| The car would be pushed and
pulled into position by a York River RR locomotive -- but
which one? A voucher dated June 30, 1862 shows the
government paying for thirty-three days of rental for
locomotives York and Atlantic; these same two locomotives
were rented for the next two months, too. It seems very
likely that one of the two pushed the gun car.
{NA, RRB
6-30D-62} Whichever locomotive did the work, its
engineer was Nathaniel S. Walker, a York River RR employee. |
| On June 28th, the train headed
out of Richmond toward the Union forces, some seven miles
away. Before engaging the enemy, a major timber under the
gun broke and required a return to Richmond for correction.
That evening, the train again headed east. |
| The gun was on the railroad
that pierced Major General Magruder's lines and thus fell
under his control and protection. By noon on the 29th, a
Union obstruction on the railroad had been removed and the
train headed toward the enemy at Savage Station. Just as Lt.
Barry was about to open fire, the enemy artillery fired,
killing Gen. Griffeth, of Mississippi. On Magruder's
command, the car opened fire on the enemy's artillery
battery, which he silenced with his second shot. He then
shelled the woods into which the enemy had retreated and
near where the enemy battery had been. |
| At four o'clock Berry was
ordered to proceed down the railroad abreast of the
skirmishers and to fire into anything and everything he saw
ahead. As he turned the curve and entered Savage's field, he
saw a half a mile in advance of him a party of Yankees
engaged in setting fire to a train on the track. Having
fired two shots into this train, a white flag was raised on
it, Gen. Cobb coming up at the moment, ordered him not fire
into it again, as he had information the train was loaded
with sick. Immediately afterwards Gen. Magruder road up, and seeing the enemy drawn up in
line of battle in the field in front of Savage's house, ordered Lieut.
Barry to go a quarter of a mile nearer and open into his ranks. On the
bursting of the second shell the enemy fled in confusion to the cover
of the woods to the right of the battery, and from the point poured on
it and the engine a perfect hail of rifle bullets. Kemper's battery
now opened on the enemy from a position in the rear of the car and
Lieut. Barry was obliged to withdraw in the direction of Richmond. |
| As he was receding up the
railroad, his battery drew the whole fire of the enemy, but
not one of his men was struck. A minnie ball passed with in
an inch of the engineer's head and struck in the railroad
embankment. As the car drew back to Fair Oaks, the Third
South Carolina, supported by other regiments, dashed across
the railroad and charged into the woods in which the enemy
had taken shelter from the rifle shells of Lieutenant Barry,
drove them in the direction of Bottom's Bridge, causing
heavy losses. {NP,
SB 7-16-62} |
| The battle and the war moved
away from the line of the Richmond & York River RR, leaving
the car without occupation. |
| However, on June 4, 1864, war
called again. On that date, General Braxton Bragg, near
Bottoms Bridge, a couple of miles east of Savage Station,
sent a telegram to Drewry's Bluff, ordering Lieutenant Barry
and a detachment of skilled artillerymen to be sent by
steamer to serve the piece (ie the gun on the car).
{OR
Series 1, Vol. 36, Part 3, Page 875} Evidently,
the men arrived, as it was mentioned in a June 8 dispatch
{OR
Series 1, Vol. 51, Part 2, Page 996} and by
deserters on June 9th described the gun and car accurately
to Union officers. {OR
Series 1, Vol. 36, Part 3, Page 725} But by June
28th, the value of the iron rails on the ground was greater
than the fire of the gun, and the track was removed all the
way to the Richmond defenses. {OR
Series 1, Vol. 40, Part 2, Page 699} |
| On October 30, the Union
forces received word that the gun had been placed on the
York River RR near the outer works. {OR
Series 1, Vol. 42, Part 3, Page 282.htm} There
are no additional records of the gun until a photograph was
taken right after the evacuation of Richmond. |
| Here are the three period images
of the gun. |
 |
|
Sneden's sketch of the Savage Station
Battle |
| |
|
 |
|
The gun immediately after capture at the
end of the siege |
|
|
 |
|
Front view of captured gun |
|
{Note
that the gun above has several features described on the
Virginia -- counter-sunk bolt heads, armor plate (not
railroad rails), armor front angled to the same degree as
the Virginia's. Since Lee's gun was built almost over night,
there was no time to experiment -- the proved methods had to
be used where they were relevant.} |
|
{Some
writers have taken to calling this gun a Union gun used in
the siege of Petersburg (ex: Robert R. Hodges, Jr.,
American Civil War Railroad Tactics, Osprey Publishing,
2009, p. 17). In my article above are numerous records of
the Confederate gun, both Union and Confederate -- no such
records have been found for any such Union gun.
Additionally, the features mentioned as being in common with
the Virginia are not in common with Union shipbuilding
practices. Unless significant Union documentation is found
to prove otherwise, this should be accepted as Lee's gun
after its capture during the evacuation of Richmond and
Petersburg.} |
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