The War brought some emerging technology to the forefront, innovations like repeating rifles and ironclad ships. The railroad was used to funnel troops and supplies, and then the wounded from battlefields to hospitals in cities. One of the new technologies was the use of armored railroad cars bearing large cannons.
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| (Library of Congress) |
Rumors filtered
into Army of Northern Virginia command in early June 1862 that the Federal army
was building a mobile battery to operate on the railroad. Due to their close proximity
to Richmond, Lee believed that the only way that the enemy could get large
cannons close to the Confederate capital was to use the York River Railroad.[1]
On June 5, Robert E. Lee, who just three days prior had been assigned command
of the principal Confederate army in Virginia, wrote Maj. W.H. Stevens, his chief
engineer, concerning the vulnerability of the railroad. If the Federals
constructed “a railroad battery, probably plated with iron,” they could “sweep
the country.” While a fixed battery could be constructed, Lee wanted Stevens to
explore the idea of their own “railroad battery…plated and protected with a
heavy gun.”[2]
That same day Lee
wrote to Col. J. Gorgas, chief of the Ordnance Department: “Is there a
possibility of constructing an iron-plated battery mounting a heavy gun, on
trucks, the whole covered with iron, to move along the York River Railroad?”
Lee asked. He told Gorgas to inquire with the Navy Department. Lee also
mentioned using mortars on the railroad as well.[3]
A third note went
out from Lee that day to Capt. George Minor, Chief of Ordnance and Hydrography.
“I am very anxious to have a railroad battery,” Lee wrote, mentioning he had
written Gorgas and Confederate naval Lt. John M. Brooke on the subject. “Till
something better could be accomplished I proposed a Dahlgren or Columbiad, on a
ship’s carriage, on a railroad flat, with one of your navy iron aprons adjusted
to it to protect gun and men. “If I could get it in position by daylight
to-morrow I could astonish our neighbors.”[4]
Lee did not get his
cannon until June 24. The design was one by Brooke, who also designed both
cannons and armament for the CSS Virginia. Minor reported that a rifled
and banded 32-pounder had been mounted on a railcar, and supplied with 200
rounds of ammunition, including 15-inch solid bolts, all under the command of
Lt. R.D. Minor, C.S. Navy.[5]
The cannon was used
at least once during the Seven Days campaign, during the battle of Savage
Station. Private Robert K. Sneden, 40th New York, wrote that during
a lull in the battle, “a shrill locomotive whistle was heard… soon appeared
coming down the tracks toward us a nondescript car, which was roofed over at
sides with railroad iron set at an angle, and from which in front projected a
heavy gun… While all eyes were directed toward it, [its] big gun opened fire
suddenly, and everyone looked for some place of shelter.” The “heavy gun,”
according to Shenen, fired several shots before being withdrawn half a mile
back up the tracks where it continued firing till dark. Also noted was that the
Confederates had placed cotton bales on the cars, with infantrymen behind them,
to protect the gun. As the gun withdrew, the Federals commenced to tear up the
York River Railroad, preventing the gun from advancing any closer.[6]
Following the
action at Savage Station, the armored battery disappears for a couple of years,
probably stored at the rail yard in Richmond. There is a rumor that the gun saw
action at Drewry’s Bluff in June 1864. The cannon was obviously captured at the
end of the war, maybe in Petersburg. An armored railroad battery was photographed
at the end of the war. Some historians believe that the imaged cannon is Lee’s Railroad Gun.[7]
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