3.3-Inch Parrott Rifle in Kingstree, South Carolina
3.3-Inch Parrott Rifle in Kingstree, South Carolina
3.3-Inch Parrott Rifle displayed beside the Williamsburg County Courthouse in Kingstree, South Carolina. As Hazlett et al. note, this is one of three surviving 3.3-Inch Parrotts. (One of the others is at The Citadel in Charleston while the third is at Harpers Ferry.) Also according to Hazlett, these rifles externally conform to the size an shape of a US Army 10-Pounder Parrott. However, the 3.3-Inch bore has saw-tooth rifling more typical of Southern rifles. The right trunnion is marked "WPF" (West Point Foundry), the left trunnion is marked "1861", and the muzzle is marked "3.3". (Apparently "CAV" is marked on the trunnion band, but I did not observe that.) Hazlett speculates on the provenance of these three rifles which show no US Army acceptance marks. Where they originally standard 2.9-inch Parrotts later rebored to fit in with a different supply chain? When in 1861 were they manufactured and how did they arrive in the South?
I would observe that a fair number of non-standard caliber rifled cannon have survived on and (relatively) near the Carolina coast. While many of these cannons are of British manufacture, not all are. My guess is that these rifles were used - in part - to provide mobile coast defense on the many waterways of the Carolina coast.
