Leeds and Co. Napoleon Number 19 at Petersburg National Battlefield
Leeds and Company Napoleon, Number 19, at Battery Number Five at Petersburg National Battlefield
Among the many interesting artillery pieces at Petersburg National Battlefield is what is likely the earliest surviving 12-Pounder Napoleon manufactured for the Confederacy. This Napoleon made by Leeds and Company of New Orleans is displayed at Battery Number Five within walking distance of the visitors center. (It is marked with the Leeds and Co. Foundry Number 19.)
Prior to the Civil War, Leeds and Company produced steam engines and equipment for sugar mills, saw mills, and cotton gins. With the beginning of the war, Leeds made an effort to cast heavy artillery, but their 8-Inch Columbiad failed - bursting on its sixty-third round in proof firing. The production of bronze field artillery was more successful. Daniel and Gunter list forty-nine bronze field guns delivered to Confederate arsenals: eleven 6-pounders, seventeen 6-pounder rifles, nine 12-pounder howitzers, and twelve 12-Pounder Napoleons. The Napoleons are among the earliest of the type to have entered Confederate service.
With the fall of New Orleans in April 1862, production at Leeds and Company ceased.
In outward appearance, the Leeds Napoleons fairly closely resembles the US Army Napoleon (officially the 12-Pounder Bronze Field Gun, Light, Pattern of 1857). The Leeds Napoleons have a muzzle swell and appear to have been turned on a lathe. The majority of Confederate Napoleons have no muzzle swell and a fairly rough appearance.
If Leeds production of 12-Pounder Napoleons was indeed only twelve guns, then very unusually all Leeds Napoleons survive to present as Olmstead, Stark, and Tucker list twelve survivors.
Number 19 is marked “Leeds & Co., New Orleans” on the right trunnion and “1861” on the left trunnion. It is likely marked with the number “19” on the rimbase above the right trunnion - though this marking is blocked from view by the trunnion cap of the carriage. Number 19 is one of only two 1861 marked Confederate Napoleons. The other is another Leeds gun - Number 20 in Carthage, North Carolina.
Daniel and Gunter speculate in their book that Number 19 may have served in Robertson’s (Florida) Battery during the Battle of Shiloh (pg. 35).
