The 32-Pounder of 32 Hundredweight at Petersburg
32-Pounder of 32 Hundredweight at Petersburg National Battlefield
A 32-Pounder of 32 Hundredweight of the type manufactured for the US Navy beginning in 1846 for use as the main battery aboard smaller sloops is displayed at Petersburg National Battlefield. The 32-Pounder of 32 Hundredweight is a chambered cannon - meaning the chamber in the barrel where the propellant charge is placed is of smaller diameter than the 6.4-Inch diameter of the main portion of the barrel.
While there was an even lighter 32-Pounder of 27 Hundredweight in the new system of US Navy Ordnance adopted in 1845/1846, 32 Hundredweight was historically very light for a 32-Pounder. By comparison, the long 12-Pounders used by the US Navy in the War of 1812 and before had weighed up to 34 hundredweight, and the light 24-Pounders manufactured for the small sloops of war of the Boston class later in the 1820s had been 32 hundredweight.
32-Pounder at Petersburg. Note the “582” stamped on the cascabel - this looks like a foundry marking.
Regarding the cannon now at Petersburg, aside from what appears to be a Foundry Marking of "582" stamped on the cascabel, I could not identify any other markings on the piece. It lacks the weight in hundredweight and USN registry number stamped on the breech and year of production and inspector's initials on the trunnions that would normally be expected. The survival of the lightly stamped foundry number suggests that the piece never had the other more deeply stamped markings. Olmstead et al. simply lists this piece as "unknown".
Detail of 1865 Photo showing what appears to be a light US Navy 32-Pounder captured in Confederate service and mounted upon an army style Siege and Garrison carriage. Detail of this photo: https://www.loc.gov/item/2018672124/
A clue to what this Navy-type piece is doing at Petersburg may be found in a set of 1865 photos of a group of captured Confederate artillery pieces which includes a light 32-Pounder on a army-type Siege and Garrison carriage. I would suspect that the Petersburg 32-Pounder saw similar army usage in the defense of Petersburg. The 32-Pounder in the photo is a different cannon as on the right trunnion "32 1846" can clearly be read. Note also the forward sight mounted on the bracket above the trunnions in the 1865 photo.
A significant number of this type were captured with the Navy Yard at Norfolk in 1861. (The list I've seen records that one hundred sixteen 32-Pounders of 32 Hundredweight fell into Southern hands at this time.) While being part of the "haul" at Gosport makes sense for the properly marked cannon in the 1865 photo, it doesn't explain the lack of markings of the Petersburg cannon.
Tredegar did manufacture this type of 32-Pounder in the 1840s. I wonder if the cannon now at Petersburg wasn't somehow related to this 1840s production but remained at Tredegar instead of being accepted into the US Navy.
The Light US Navy 32-Pounder may be seen in this photo. Library of Congress Photo: https://www.loc.gov/item/2018666654/
