US Navy 100-Pounder Parrott Rifle Number 116 in Danvers, Massachusetts
US Navy 100-Pounder Parrott Number 116 at Walnut Grove Cemetery in Danvers, Massachusetts
US Navy 100-Pounder Parrott Rifle Number 116 is displayed at Walnut Grove Cemetery in Danvers, Massachusetts. Number 116 was manufactured at West Point Foundry in 1863 and weighed 9,806 pounds. Many thanks to friend of the page Steve Walton for sharing these photos!
Number 116 was carried aboard the steam frigate USS Wabash. It is recorded as firing 95 times aboard Wabash which suggests that it was on the engaged side during the First Battle of Fort Fisher when Wabash all but emptied her magazines firing at the fort. By contrast, 100-Pounder Number 115 also served aboard Wabash and was only fired 8 times aboard that vessel (strongly suggesting that it was on the unengaged side).
The First Battle of Fort Fisher saw five 100-Pounder Parrotts burst in the Federal fleet - causing more casualties by far than Confederate return fire as well as more casualties than the entire bombardment did ashore. When the fleet returned in early January, the 100-Pounders were generally unused as the sailors greatly mistrusted them. A Navy report ended up placing the blame for the burst Parrotts on shells rather than the guns themselves.
Numbers 115 and 116 we both removed from Wabash in February of 1865. They continued to have a shared history. They were mounted together aboard USS Richmond in 1869 and served aboard the steam sloop until 1877. During that time Number 116 was fired 60 more times (for a total of 155 total fires during its service) and Number 115 74 more times. Both were loaned to the James L. Bates Post 118 of the Grand Army of the Republic in Swampscott, Massachusetts in July of 1896. Number 116 is now displayed at Walnut Grove Cemetery in Danvers - less than 10 miles from Swampscott. Number 115 is not listed in the register of surviving guns. In 1942 when a call was put out for local communities to give up their historic artillery for scrap to support the war effort, some communities responded by sending one gun and retaining the other. It may be that Number 115 was scrapped circa 1942. There is a small chance that it still exists somewhere in eastern Massachusetts but has thus far gone unnoticed by those of us who document such things.
USS Wabash photographed from the deck of USS Weehawken at Port Royal, South Carolina in 1863.
