US Navy 20-Pounder Number 115 of USS Sumpter

Feb 10

US Navy 20-Pounder Parrott Rifle Number 115 is displayed at the end of “Cannon Row” at Norfolk Naval Shipyard

A US Navy 20-Pounder, Registry Number 115, is displayed in Trophy Park at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. It was manufactured at West Point Foundry in 1862 and weighs 1,795 pounds. According to the research of Wayne Stark, Number 115 was carried aboard USS Sumpter which was accidentally sunk in a collision with the transport steamer General Meigs on June 24th, 1863. According to Stark it was salvaged from the wreck and was received at Norfolk by 1866.

USS Sumpter (it is referred to by this name in the Official Records, but is sometimes “corrected” to USS Sumter) was a merchant steamer named “Atlanta” which was purchased into navy service for the Paraguay Expedition of 1858-1859. She was armed with four 32-Pounders of 27 Hundredweight (the lightest 32-Pounder in USN service) and a 12-Pounder boat howitzer. By 1863 she had gained the 20-Pounder Parrott.

The collision on June 24th happened at night in poor visibility and at low speed. The impact seemed minor and General Meigs proceeded on her way. However, Sumpter’s commanding officer, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Peter Hayes soon found water rushing into his ship. Sumpter was so rotten that the slight impact had wrenched “the entire stem off of her.” Hayes ordered the ship abandoned - and five minutes later his men were in the boats and Sumpter’s bow nearly under. She sank in seven fathoms of water with only her topmasts visible above the water. (See OR-N, Ser. 1. Vol. 9. PP. 88-90.)

On land, the US Army’s 20-Pounder Parrott was a bit too heavy for efficient use as a field piece - weighing twice as much as the Ordnance Rifle and six hundred pounds more than a Napoleon. The Navy’s version differed primarily from the Army’s 20-Pounder in having a loop for a cascabel.

In Navy service, the 20-Pounder offered small, lightly built former merchant ships something more effective than a boat howitzer but still lighter than the heavy guns of purpose-built warships. Number 115’s service aboard a former merchant steamer might be regarded as typical - and Sumpter’s fate a reminder of the hazards that sailors on blockade duty faced.