Library of Congress Collection 10-inch Columbiad in Charleston.

By Stephen Davis · Originally published November-December 2025 · pp. 20–21

Library of Congress Collection 10-inch Columbiad in Charleston. — lead photograph from the original article

COLL E CT ION

10-inch Columbiad

at the White Point Garden Battery

Confederate Brig. Gen. Roswell S. Ripley, commander of the Charleston District in Beauregard’s department, always worried about Federal ironclad gunboats getting too close to the city. He therefore developed three fire zones to keep them well out in the harbor. The first lay between Forts Sumter and Moultrie; the second lay between Sumter and a fort named after him, built in 1862 on a harbor sand bar. The third created a triangle between White Point Garden, Battery Glover on James Island, and Castle Pinckney, nearly a mile east of the city on a small island.

The Confederate artillery at Forts Sumter, Moultrie, and other positions proved so effective against venturesome monitors that they never got into Charleston’s inner harbor. This and other big guns at the Point Battery did not have to be called into play. This 10-inch Columbiad smoothbore cannon was manufactured by Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia. The men around the gun are laborers. In mid-April 1865, they were at work removing the battery’s cannon. (Library of Congress)

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Photographs from the Original Article

Library of Congress Collection 10-inch Columbiad in Charleston. — photograph 2 from the original article

Library of Congress Collection 10-inch Columbiad in Charleston. — photograph 3 from the original article

Library of Congress Collection 10-inch Columbiad in Charleston. — photograph 4 from the original article

Captions and credits appear in the article text as originally printed.