Confederate forces used various sizes of Blakely rifles in several ways during the American Civil War.
First use against Fort Sumter Blakely was more successful in selling cannons to the Confederacy than to the British military or the Union. One of the first guns sold was a 12-pounder Blakely delivered to the Confederates for use against
Fort Sumter at the beginning of the American Civil War. That gun was the first rifled cannon fired in the war. Two Blakely "siege" rifles were used in the Confederate defense of Fort Pulaski in 1862. The Confederate commander of Fort Pulaski near the coast outside of
Savannah, Georgia during the
Siege of Fort Pulaski, Colonel
Charles H. Olmstead, used two Blakely rifles in his ultimately unsuccessful defense which ended with the fort's surrender on April 11, 1862 after a 112-day siege. These rifles were taken to
West Point as old trophies numbers 152 and 153 but returned to
Fort Pulaski National Monument in the 1930s. "The Widow Blakely" was a rifle that the Confederates used during their 1863 defense of
Vicksburg,
Mississippi. On May 22, 1863, a shell exploded in the gun's barrel while the Widow Blakely was firing at a Union gunboat. The Confederates cut away part of the barrel and continued to use the rifle as a
mortar until Vicksburg fell to the
Union Army under the command of
Major General Ulysses S. Grant. A gun at West Point which was misidentified as
Whistling Dick was returned to the Vicksburg National Battlefield Park when it was identified by historian
Ed Bearss as "Widow Blakely." Two Blakelys, the largest guns in the Confederate arsenal, were mounted in 1863 at Charleston, South Carolina. These were ordered to the defense of Charleston, South Carolina harbor by
Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard and
Confederate Secretary of War James A. Seddon. General
Roswell S. Ripley improperly loaded the chamber of one of the guns with powder to reduce the size of cartridge bags. This cracked the chamber and caused other damage on the first fire and it had to be replaced. They were loaded with excessive charges and blown up when Charleston was evacuated on February 18, 1865. Principal characteristics of Blakely rifled seacoast guns were: Total length of gun: ; bore: ; diameter of air chamber: ; length of bore to bronze chamber: ; total length of bore to bottom of chamber: ; maximum diameter of cast iron: ; diameter of cast iron muzzle: ; diameter over steel hoop: ; weight: 27 tons. An rifled British 68-pounder cannon of 95 hundredweight was captured by Union Army forces at
Fort Morgan, Alabama on August 23, 1864. The cannon was originally a smoothbore manufactured by
Low Moor Iron Company in 1862. It was banded and rifled with three grooves of right-hand twists in the manner of a Blakely. The
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies list two 8-inch Blakelys as in the Confederate defenses at Fort Morgan.
R. Preston Chew's battery, the initial battery of the unit, was originally called Ashby's Horse Artillery. The battery was engaged in
Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign (1862). According to historian Jennings C. Wise, the armament of the battery "from first to last consisted of 3 pieces; a Blakely imported British rifled piece, which fired a percussion shell; a smooth-bore 12-pounder howitzer; and a 3-inch iron rifle." Four surviving 3.5-inch Blakely's have been placed at
Shiloh National Military Park. A July 3, 1862 letter from Frank M. Coker of the Sumter Flying Artillery to his wife mentions that during the
Seven Days Battles he was ordered to carry a large Blakely rifled gun down the line. The Confederate
Army of Northern Virginia had a variety of artillery pieces at the
Battle of Antietam. Many Confederate pieces were inferior models compared to most of those used by the Union
Army of the Potomac. Blakely rifles were among the better rifled models used by the Confederates at that battle. Confederate batteries performed well despite being hampered by the frequent deployment of four different cannon in a battery. John B. Brockenbrough's battery, which was heavily engaged in the battle north and west of the Dunker Church, had four different cannon, including a Blakely rifle. Chew's Battery fought at the
Battle of Fairfield, one of the cavalry battles on July 3, 1863, the third day of the
Battle of Gettysburg. Blakely rifles, as the most commonly imported British artillery guns, continued in service through the war. Chew's Battery served through the rest of the war concluding with the
Appomattox campaign. An example of an 18-pounder, 4-inch caliber based on bore dimension was captured in the Union attack on Confederates salvaging the blockade runner
Hebe near Fort Fisher, North Carolina on August 23, 1863 has been placed in the Washington Navy Yard. Ripley wrote that this should be catalogued as in field service due to its known employment. The U.S. National Park Service has noted that Blakely rifled cannon were used at several battles of the American Civil War in the Shenandoah Valley (
Jackson's Valley campaign;
Valley campaigns of 1864).
At Sea Blakely rifles were used by the Confederate ship
SS Georgiana, which was run aground and scuttled on the night of March 19, 1863, while attempting to run past the
Union Blockade and into port at Charleston, South Carolina on its first voyage. Two 2.9-inch iron Blakely rifles were recovered from the wreck in 1974. The commerce raider
CSS Alabama carried a 100-pounder Blakely rifled gun in the
forecastle. The wreck of the
Alabama, which was sunk by the
USS Kearsarge on June 19, 1864, off
Cherbourg, France was found in 1984 and the 3.5-ton Blakely rifle that was the ''Alabama's
forward pivot gun was recovered from the wreck. Surviving 7-inch Navy rifles are at the Washington Navy Yard and at Cannes, France. Historian Warren Ripley noted that if the shell from Alabama's
Blakely rifle which lodged in the Kearsarge's''
rudder post had exploded, the outcome of the battle might have been different. The
CSS Florida (cruiser) also carried two 7-inch and four 6-inch Blakely guns. A 7-inch Blakely rifle displayed as a trophy at
Washington Navy Yard was taken from the "Anglo-Rebel Pirate
Florida". == Other surviving pieces ==