The Burst Gun of Battery Brown

An 8-inch Parrott rifle in Battery Brown with its muzzle blown clean away, the barrel tipped up on its carriage like a felled chimney, implements still leaning where the crew left them. Haas & Peale signed the plate; the gun had already signed its own discharge papers.

Battery Brown's platforms carried two 8-inch Parrotts from 1 August 1863, and the type kept destroying itself in service: before the month was out Gillmore signaled the fleet for a replacement — 'I have burst three 8-inch guns in all.' The maker's defense of his rifles, printed in Gillmore's own volume, is noted in this site's Gillmore collection; this photograph is the prosecution's exhibit.