Editor’s Note: This article and the one that follows, both about the 3-Inch Ordnance Rifle, were first published in Summer 1982 issue of The Artilleryman, Vol. 3, No. 3. We thought the information, based on original research, was worth sharing again.

 

For 120 years there has been a lot of confusion and a great lack of knowledge about the design and development of the Civil War's most popular rifled fieldpiece, the 3-inch Wrought Iron Gun, as it was originally named, or Ordnance Rifle as it came to be known.

Due to the gun's somewhat similar profile to the seacoast defense guns designed by Capt. Thomas J. Rodman, the 3-inch Ordnance Rifle, or, as it was called in government contracts, "3 inch Wrought Iron Rifle Cannon," has often been referred to as a "Rodman Rifle."

This confusion existed in the 1860s and continues to this day with contemporary writers, such as Fairfax Downey, often mentioning one battery armed with Ordnance Rifles and another with Rodmans. Several regimental histories written shortly after the war refer to Rodman Rifles as do some official reports of the period.

The purpose of the accompanying article is to shed some new light on development of the gun, its design evolution, and to document Capt. Rodman’s connection with this process. This is not intended to provide a definitive history of the 3-inch Wrought Iron Rifle, but only to cover its early evolution. The reader can decide for himself whether or not it should be called a "Rodman," but at the outset we'd like to say that our opinion is that it shouldn't.

It is difficult to prove a negative proposition — that is, that Capt. Rodman is not due credit for the 3-inch Wrought Iron Gun.

Published here for the first time as far as we know, is documentation showing that Rodman, a member of the three-man board responsible for the design and specifications of this gun, was present during all the design sessions and undoubtedly had influence.

But as far as can be determined, he had no special influence which should credit him as designer. On the contrary, nowhere in the minutes of these meetings is Rodman's contribution specifically mentioned. But on the immediately preceding page he is cited by name for proposing a change in the vent position of the 13-inch mortar.

Rodman was an expert in cast iron, having invented and patented a new process for casting large guns and having made many experiments and observations over the previous 15 years which were employed in the manufacture of cast iron guns. But the 3-inch Ordnance Rifle was of wrought iron. Rodman is not known for expertise in wrought iron. And it is clear that the basic design for the gun was that of John Griffen of the Phoenix Iron Company, its inventor and patent holder.

Rodman himself never claimed authorship or design credit for the 3-inch fieldpiece, and neither the "Register of Purchases of Rodman Guns 1861-67" (National Archives Record Group 156, Entry 84) nor the "Register of the Firing of Rodman Guns Manufactured between 1860 and 1869 - Arranged by Type and Thereafter by Foundry" (National Archives Record Group 156, Entry 212), shows 3-inch guns of any type.

Of the extant drawings in the Archives, the only one showing what we know as the Ordnance Rifle is marked "3-inch Wrought Iron Gun" and dated Dec. 18, 1865. Its big sister, the 4-1/2-inch rifle, is represented by a drawing entitled "4-1/2 inch Rifled Siege Gun, Model 1861, As Proposed By The Ordnance Board, July 20th, 1861." This is the date of the final entry in the Ordnance Board minutes of the series of meetings at which Griffen's 3-inch Rifle design was modified. (See following story.)

If Capt. Rodman felt entitled to credit for either one of these guns, it would seem that his name would be on the drawings. Every other Rodman gun in the Archives records has Rodman's name prominently noted on the drawing, including a very similar 3-1/2 inch gun called "Model of 1870" and dated June 28, 1870, at Rock Island Arsenal where Rodman was then commander. (This Model 1870 is not known to have been produced. There also was a Model 1868 3-1/2-inch gun of wrought iron, and at least two 3-1/2 inch wrought iron guns were produced by Phoenix in 1861.)

The 1861 Ordnance Board, which made the final design for the 3-inch rifle, was comprised of Capt. Alexander B. Dyer, president; Capt. Theodore T.S. Laidley, recorder; and Capt. Thomas J. Rodman, member.

Dyer was the man who tested both the 1856 Phoenix-produced Griffen gun and the first 1861 model. Laidley was the officer sent to Phoenixville, Pa., to inspect and test the first production guns of the final design.

All three men were present for all the meetings at which the Ordnance Rifle specifications were drawn and the final drawing produced. Both Dyer and Laidley signed the minutes of the meeting, as officers of the board.

If Rodman was due official credit for designing this gun, it escapes us how his contribution is not singled out in the minutes nor his name affixed to the drawings. It would be easier to say Dyer had a greater influence. He had tested and accepted all the Griffen guns since 1856, and at the same series of meetings which designed the gun, the Dyer projectile was specified as the ammunition to be ordered for it.

Dyer would have had a lot of input as he had an interest in seeing that the new gun would handle his already invented projectile. And Dyer was no slouch — he went on to become Chief of Ordnance in 1864, a post he held for 10 years.

Rodman's fame came primarily from his patents for an internal cooling process for cast iron guns. This was useable only on guns over six inches in diameter in order for there to be room for a jacketed core which circulated the cold water down the bore. The 3-inch rifle was made of rolled wrought iron under a process invented and patented by John Griffen of Phoenix Iron Company in 1856.

Most significant, the accompanying research article shows Capt. A.B. Dyer's drawing of the actual Griffen gun he tested at Fort Monroe in March 1861 and it was upon his recommendation that the order for the first 300 guns was placed with the Phoenix Iron Company.

This drawing has never before been published and represents the "missing link" between the first Griffen wrought iron guns of 1856 and the ultimate 1861 production guns. The basic design is remarkably similar to the final Ordnance Board specification for the Model 1861 3-inch Wrought Iron Rifle, and the design was Griffen's, not Rodman's.

Furthermore, when Samuel Reeves, president of Phoenix Iron Company, received the final drawing and order for the first 300 rifles, he was agitated over the expense the design changes would cause. On July 29, he wrote Brig. Gen. James Ripley, chief of Ordnance, that he was immediately coming to Washington to discuss it.

He apparently was referred to Laidley (not Rodman) as his next letter to Ripley was datelined Washington, July 31, 1861, and said "Since arriving at Washington and conferring with Major Laidley, I find the gun to be made will weigh not to exceed 830 lbs. which is 60 lbs. less than I supposed, also that no sights are to be fitted by us on the guns." He then proposed a price of $330 per gun which was accepted the same day in a letter from General Ripley.

If Rodman was the key design man, why would Reeves have been sent to Laidley for calculations of how much the gun would weigh?

In February 1862, the government put notices in newspapers across the country asking companies with government contracts to report to the Secretary of War just what they were working on and what office had let the contract. With the rush to war production, apparently things had gotten out of hand and the department had no idea of what had been ordered from whom. This was an attempt to straighten things out.

In response, Samuel Reeves wrote that he was currently working on a contract for 600 guns, the first 300 of which had been finished. "I believe that I can state with the most positive assurance, that the guns we have thus far delivered, have given entire satisfaction to Gen. Ripley and other officers of the Ordnance; Major Dyer, Major Laidley and Captain (James G.) Benton, especially have an accurate knowledge respecting them and their peculiar mode of manufacture. So also has Quart. Mast. Genl. Meigs, and I can refer confidently to the opinions of these distinguished officers in regard to the advantages of this arm."

No mention of Captain Rodman at all. In fact, none of the correspondence between Phoenix Iron Company and the Chief of Ordnance or Secretary of War for the year 1861 mentions Rodman anywhere.

Call it Ordnance Rifle, Griffen Gun, 3-Inch Wrought Iron Rifle, or 3-Inch U.S. Rifle, as it sometimes is known, but to call it a Rodman would be to ignore the facts on record.