Fort Foote: Columbiads on the Potomac

Last Sunday (New Year’s Day), after a bit of breakfast, we drove out to Maryland and spent an hour or so exploring another fort in the Washington Defenses, Fort Foote.

Unlike Fort Ward, Fort Foote is one of the official “Fort Circle Parks”
maintained by the National Park Service.

In the first year of the war, the War Department was primarily afraid of possible overland assaults, particularly from Virginia, so the early forts were built to command the high hills in the region (such as Fort Ward) and to control access to the bridges into Washington (such as Fort Marcy, guarding the Chain Bridge).

But in early 1862, after the ironclad CSS Virginia sank two Union gunships on March 8, Washington suddenly looked very vulnerable to naval assault from the Potomac. Even after seizing Gosport Naval Yard (which ended the ability of the South to build more ironclads), the possibility of intervention by Great Britain (and her formidable navy) in the Confederacy’s favor was considered a real and serious threat.

To protect Washington from such an attack, the War Department built a large artillery battery on Rosiers Bluff, a 100-foot-high cliff on the Maryland side of the Potomac River, about 6 miles downriver from Washington. This fort would serve as the chief defense of the Potomac River, supported by Battery Rodgers, a smaller battery situated on the Virginia side of the river at Jones Point in Alexandria.

Drawing of Fort Foote. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

The Maryland fort was completed in August 1863 and named after the late Admiral Andrew H. Foote, former commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Foote had commanded the armored riverboats that pounded Fort Donelson from the Cumberland River in February 1862, but he was badly wounded in that battle and died of complications on June 26, 1863.

Fort Foote was equipped with twelve heavy guns, including six 30-pounder Parrott Rifles, four 200-pounder Parrott Rifles, and (most notably) two Model 1861 U.S. 15-inch Columbiads, commonly called "Rodman guns." This model was the largest cannon used in the Civil War, named after Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Rodman, whose manufacturing innovations (the "wet chill process") made it possible to produce guns of this size.  

Model 1861 U.S. 15-inch Columbiad
(The Rodman Gun)

Today, Fort Foote Park still has the two Rodman guns, which continue to loom over the Potomac River as they did 150 years ago.

A well trained team of 12 men could charge, load, aim, and fire
the Rodman gun once every four minutes.

The original fort was built with a mix of earth and timber. The wall that faced the Potomac was 500 feet long and 20 feet thick. Today, much of the original earthworks are still intact (and covered with woods).

Earthworks, Fort Foote

The two Columbiads at Fort Foote (along with a third Columbiad at Battery Rodgers) were the largest guns defending Washington, far larger than any guns in the inland forts, because of the potential need to repel an assault by ironclad vessels. The smoothbore cannons were not terribly accurate, but they had a range of three miles and could be loaded and fired once every four minutes.    

These smoothbore cannons weighed 25 tons and required 40 pounds of powder
to send a 440-pound round-shot over 5000 yards.

The guns were large enough to be considered a novelty by the Washington community. Large crowds of civilian and military observers gathered to watch the guns fire on February 27 and April 1, 1864. And even though they haven't been fired in over a century, the Columbiads continue to impress the locals.  

Our photographer is impressed by the Columbiads.