Doug Waters of Plano, TX (L) presents the Whitworth bolt to Friends of Raymond president, Parker Hills, on the site of the Whitworth cannon during a recent battlefield tour. Photo by Len Riedel, Blue and Gray Education Society, Danville, VA.

Doug Waters and his father, Ed Waters, donated a rare and valuable artifact--a Confederate Whitworth cannon shell--to Friends of Raymond during an October 21, 2006, Raymond battlefield tour attended by Doug, who works for Gallagher Bassett Services, Inc. in Plano, TX. The younger Waters, who is intensely interested in Texas’ participation in the American Civil War, has often visited Raymond, where Colonel Hiram Granbury’s Seventh Texas Infantry Regiment fought on May 12, 1863. On his most recent visit Waters came bearing the prized Whitworth shell, which was manufactured in England; was shipped to the Confederate States in America; and was dug out of the ground near Warrenton, VA. The non-explosive shell was manufactured to exacting specifications and was designed to be fired by the English-made Whitworth rifled cannon.

The Whitworth rifled cannon was invented by Sir Joseph Whitworth of Manchester, England, who began work on these guns in 1857. One unique characteristic of the guns was the spiral-rifled hexagonal bore of the barrel, a feature that greatly increased the spin, and thus the accuracy, of the projectile. Whitworth’s iron projectiles were long and thin, and, through a great deal of experimentation, he learned to taper, or “boattail,” the rear of the projectile to increase its range—a shape still used today. The projectile donated to Friends of Raymond was made for a 2.75” Whitworth cannon, and is solid iron with a length of 8.87,” a diameter of 2.75,” and a weight of 12 pounds, 10 ounces. Another unique characteristic of the 2.75” Whitworth cannon, sometimes called a 12-pounder, was its range of 10,000 yards, or over 5 ½ miles—extremely long range for a 19th Century weapon. However, this long range was hardly useful in a time when the gunners had to see the target to achieve a hit. It was the accuracy of the Whitworth and its six-sided projectile (called a “bolt”) that was the weapon’s strongpoint. One Confederate officer in Virginia recalled, “I also think of taking two 12-pounder Whitworths along. They make excellent sharpshooting to dismount guns.”

Only a small number of Whitworth rifled cannon made it into the Confederacy through the Union naval blockade during the Civil War. The North had better access to English weapons, but had only one Whitworth battery. Those six guns saw limited service in the Peninsula Campaign in Virginia in 1862. The battery was then sent to the defensive earthworks around Washington, DC, where the guns sat for the rest of the war, occasionally firing a ceremonial shot. It seemed that the North had plenty of cannon already, and a foreign-made battery that required special ammunition simply did not fit into the big picture.

The South, however, had a very limited cannon-manufacturing capability, and the Confederate armies used almost any gun they could get. While records are unclear as to exactly how many Whitworths were imported by the Confederacy, there are only twelve 2.75” Whitworths in the United States today, a clear indicator of the rarity of the cannon.

There was one Confederate Whitworth at Raymond during the battle, and it belonged to a three-gun detachment of Captain Hiram Bledsoe’s Missouri Battery. During the battle, the barrel of that gun exploded and the gun was abandoned. Soon, however, there will be a new Whitworth where Bledsoe’s gun blazed away in 1863. While none of the extremely rare cannon are available for purchase today, Friends of Raymond is in the process of having one hand-manufactured, using the specifications obtained by painstakingly measuring one of the two Whitworths next to the Peace Memorial on the Gettysburg battlefield.

When Doug Waters discovered that Friends of Raymond was soon to have a Whitworth, he spoke with his father and the two agreed that Raymond was a more fitting place for the rare projectile than in their private collection, despite the fact that Doug had searched for an elusive Whitworth bolt for years before obtaining it from a respected relics dealer. He explained that, “I have attended a number of historic tours with General Hills, president of Friends of Raymond, and my father and I are greatly impressed with the efforts of Friends of Raymond and all that the organization has accomplished in preserving our history. We look forward to continuing to assist this organization in its future efforts.”

On a crisp Saturday in October, father and son made good their promise at the site of the Whitworth cannon carriage on the corner on Old Port Gibson Road and Utica Street, where Bledsoe’s three Confederate cannon once defiantly spewed hot iron toward twenty-two opposing Federal cannon a bit over ¾ of a mile away. Fittingly, on this historic ground Doug presented the Whitworth bolt to Friends of Raymond.

Because of the generosity of Doug and Ed Waters, Raymond now has an original Whitworth bolt. Because of the work of Friends of Raymond, the Raymond battlefield will soon have a Whitworth cannon—a very rare sight on any battlefield. Both cannon and projectile, once designed and manufactured as a weapons of destruction, will soon become implements of instruction as the interpretation of the Battle of Raymond continues.