3-inch Gun was light, accurate and lethal
The 3-inch Ordnance Rifle was also known as the ordnance rifle, the ordnance gun, the Griffen gun, and was sometimes erroneously referred to as the Rodman rifle.
The gun was invented by John Griffen, superintendent of the Safe Harbor Iron Works in Pennsylvania. His initial design was built by the Phoenix Iron Company of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, which manufactured most of the 3-inch Rifles used in the Union Armies. Griffen developed a process whereby strips of wrought iron 3/4 inches thick and 4 1/2 inches wide were wrapped around an iron core by a lathe. The tube was then heated and rolled to a length of seven feet before trunnions were welded on. Finally, a bore was reamed out. This process made the 3-inch Ordnance Rifle the lightest gun in field artillery service during the Civil War.
Despite its light weight, the process of wrapping the wrought iron bands around the core made it the strongest, most durable gun in the field. The gun was deployed in support of infantry to repulse enemy assaults, often positioned behind the lines and fired over the heads of friendly troops. Range made the piece excellent for long-range shelling. Though its use was limited in wooded areas, it was accurate and lethal in open spaces.
The rifle that stands before you was brought to the Lonoke County Courthouse before 1911 through the efforts of John Hallum, a soldier in the Civil War and a one time lawyer in Lonoke.
Inset table of informationU.S. M-1861 3-inch Ordnance Rifle
Bore diameter 3 inches
Tube composition Wrought Iron
Length 73 inches
Length of tube 69 inches
Weight of tube 816 pounds
Local stories about the rifle are that it was uned in the Brooks/Baxter War of 1874 and that it was taken from Federal forces and hidden in a bayou and nicknamed the
Lady Furlow. It was restored in the 1920s in a blacksmith shop across from the courthouse.
Little documented history of Rifle No. 705 can be found. However, guns of this type were in the area from September, 1863 to 1865, being deployed by such units as the Battery K, Second Missouri Light Artillery (US) and The Twenty-fifth Ohio Battery (US) in the Little Rock Campaign, including Browsville and Reed's Bridge.
Inset table of informationThe Hotchkiss Shell (image actual size)
Weight 9.5 pounds
Powder charge 1 pound
Range @ 5? elev. 1,830 yards
Muzzle velocity 1,215 ft./sec.
This projectile was invented by Andrew Hotchkiss of Sharon, Connecticut, and patented October 16, 1855. This particular example is without its sabot or concussion fuze or percussion fuze (two different fuzes.) The technology of rifled artillery also produced a new kind of projectile that could travel greater distances with a higher degree of accuracy.
In addition to the Hotchkiss Steel Shell, a 3 Inch Shenkle round was used under certain circumstances.
This wayside exhibit was made possible by a generous gift from Arkansas Senator Bobby Glover (D)
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