The Winans Steam Gun (1861) 0n Mythbusters in 2007

By John Lamb

The “Winans” Steam gun aka the Baltimore Steam Battery, the Baltimore Steam Gun, and Dickinson’s Patent Centrifugal Gun, rocketed to national prominence after the April 19, 1861 clash between secessionists and Federal troops in Baltimore, Maryland. Readers of newspapers across the United States learned of a strange, and allegedly powerful steam powered weapon brought forth to fend off more Union troops seeking to pass through the town by rail to Washington.

Though it was invented and built elsewhere, the gun quickly became associated with Ross Winans, a pioneering locomotive builder, and inventor of an unorthodox class of steamships – the Winans Cigar ships. Since then the gun has become a familiar part of the story of the riot’s aftermath. It has been counted as his invention ever since, though his connection to it has been greatly exaggerated thanks to hundreds of secondary sources that incorporate incorrect information.

The account that follows is based on more than 10 years research on the gun in period publications and other sources for a book that is being developed on it.

Rather than being the invention of a rich Marylander, the gun in fact grew out of work by Ohio inventors William Joslin and Charles S. Dickinson on a hand-powered centrifugal gun. After the two had a falling out, Dickinson promoted the device under his name, and found funding to build a new steam powered gun in Boston in 1860. He brought the device to Baltimore where it was publicly exhibited.

After April 19, 1861, the gun was taken from Dickinson and/ or his associates by city police to be put in readiness for use if needed. Available evidence suggests that the gun was take to foundry/machine shop of Ross Winans and his son Thomas who had been engaged by city’s Board of Police to make pikes, shot and other munitions items. Shortly after, the gun was taken from the Winans’ facility and publicly displayed with other weapons being gathered by city authorities.

In the excitement of the times, Ross Winans’ public involvement in state’s right politics in Maryland, his great fortune, word of the munitions work being done at his factory for the city, and city defense appropriations became mixed in the press, and were carried in papers across the country.

After calm returned, the gun was taken again to Winans shop for repair at city expense, then returned to Dickinson, who then attempted to take it to Harper’s Ferry to sell to Confederate forces. Union forces captured the gun, intact, in mid journey and took it to their camp at Relay, Maryland.

His association with the gun, his politics and rumors of his munitions making led to Ross Winan’s arrest and a brief detention by Federal forces. He was released after 48 hours, after agreeing that he would not take up arms against the government.

The gun was eventually sent to Annapolis, then to Fortress Monroe, and eventually to Massachusetts. It would be exhibited at various events long after the war but would eventually be scrapped at the end of the 19th century.

It is perhaps the best known, yet most widely misunderstood steam gun of the Civil War period.

The author of this account was featured in Mythbuster’s episode #93 – Confederate Steam Gun that premiered in December 2007.  Thanks to Mythbusters, his research was noted in an extensive story in the Baltimore Sun.

Lamb has published several articles on Maryland Civil War topics, is the creator of www.2ndmdinfantryus.org, has produced six field recordings of shapenote singing, and is currently at work on several historical book projects.

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Dr. Draper Stone’s Steam Gun (1861)

On May 25, 1861, while the “Winans” Steam Gun was drawing considerable press attention, Dr. Draper Stone’s Steam Gun was noticed by Scientific American. It consisted of a boiler and engine with a revolving barrel, of differing length, depending on what size of projectile was desired. The barrel had six openings from which shells would be forced out as fast as it could revolve – 200-300 per minute “without any difficulty.” It could be aimed in any direction, and could be made to throw musket balls two miles “and kill a man” or could be built of a size to send 5 pound shot five miles!

The May 13, 1861 Milwaukee Morning Sentinel provides a description of a test of this gun – Stone had attached a 7 foot barrel to the boiler of a large steam engine at the La Cross Round House.  Using steam at less than 75psi, he shot projectiles at a wooden target -”some of them were forced entirely through it.” Stone claimed that at 200- 300 PSI he could send a shot that would kill a man a half mile away.

While the writer of the article had had a pleasant excursion to the round house to view the test, he noted that a committee formed by the local chamber of commerce to look at the gun had not showed up …”

The Steam Air Cannon (1861)

The Baton Rouge Advocate of December 12, 1861 contained a description of a most interesting device called the Steam Air-Cannon invented by Henry Cowing. It was described as a locomotive adapted to run on “common roads” that had one or more air cannons attached. These guns had “no report, little if any concussion, not heating, and no smoke …” It was suggested that the gun had applications on warships, or on land for river protection. The cannon was described as breech loading. With the cannon removed, the remainder of the device could be used to dig ditches, throw up embankments, and as a fire engine!

The Land Moniter (1862)

September 1862 found the Daily Times of Leavenworth, Kansas, reporting on the construction, in St. Louis, of a massive Land Monitor – weighing 25,000 pounds. Deployed by a gunner, a horseman and two horses, it would fire 50 shots with “rifle accuracy every five seconds, 600 in a minute or longer intervals. It could sweep a line from to feet to 500 yards, until 5,000 shot had been fired. Reloading for another 5,000 shots would take 5 minutes. It could be brought to bear on any point in less than half a minute,” the article said.

Pity the poor horses who might have drawn the short straw of moving such a massive device into battle!

What’s a Steam Gun?

With steam power a driving force for manufacturing, land, sea and river travel in 19th Century America, inventors sought ways to use steam power for military purposes. These devices took two main forms:

Steam Guns – these devices attempted to harness steam directly from a boiler to propel shot.

“Centrifugal” Steam Guns – these devices used steam power to drive mechanisms that moved shot in a circular fashion, ala a sling shot, and released them in the direction of the target in somewhat of a controlled matter. Though the description of centrifugal, is perhaps not the most correct in terms of science, it is of the period, and inventors of these devices often talked of harnessing the same forces that moved the universe for destructive purposes.

Besides a focus on these sorts of guns, this blog will from time to time, look at various hand powered approaches to centrifugal guns…