Dahlgren Gun

The Dahlgren gun is a family of muzzle-loading naval cannon designed by United States Navy officer John A. Dahlgren beginning in 1849, after an accidental gun burst killed a gunner and pushed the Navy toward a safer shape. The guns took on a distinctive smooth, curved profile, sometimes called the soda-bottle shape, that concentrated the metal where the pressure of firing was greatest, and the design let a single gun fire shot, shell, shrapnel, canister, or grapeshot rather than requiring a separate gun for each. Made as light boat howitzers, heavier shell guns, and rifled versions, Dahlgren guns armed Union warships including the ironclad monitors and became one of the signature naval weapons of the American Civil War, with no Dahlgren shell gun recorded to have burst in service.