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| Rodman columbiad. |
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Delaware, and Texas had not drawn, at the close of 1860, their annual quotas of arms, and Massachusetts, Tennessee, and Kentucky only in part; while Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kansas were, by order of the Secretary of War, supplied with their quotas for 1861 in advance, and Pennsylvania and Maryland in part.”
This advance of arms to the eight Southern States was in addition to the transfer, at about the same time, of one hundred and fifteen thousand muskets to Southern arsenals by the same Secretary of War.
Not content with thus supplying the Slave-labor States with small arms, that traitorous minister attempted to give them heavy guns only a few days before he left his office.
On the 20th of December, he ordered forty columbiads1 and four 32-pounders to be sent immediately
from the arsenal at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to the unfinished fort on Ship Island, off the coast of Mississippi; and seventy-one columbiads and seven 32-pounders to be sent from the same arsenal to the embryo fort at Galveston, which would not be ready for its armament in less than five years. This bold attempt of the conspirator to furnish the enemies of the Government with heavy ordnance was frustrated by the vigilance and prompt action of the people of Pittsburg.
When the fact became known that Quartermaster Taliaferro (a Virginian) was about to send these guns from the arsenal, an immense meeting of the citizens, called by the Mayor, was held, and the guns were retained.
The conspirators, in Congress and out of it, denounced this exhibition of “mob law” bitterly.
Floyd soon afterward fled to Virginia, and his successor, Joseph Holt, countermanded the order.
It was to that faithless minister (Floyd) and his plastic implement of treason, Adjutant-General Cooper, that Major Anderson addressed his earnest letter, pleading for power to protect the property of the Republic in Charleston harbor, and to preserve the integrity of the nation.
The reply was precisely as might be expected from such men. It was contained in less than a dozen lines, by which permission was given him to send a few workmen to repair Castle Pinckney; and he was instructed that when, thereafter, he had any communication to make for the information of the Department, it must be addressed to the Adjutant-General's office, or to the Secretary of War.2 They discovered in Anderson too true a patriot for their use, and they were
1 A columbiad is an American cannon, of very large caliber, invented by Colonel George Bomford, of New York, who was in the Ordnance Department in the War of 1812. These guns were used in that war, chiefly as bomb-cannon. They were introduced into the French service, with slight modifications, by General Paixhan, and are known as Paixhan guns. Those of the old pattern were chambered, but they are now cast without, and are otherwise greatly improved. The 10-inch columbiad weighs fifteen thousand four hundred pounds, and is one hundred and twenty-six inches in length. The immense columbiad of 15-inch caliber, represented in the engraving, and of which more will be said hereafter, was invented by Captain T. J. Rodman, of the Ordnance Corps. These, unlike most other cannon, are cast hollow. The original inventor of the Columbiad (Bomford) died in Boston, in the spring of 1848.
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