1.5 inch Hughes Breechloading Cannon

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• Type: Breechloading Smoothbore or Rifled gun, 15 rifle grooves
• Rarity: Very Rare
• Years of Manufacture: 1861 to 1863
• Tube Composition: Wrought iron
• Rate of Fire: 6 to 8 rounds per minute
• Bore Diameter: 1.5 inches
• Standard Powder Charge: unknown
• Projectiles: Lead balls (smoothbore), unknown (rifle)
• Tube Length: 47.5 inches
• Tube Weight: Not Available
• Effective Range: 3 miles (smoothbore), unknown (rifle)
• No. in North America: at least 12 or more
• Cost in 1861 Dollars: $600 (CS) ($6,000 for 10 guns)
• Invented By: D. W. Hughes (patented)
• Manufactured By: Street, Hungerford & Company of Memphis, Tennessee
• Special Notes: Barrel includes a copper sleeve water jacket, it surrounds the barrel. When filled with water, it helps to improve cooling during rapid fire.

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More about Street, Hungerford & Company and the Hughes Cannon

Located in Memphis, Tennessee, the foundry of Street, Hungerford & Company, operated by Anthony S. Street and Fayette H. Hungerford, employed nearly 100 hands in the production of wagons, railroad cars, plows, and iron castings. Sensing the oncoming war, Street and Hungerford converted their business to cannon and munitions production. Prior to the war, the foundry produced a wide variety of ordinance. After the firing on Fort Sumter, activities were enlarged to include the casting of 6-pound cannon. Street, Hungerford & Company's cannon casting later grew to include Hughes' guns (A small breechloader firing a one-pound ball six to eight times a minute), Parrott guns, and a few heavy guns.

The firm's prior production of a variety of wood products made for an easy transition to the manufacture of gun carriages. The firm produced a large number of such carriages, some of which were made for the guns cast at the nearby Quinby & Robinson plant.

The barrels of the Hughes Cannons were supposedly turned from locomotive axles. One remaining example of the Hughes Cannon is known to exist, it is a smoothbore gun of 1.5 inch caliber.

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