Editing Rodman gun (section)

{{Short description|Type of American Civil War–era cannon}}
[[file:ColumbiadDrawing.svg|thumb|Drawing comparing Model 1844 8-inch columbiad and Model 1861 10-inch "Rodman" columbiad. The powder chamber on the older columbiad is highlighted by the red box.]]

The '''Rodman gun''' is any of a series of [[American Civil War]]–era [[columbiad]]s designed by [[Union Army|Union]] [[artillery]] officer [[Thomas Jackson Rodman]]<ref>"[http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20060330013745/http://www.cwartillery.org/afammen.html Thomas Jackson Rodman]", Confederate Artillerymen, The Civil War Artillery Page. Retrieved 12-20-2007.</ref> (1815–1871). The guns were designed to fire both [[round shot|shot]] and [[Shell (projectile)|shell]]. These heavy guns were intended to be mounted in seacoast fortifications. 8-inch, 10-inch, 13-inch, 15-inch, and 20-inch [[Smoothbore|bore]] ({{convert|8|,|10|,|13|,|15|, and|20|in|cm|disp=out}}) Rodman guns were produced. Other than size, the guns were all nearly identical in design, with a curving bottle shape, a large flat [[cascabel (artillery)|cascabels]], and ratchets or sockets for the elevating mechanism. Rodman guns were true guns that did not have a [[howitzer]]-like [[Gunpowder|powder]] chamber, as did many earlier columbiads. Rodman guns differed from all previous artillery because they were [[hollow cast]], a new technology that Rodman developed that resulted in [[cast iron|cast-iron]] guns that were much stronger than their predecessors.