Arming the Fort
The row of cannon in front of you dates from the Civil War, when radical advances in technology increased power, range, and accuracy.
Some large, old smoothbore cannon were "rifled and banded" to enhance firepower. Banding (heating and tightening bands of wrought iron around a cast iron barrel) strengthened a cannon to withstand increased pressure created by greater powder charges. Rifling (cutting spiral grooves in a weapon's bore) gave a stabilizing spin to a projectile, increasing accuracy.
Rifled cannon had greater range than smoothbores of similar size. Their elongated aerodynamically-shaped projectiles could be larger and heavier, and were more accurate and destructive than the old, round shot and shells. They could be either solid shot or filled with explosives.
If you look into the cannon barrels here, you can see that some are smoothbores and some are rifled.
(Sidebar):
Fort Sumter's original armament consisted of cast iron smoothbore guns which were mounted "en barbette" on the parapet and in the first tier of the casemates.
The recoil of the wooden carriages allowed the crew to service these muzzle-loading guns. A 42-pounder smoothbore cannon is located near the fort entrance.
Courtesy hmdb.org
