Columbiads

Well I just re-read this before posting it and it seems rather
nit-picking,
but here goes anyway...

" Most of the 8 - 15 inch artilery (smooth bore in Union use in the
civil war
period) were Dahlgrens"

Those used by the navy, yes. Those used by the Army were of a different
design and refered to as "Rodman" guns after their designer (A handful
of
Rodmans even went as high as 20 inches).  The principle was the same - a
more or less "coke-bottle" shape reflecting one of the first practical
application of physics and advanced metalurgy techniques to cannon
design.

 "A smoothbore wit reinforced breech to resist bursting"

 - more or less.  The "reinforcement" was part of the original casting
unlike a parrot rifle whose breech reinforcement was an additional band
of
metal, added red hot and then quenched with water to shrink it on

"which is a hoot, since at one of the gun's inaugral test shootings a
breech
explosion killed the then Secretary of War"

-  That incident, aboard the USS Princeton, circa 1840, was of a very
large
cannn dubbed the "Peacemaker" by the press - not sure if it bore any
resemblence to later Columbiads.  Oh and it also killed the Sec. of the
NAvy and, I believe, injured the Vice Pres. as well.

"You will actually find Columbiad guns emplaced on smaller naval vessels
prior to the War of 1812"

 - Are you sure you don't mean Carronades, which are something
completely
different.

""Napoleon" a 12 pdr smooth bore field piece. It was a
design built long after it's name sake was laid to rest"

I believe the name comes from Napoleon's particular fondness for guns of
this caliber, a battery of which were attached to each Corps of le
Grande
Armie.	The Guards Corps had a quadruple dose - four batteries of
12-pounders at Waterloo.  Their massed fire routed a Dutch-Belgian
brigade
at the start of the battle and also slowly destroyed the Inniskillings
Regiment formed in a square, throughout the afternoon under the mass
fire
of the entire "Grand Battery", they stood their ground with typical
Irish
pluck bringing the wounded to the center and tossing the dead outside as
the square shrank smaller and smaller (in all 450 of 750 were
casualties,
including 17 out of the 18 officers).