STATUS:
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Awarded:
July 23, 1956
Laid
down: March 1, 1958 (as
DLG 12)
Launched: March 16, 1960
Commissioned: April 8, 1961
redesignated to
DDG 43: June 30, 1975
Decommissioned:
July 31, 1992
Fate:
Stricken
November 20, 1992;
sold for scrap
April 15, 1994 / repossessed October 1, 1996, scrapping 0% completed;
ESCO Marine Inc.,
Brownville, Texas took contract on July 29, 2005; scrapping completed April
28, 2006.
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John
Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren (November 13, 1809 - July 12, 1870) was a United
States Navy leader. He headed the Union Navy's ordnance department during the
American Civil War and designed several different kinds of guns and cannons
that were considered part of the reason the Union won the war. For these
achievements, Dahlgren became known as the "father of American naval
ordnance." He reached the rank of rear admiral.
Dahlgren was born on November 13, 1809 in Philadelphia, the son of Bernhard
Ulrik Dahlgren, merchant and Swedish Consul in Philadelphia. He joined the
United States Navy in 1826 as a midshipman and was promoted to the coastal
survey in 1834. By 1847, he was an ordnance officer, and at the Washington
Navy Yard began to improve and systematize the procurement and supply system
for weapons.
He was assigned to the Washington Navy Yard in 1847. While there, Dahlgren
established the U.S. Navy's Ordnance Department; became an ordnance expert;
developed a percussion lock; and wrote a number of books, including The
System of Boat Armaments in the United States Navy, Shells and Shell Guns,
and Naval Percussion Locks and Primers. Under his command, the Navy
established its own foundry, and its first product was the Boat Howitzer,
which was designed to be used on both ship and in landings. But it is his
cast iron muzzle loading cannon which came to bear his name (the Dahlgren
gun) and be his most famous contribution. It was under his direction that the
navy established its own foundry to manufacture new equipment.
His "shell gun" design was an improvement on the shell-gun invented
by the French Admiral Henri-Joseph Paixhans. Dahlgren wrote:
"Paixhans had so far satisfied naval men of the power of shell guns as
to obtain their admission on shipboard; but by unduly developing the
explosive element, he had sacrificed accuracy and range.... The difference
between the system of Paixhans and my own was simply that Paixhans guns were
strictly shell guns, and were not designed for shot, nor for great
penetration or accuracy at long ranges. They were, therefore, auxiliary to,
or associates of, the shot-guns. This made a mixed armament, was objectionable
as such, and never was adopted to any extent in France... My idea was, to
have a gun that should generally throw shells far and accurately, with the
capacity to fire solid shot when needed. Also to compose the whole battery
entirely of such guns."
The United States Navy had equipped several ships with 8-inch Paixhans guns
of 63 and 55 cwt. in 1845, and later a 10-inch shell gun of 86 cwt. In 1854,
the six Merrimack-class warships were equipped with 9-inch Dahlgren shell
guns. By 1856, the Dahlgren gun had become the standard armament of the
United States Navy.
The boat howitzer derived from a requirement realized during the
Mexican-American War. During that war, naval landing parties were armed with
a variety of army ordnance, often too heavy and cumbersome for use with the
landing boats. Dahlgren first experimented with standard Army issue
12-pounder mountain howitzers before devising his own system of guns. The
boat howitzers came in four basic types: small, light (or medium), and heavy
versions of the 12-pounder and a larger 24-pounder. All conformed to the same
basic shape, straight gun tubes with no adorning bands or clefts. Elevation
was made via a screw threaded into the knob at the breech. Instead of by
traditional trunnions, the guns were attached to the carriage by a loop under
the barrel. The Dahlgren system also included mounting carriages that
facilitated various employments of the guns. A single-axle metal carriage was
designed for shore use. A bed-type carriage was used on small boats, with a
rail system to allow the gun to be trained fore, aft and broadside of the
boat. A similar mount was offered for shipboard use. The system of boat
howitzers was used by the navy well into the 1890s, with some examples used
in ceremonial purposes into the 20th Century.
However, fatefully, one of the "Dahlgrens" exploded on being tested
in 1860, causing Navy regulations to require the use of much lower levels of
powder until 1864, well into the Civil War. The commander of USS Monitor felt
that had his gunner packed the cannons with a full charge, he might have been
able to destroy CSS Virginia.
In 1861, Dahlgren's commander at the Navy Yard resigned to join the
Confederate navy, and President Abraham Lincoln wanted to name Lieutenant
Dahlgren to the post of Commander of the Washington Navy Yard. By law,
however, that position could only be held by an officer with a rank of
captain or above. Lincoln successfully persuaded Congress to pass a special
act legalizing Dahlgren's appointment to the yard, and, in July 1862,
Dahlgren was promoted to the rank of captain and made chief of the Bureau of
Ordnance. Then in February 1863 he was promoted to Rear Admiral.
Dahlgren took command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron in 1863. In
1864, he helped William Tecumseh Sherman secure Savannah, Georgia. In 1869,
he returned to the Washington Navy Yard where he served until his death.
The Naval station in Dahlgren, Virginia, Dahlgren Hall at the United States
Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and several ships were named for him,
as was Dahlgren, Illinois, and Dahlgren Township, Minnesota.
Dahlgren's son Colonel Ulric Dahlgren was killed during the Civil War in a
cavalry raid on Richmond, Virginia, while carrying out an alleged
assassination plot against Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Cabinet. The
plot is known as the Dahlgren Affair. The admiral was deeply troubled by his
son's death and role in this event. Despite Radical Republican associations,
John Dahlgren's younger brother Charles G. Dahlgren (1811–1888) was a strong
proponent of slave ownership and was a Confederate Brigadier General,
Commander of the 3rd Brigade, Army of Mississippi, which he personally
funded.
Personal life
In 1865, Dahlgren married Madeleine Vinton, daughter of Congressman Samuel
Finley Vinton and Romaine Madeleine Bureau, and the widow of Daniel Convers
Goddard, first Assistant Secretary of the newly-created U.S. Department of
the Interior. Madeleine was a well-known author in her own right. Their
children were John Vinton Dahlgren, who married Elizabeth Wharton Drexel;
Eric Bernard Dahlgren, Sr., who married Lucy Wharton Drexel; and Ulrica
Dahlgren, who married Josiah Pierce, and was the grandmother of Romaine
Dahlgren Pierce, wife of David Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven.
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