after-pivot

Updated: May 29, 2025

Closing in at top speed barely six knots the Merrimac gave the Congress a broadside before ramming the Cumberland and opening a hole "wide enough to drive in a horse and cart." Backing clear and turning the after-pivot gun, the Merrimac then got in three raking shells against the Congress, which grounded when trying to escape.

William Charles Henry Wood - Captains of the Civil War; a chronicle of the blue and the gray

Each captain stood on the horse-block abreast the mizzen-mast to direct the fight. Semmes presently called to his executive officer: "Mr. Kell, use solid shot! The Kearsarge's gunnery was magnificent, especially from the after-pivot, which Quartermaster William Smith fired with deadly aim, even when three of his gun's crew had been wounded by a shell.

William Charles Henry Wood - Captains of the Civil War; a chronicle of the blue and the gray