File:32 Pounder Carronade image 4.jpg

English: Carronades were short, stubby cannon used for naval broadside firing in the age of wooden sailing ships. They were actually obsolete by the time of the American Civil War, but were nevertheless pressed into service. They were often used in forts as anti-personnel weapons. The carronades at Fort Macon, NC, were originally intended for such use by the Confederate forces that held the fort in the early days of the war. They were originally placed to use against any attacking troops who might make it into the moat or ditch that separated the outer and inner walls of the fort. At the time the fort came under siege by Union forces in 1862, the carronades were repurposed as mortars, and hold the distinction of being the only such guns ever used in this manner during the Civil War.