The seacoast artillery at Fort Taylor during the Civil War consisted of 8-inch and 10-inch Columbiad cannon, 10-inch Rodman cannon, and, Parrott rifles in 30 pounder and 100 pounder configurations. Weapons inventories also show 24 pounder James Rifles and Coehorn Siege Mortars. Cannon were mounted on iron and wooden carriages in casemates on the first and second tiers of the fort. The top tier held cannon mounted "en barbette." Flanking howitzers were set up in the fort's bastions. Following the war, 300-pounder Parrott rifles and 15-inch Rodman seacoast cannon were added on sand batteries facing north and south. The 15-inch Rodman was the largest seacoast piece at Fort Taylor. This piece had a maximum range of approximately four miles. Each cannon ball weighed a little more than 300 pounds. The round was set up with a timed fuse and designed so that it would explode over its target.

The majority of the seacoast artillery (Columbiad & Rodman) at Fort Taylor consisted of smoothbore pieces. These cannon fired mostly solid shot. Gunners also had the option of firing cannister shot and bar shot. A small hot shot oven was built on the southwestern part of the parade ground to produce heated cannon ball. In the hot shot furnace, solid round shot were heated cherry red, to be fired from cannon as incendiary projectiles. A light charge was used to fire the shot from the cannon, for if the ball went too deeply into the target, there was not enough air to start a fire. A shot held enough heat to ignite wood even after several ricochets over water. The cannon would be loaded with the powder bag, then a dry wad, then a wet wad of either straw or clay, then the hot shot and lastly another wet wad. The ball was removed from the furnace with tongs, the scale is removed with a rasp, it's then carried to the gun in a ladle. Hot shot was in use before gunpowder. In 54 B.C. the Britons hurled hot clay balls among the tents of Roman invaders. In 1589, the King of Poland successfully used hot shot in cannon. At Gibraltar in 1782, the English destroyed part of Spain’s fleet with these incendiaries. The maximum range of the Columbiad and Rodman cannon was 5,000 yards (approximately three miles) at 25º elevation. A seacoast artillery crew consisted of seven men -- a gunner and six cannoneers. After the initial round was fired, crews would need about 15 minutes to ready the piece to fire again.