Armaments At Fort Taylor
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 near the fortress. One sand battery was at Whitehead Spit and faced south. The other was built near where the end of Southard Street now ends and it faced to the north. The 15-inch Rodman was the largest seacoast piece at the Fort Taylor Reservation. 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 Spainish fleet with these incendiaries. The maximum range of the Columbiad and Rodman cannon was 5,000 yards (approximately three miles) at 25-degrees 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.
Armaments - 1861
When Capt. Brannan seized the fort for the Union in January 1861, there were 60 cannon at the ready. Troops who served at the fort had a wide range of the number of cannon at the fort. Diary entries suggested the number of cannon anywhere from 200 to 300. A letter from Major General D. Hunter to Headquarters, Department of the South dated February 24, 1863 indicated a total of 64 guns. That letter also requested additional troops and armament be sent to Fort Taylor. A weapons inventory dated May 1867 showed a total of 128 cannon mounted in the fort. The breakdown -- Smoothbore: 10-inch Rodman--20; 10-inch Columbiad--6; 8-inch Columbiad--26; 32-Pounders--11; 24-Pounder Howitzers-18; Rifled: 100-pound Parrott--10; 30-pound Parrott--6; 42-pound James--6; Mortar: 10-inch siege--1; 8-inch siege--4. 
Nearly all the cannon were mounted on the three levels of the west curtain facing the harbor approach. Howitzers were in the bastions. Over the years, the number of cannon increased. Inventories from 1874, 1883 and 1885 showed a growth in the number of smoothbore and rifled Civil War era cannon. The 1883 inventory puts the number of cannon at 198 -- 133 mounted in the fort and 65 on the north and south sand batteries.
Armaments - 1899
Work on the Endicott Battery inside the fort began in 1898. They were built on the south and west face. During the construction process, the engineers removed the top two tiers of the entire fort. Also, a section of the main barracks building was removed to create a new entrance into the fort. Before the newer batteries were built, the engineers took the remaining Civil War cannon and moved them into the south and west casemates. They then filled the casemates with sand, gravel and concrete. 
The idea would be to make the casemates strong enough to sustain bombardment and protect the new magazines. Two batteries were constructed--Battery Osceola and Battery Adair. Osceola is named for the Seminole chief against whom Colonel Zachary Taylor battled in 1836. Battery Adair was named for Lt. Lewis Adair, an infantry officer who lost his life fighting the Sioux in South Dakota in 1872. Battery Adair was constructed on top of and just behind the original casemates of the west curtain and fitted with rapid fire three-inch guns on pedestal mounts. Battery Osceola was built directly in back of the casemates of the south curtain and was emplaced with two 12-inch rifles on barbette mounts. Each piece required a crew of 43 men. The gun fired a 1,000 pound round a distance of ten miles. The batteries were completed by 1902.