Charles Tillinghast James (September 15, 1805 – October 17, 1862) was a consulting manufacturing engineer, early proponent of steam mills (especially cotton mills), and United States Democratic Senator from the state of Rhode Island from 1851 to 1857. Charles T. James had a largely self-taught knowledge of mathematics and mechanics, and received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Brown College in 1838. He was particularly interested in textile machinery. In the early 1830s he worked in small mills in the Quinebaug Valley of Connecticut, later supervising the startup of mills in the Providence area. His reputation had grown such that by 1834 Samuel Slater brought him to Providence to overhaul the Steam Cotton Manufacturing Company mill, built in 1828 as the first large American steam-powered mill. This work made James realize the potential of steam mills, and he became a leading engineer and advocate of them, particularly in coastal towns and the South. James was elected to the US senate as a Democrat in 1850. While there he chaired the Senate Committee on Patents and the Patent Office and the Senate Committee on Public Buildings, and advocated for protective tariffs. He did not stand for reelection and left when his term ended in 1857, reportedly due to financial difficulties. James developed a family of early rifled projectiles and a rifling system for artillery that saw use by the Union Army in the American Civil War. The weapon most correctly called a James rifle is a 3.8 in (97 mm) weapon commonly called a 14-pounder James rifle, usually made of bronze; this was the only gun designed entirely by James that saw extensive service. Except for the material, it closely resembles the wrought iron 3-inch Ordnance rifle that saw more widespread use. His rifling system was used to convert pre-war smoothbore M1841 6-pounder field guns, 32-pounder, 42-pounder, and other weapons to rifles firing his projectiles; in some Civil War-era documents these are also called "James rifles". Large-caliber guns with his rifling system and projectiles, along with Parrott rifles, were used in the breaching of Fort Pulaski in April 1862; this was probably James' most significant contribution to the war. After the war, the rapid reduction of Fort Pulaski was used to justify stopping work on masonry forts and led to a brief period of new construction of earthwork forts. On October 16, 1862, during the demonstration of a projectile at Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York, a worker attempted to remove a cap from a shell. It exploded, killing the man and mortally wounding James, who died the next day Following his death, few of his weapons were produced. His projectiles were gradually replaced with Hotchkiss projectiles due to stripping of the lead sabot.