The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Springfield, Missouri's Civil War Cannons -- Part 1

From the April 23rd Springfield (Mo) News-Leader.

Drury University, in Springfield has two Civil War cannons called 12-pounders. They were captured during the war and stored at Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois.

By the end of the war, they were considered obsolete. Eight cannons were brought to Greene County in 1870 through the efforts of US Representative S,H. "Pony" Boyd.

The field pieces were to be placed in North Springfield at Franklin Square, at or near present-day Washington Park. It was envisioned that this square would be a memorial to Union General Nathaniel Lyon and the soldiers killed at the nearby Battle of Wilson's Creek.

Franklin Square never came to be built and the cannons were placed around the county: one at Walnut Grove, one at Ash Grove and the rest in Springfield. One is still at Walnut Grove High School, but no one knows what happened to the one at Ash Grove. Some believe that it might be one of the two at Drury University.

Most of the other cannons burst. Until the 1980s, it was the custom in Springfield to fire the cannons for the 4th of July. The three remaining cannons were all capturedor surrendered. The ones at Drury University are visible by car as you drive by.

More to Come. --Old B-Runner

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