From the Triangle Arts & Entertainment "Civil War Cannon Returns to North Carolina For 150th Anniversary of Battle of New Bern."
It was seized from Confederates by the 21st Massachusetts Infantry on March 14, 1862 and has recently been returned on loan from Amherst College in that state to the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh where it will remain until June of 2015. The six-pounder bronze cannon tube originally belonged to Co. C, 10th North Carolina State Troops (The Charlotte Artillery).
A week after the battle, Union General Burnside ordered it given to the 21st Massachusetts for their valor in the battle and they in turn voted to give it to Amherst College in Massachusetts as a memorial to college president William A. Sterns whose son, 1st Lt. Frazar Stearns had been killed while leading a charge at New Bern.
The cannon tube features an elaborate inscription describing its capture at New Bern and lists twenty men of the 21st killed there.
Emily Dickinson's father presided over the cannon's dedication ceremony and her brother, Austin, was a close friend of 1st Lt. Strearns.
A Cannon With Some History. --Old Secesh.
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