Came Across Galena's Blakely Gun Again-- Part 1

In anticipation of the North Carolina Civil War seminar this Saturday, I am reading one of the speakers' books, Mark L. Bradley's "Last Stand in the Carolinas: The Battle of Bentonville" and came across something that was familiar to me from earlier posts, the Galena, Illinois, Blakely cannon.

What makes it even better is that I have actually seen this cannon in Galena's Grant Park (General Grant lived in Galena before the war). It was Bradlley's description of the plaque on the gun that tipped me off.

Union General Sherman's first encounter with Confederate forces on his way to the Battle of Bentonville was at Cheraw, SC. After his forces drove Confederate General Hardee's forces away, they captured 25 pieces of field artillery. 5,000 rounds of artillery ammunition and 2,000 stand of small arms along with many other munitions.

One of these was the cannon at Galena.  It is reportedly one of the cannons that fired at Fort Sumter April 12, 1861.  Some even say it fired the first shot.

--Old Secesh