MCCWRT Artillery-- Part 7: Naming Those Cannons

These were mentioned at the McHenry County (Illinois) Civil War Round Table meeting on March 26, 2022, when the topic was Civil War Artillery.

**  The West Point Foundry, by the USMA was owned by Robert Parker Parrott.

**  The main Confederate foundry was Tredegar in Richmond.

**  The Lincoln Gun at Fort Monroe was a huge 15-inch Rodman cannon and designed to fire a huge projectile across Hampton Roads and the Chesapeake Bay to the Virginia shore. 

**  Fort Wool and Fort Monroe were across from each other in the Chesapeake Bay and so situated as to cause any enemy ship trying to pass them to come under direct fire from both forts.

**  Rodman guns were some of the Union's heaviest ordnance.

**  Whistlin' Dick was the name of cannon at Vicksburg

**  The Dictator was huge Union mortar.

--Old Secesh

Follow Up on Vietnam Veterans Trying to Save Civil War Cannon in New York

On Tuesday, I wrote about Kevin and Bill Farrell trying to raise money to preserve a 13-inch Union "Dictator" mortar located on the grounds of Bronx Community College in New York City.

The article made it sound like this cannon was a "forgotten" piece of ordnance.  I did some more research on it and saw a photo of it.

The Civil War Re-Enactors Forum says that the brothers have a letter from 1948 saying that the mortar was donated to New York University on March 25, 1925, and that the mortar had been on the USS Albany.    A number engraved on the barrel shows it to have been made at Fort Pitt Foundry, which was known to have made 13-inch mortars.

There are also two Krupp cannons at the school.  Krupp made cannons for Germany, so were probably captured during World War I

Bronx Community College  was established in 1957, on the grounds of what had been New York University.

--Old Secesh

Sea Coast Mortar to Find a New Home?

From the March 3rd Baldwin County (Al) Mow.com.

A rare Civil War artifact may be on the verge of finding a new home. The Sea Coast mortar at the North Baldwin Chamber of Commerce where it has been for decades, lacks a fence or any sort of security, but it would be extremely unlikely that anybody would steal the 17,280 pound object.

Bay Minette is considering donating it to the Baldwin County Bicentennial Park.

The 13-inch bore mortar is believed to have been used at King's Battery at Fort Huger and was cast at Fort, Penna, in 1861 and deployed by Union forces in 1862. Such mortars were generally used in sea coast fortifications and in mortar boats.

They could fire a 280-pound explosive shell up to a maximum range of two miles. Only 27 are known to be in existence today.


FOUND IN 1967

This one was found in 1967 after a three-day search on a sunken barge in a small canal off the Tensaw River. Metal detectors were being used, but it was finally found using a pole in five feet of water.

It was raised in the same year and temporarily placed in Tom McMillan's (who found it) yard. (I wonder what our subdivision association would say if I had a sea coast mortar in my front yard?)

They now know it was used at the sieges of Fort Blakely and Spanish Fort in upper Mobile Bay in March 1865.

It was then moved to the Baldwin County Board of Education's Administrative Office before being moved to the Chamber.

After being in the water for over a hundred years and sitting outside since then, it is in need of restoration.

Cannon in My Backyard? --Old B-R'er