All that bronze ...

rabler

rabler

Addlepated tinkerer
H-M Lifetime Diamond Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2021
Messages
3,165
This civil war cannon barrel, just the bronze barrel casting , is 1875 lbs of bronze. Made in 1862. Weight and bore as well as model were stamped on the muzzle face. Smooth bore, most of them fired 12 lb balls, a few on display were 6 lb bores. They also had a few ferrous (cast iron?) barrels that were rifled.

IMG_5218.JPG

This was atop Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga Tn. We hiked up the mountain trails, about 700 ft up in a little over a mile(?), this was at the park on top. Downtown Chattanooga and the Tennessee river in the background. We wanted to also go visit the railway museum as they have an active machine shop that maintains the old steam engines for much of the region, but they closed at 3:30pm and a college football game made the traffic messy so that didn't happen.
 
GeneT45 said:
Very cool. If it were any lighter it probably would have been stolen by now...
That carriage is in great shape - that can't be original, can it?

GsT
Click to expand...
I had similar thoughts about being stolen. It is a gated park with an admission fee, unless you walk the mile+ route down the hill.

I spent some time pondering the carriages myself, and think the carriages have at least been refurbished. There were at least a dozen of these cannons, and while the carriages were all similar, things like hex head nuts rather than square head nuts/bolts on some, etc, suggest having been rebuilt at some point. The end of all of the carriages had a pintle hitch ring rather than any horse-drawn arrangement so that could have changed, although the hitch end was obviously quite heavy, probably to secure the cannon when fired, so I couldn't see suspending that directly by a horse team without some sort of front running axle. From diagrams the cannons had a secondary part with an axle that carried the cannon balls. That may have assembled into a 4-wheel carriage?

Some of the material there suggested that many of the 12 lb cannons were used through WW1, where as the 6 lb cannons are now more rare because they were scrapped sooner. The history of the park itself dates back to something like 1906, initially opened as a privately owned site but transferred to a public park in something like 1910. Given there were about a dozen very similar cannons I would suspect they trace to the opening of the park.
 
Last edited:
I live Antietam Battlefield and there are many of those cannons and others. I often thought the same thing and did learn many years ago a couple had been stolen. Most of the carriages have been restored/rebuilt and some of the cannon barrels are mock ups.
Any time a see a cannon like that when traveling I am always interested in the history and stop for at least a short time to learn.
Thanks for sharing rabler.
 
@rabler I was at the same park not too long ago. It was a very interesting spot, that is for sure.
 
MrWhoopee said:
That wouldn't stop the meth heads around here. They can be incredibly creative and hard working when it comes to stealing stuff you wouldn't think they could.
Click to expand...

I saw a methhead last year on his bicycle carrying what appeared to be a cloth’s dryer. I kid you not.


Cutting oil is my blood.
 
The cannon was hooked up to another wagon called a caisson, which hauled the powder and fodder. It's part of where the Army's hallowed caisson song comes from.

img_0725-jpg.373606
 
When I lived around Harpers Ferry area for 3 years crossed over river into Maryland would stop remove helmet then ride to Antietam battlefield. Sure make you stop and think. Over 50,000 soldiers killed in a weekend. Went there several times. Was a big ditch called blood creek due to blood running in creek like it was water. Many markers advising what went on in each area.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top