Church bells

[Barrycdog]

Rome Tri-Weekly Courier, Apr. 5, 1862 -- page 2
Scoggins Artillery was also known as the Church Bell Artillery from Griffin, Georgia

 

[rhettbutler1865]

Nice find, Barry! Very interesting about the combination of metal they didn't have in the South...and ironic that church bells did.

 

[RobertP]

View attachment 63888​

Rome Tri-Weekly Courier, Apr. 5, 1862 -- page 2
Scoggins Artillery was also known as the Church Bell Artillery from Griffin, Georgia

When growing up I heard a number of times that the scarcity of farm/plantation bells in the South was due to most of them being melted down during the war.

 

[Barnesville Blues]

My ancestor Private Zachariah H. Elliott was a member of Captain Scogin's Battery, Georgia Light Artillery. This unit was most often called "The Griffin Artillery" due to the fact that the company was raised in Griffin Georgia. But they were also known by the nick name "The Church Bell Artillery". I have read two versions, one states that all of the local churches in the area of Griffin donated their bells and the other version states that it was various churches from all over Georgia how donated their bells to be melted down and forged into cannons

 

[Barrycdog]

There was another article where Genera Buearegard made the first request for churches to donate.

 

[ErnieMac]

3rd Battalion NC Light Artillery Co. B aka The Albemarle Artillery aka The Edenton Bell Battery
http://www.edentonbellbattery.org/originaledenton/history.html

After muster Moore's battalion was ordered to Camp Lee in Virginia for training and equiping. Problems arose for Company B for they had no cannon, and they were threatened with being disbanded and reduced in ranks to infantry units. To prevent this Captain Badham dispatched his brother-in-law John Meredith Jones to return home to North Carolina in an effort to ask that metal be donated to the cause. Jones asked several establishments in Edenton for the bronze bells that hung from their buildings. Two weeks later Lt. Jones had achieved his goal and four bronze bells were donated; three from the town of Edenton and one from Tyrrell County. The four bells were transported by wagon to Suffolk Virginia and then by rail to Tredeger Foundry in Virginia. It was here that the bells were melted down into two 6 pounders and two 12 pound field howitzers. By May 23, 1862 the cannon were delivered to Badham and his men. The four guns were named and The Albemarle Artillery became known as "The Edenton Bell Battery" because of the origin of the four cannon and the men who worked them.

 

[lelliott19]

I actually saw one of the Edenton Bell cannon at Shiloh this past weekend. The Edenton cannon were poured at the Tredegar Foundry in April of 1862. Although the cannon on display at Shiloh did not see use there, it wound up as part of the collection when the US cleaned out the warehouses and sent cannon to the National Parks. If you are there and would like to see it, its the 2nd cannon from the road at Ruggles Battery. If I recall correctly its marked with an "EB" on the rim of the barrel as you are facing down the barrel (not sure what that part of the cannon is called?). Here's a picture; she's the 2nd one in the row.

And here's a picture of the cannon when they were delivered via steamboat from the US warehouses to Pittsburg Landing in early 1900's. In all 227 cannon are on display today, but I hear that some trading went on back and forth between parks so I am not sure if the Edenton cannon is one of the ones on the river bank or not. Photo from Shiloh Discussion Group website http://shilohdiscussiongroup.com/index.php?/topic/1218-then-now-early-1900s-to-2012/page-2?hl= cannon 1900

Photo 8223-HD026 from the collection of the Tennessee State Library and Archives.

 

[redbob]

Brass was also used in the manufacture of Confederate revolver frames.

 

[ErnieMac]

Two of the cannon, the St. Paul and the Edenton currently sit near the waterfront beside the Barker House Welcome Center in Edenton, NC.