Dahlgren correction .. sort of.

[Kurtlg]

For many years 3 Dahlgren guns on display at Mackinaw City , Michigan had a marker that claimed they were from the Hartford. It was proven many years ago that they were not from the Hartford. A new marker has been erected that. . states "Admiral David Farragut made these guns famous in the Civil War during the Battle of Mobile Bay " . Perhaps a bit misleading ?

 

[redbob]

True, perhaps it would have helped if they had added the words this type and deleted the word these in the description.

 

[firstflabn]

Had an honest broker done the rewrite, they could have conveyed some readily available facts - instead they chose spin. With an almost always incomplete historical record, it's hard enough already to make some sense out of the past, even when acting in good faith - a far cry from what happened here.

 

[NFB22]

I visited this site last week and got a look at their serial numbers.

F.P. No 678
F.P. No 687
F.P. No 688

Clearly they came from Fort Pitt but other than that, I don't know to accurately trace the history of each gun. Google gives a plethora of answers.

 

[Santee1821]

I photographed (or rather my girlfriend photographed) the above page in "Registers of Naval Guns, 1842–1900" (National Archives Record Group 74, Entry 112, Volume 1).

If the print is too small to read, it shows that IX-Inch Nos. 678, 687, and 688 were part of the batch of 20 sent to Sackets Harbor in 1864. They saw no service until shipped to Mackinaw City in 1909.

Guns which did serve aboard USS Hartford from her commissioning until the 1880s can be seen in Cheboygan, Petosky, and Gaylord in Northern Michigan. (As well as in Harford, Connecticut, Vallejo and Mare Island, California, Freeport, New York, and Grinnell, Iowa.) The guns which I have posted thus far can be found here: https://www.santee1821.net/preserved-artillery/tag/USS+Hartford

As far as the Bureau of Ordnance Records go, I've put up all the relevant pages (to Civil War guns) of Volume 1 of the Register on my website. Volume 2 will eventually come. Volume 2 is actually the earlier book - and it is an utter mess but occasionally has wartime information that Volume 1 lacks.

I've also photographed all of RG74 E111 which lists armament by ship from the 1840s to about February of 1863. Still need to organize those!

Anyway, what I've done so far is here: https://www.santee1821.net/buord-records

 

[Santee1821]

I believe the above page is from "Reports of Armament on Vessels, 1863–1871" (NARA RG 74 E121). I've not yet photographed that work, but this page was sent to me by Jon Bernstein who is one of the curators of National Museum of the Marine Corps.

The report shows Hartford's armament as of June 23rd, 1864 and thus is probably the best available listing of the ship's battery at the time of Mobile Bay.