Tompre
Sergeant
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2014
- Location
- Vicksburg Miss.
The two XI dalghren shell guns from the ironclad Tuscumbia which were used in the siege are in the park. There is also a 10 Columbiad which came from the Whig Office Battery, which the UDC buried, but was later excavated.I was holding this little tidbit for my artillery presentation at the gathering in October, but I'll share it now: According to Ms. Elizabeth Hoxie Joyner who was the former curator of the Vicksburg NMP Collections and author of A Field Guide to The Artillery of Vicksburg National Military Park, there are only three pieces in the Vicksburg area that have an ironclad provenance to the siege. One is found in the lobby of the visitor's center (a 12# howitzer-Union), one is in the lobby of the Vicksburg Convention Center (a 3" Rifle-Confederate made in Vicksburg) and of course The Widow Blakely (a 7.5" Blakely Rifle-Confederate) which spent 96 years on display at West Point before being returned to Vicksburg. Perhaps of most interest is that perhaps the most famous gun at Vicksburg-"Whistling Dick" a Confederate banded and rifled 18# that was credited with sinking the U.S.S. Cincinnati was either: A. dumped into the Mississippi River or B. buried in a local cave as after the battle it never showed up on an inventory of captured ordnance.