Tell me more! Help with mortar.

major bill

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Aug 25, 2012
I am writing a short article about the Michigan Military Academy and have a question about the academy's mortar. Said to be an 8-inch mortar, but is there more information I can add, like a model year? Is this a Civil War era mortar?

mma con.jpg
 
Hopefully some of our experts will chime in, but it looks later than Civil War to me, maybe 1890s. Anyway, this post will keep the thread on the home page :wink:
 
Its hard to tell from the photo but does indeed look like a model 1861 8 inch siege mortar.
 
Michigan Miliary Academy opened in 1877. The cadets trained on small arms Gatling gun and cannons but I am wondering if this siege mortar was fired by the cadets or more of a monument. The morar in the image above appears to be on a concrete base.
 
Its a monument as if at the range to fire it would have been on a wooden platform.

I believe this image shows former cadets visiting the Academy, perhaps in the mid or late 1880s. I suspect that the mortar was always a monument, but it may have be fired in the late 1870s.

When I list the weapons at the Academy I will likely just say in my short article that the mortar may have been a monument.
 
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Whether only a monument by the time of this photo, apparently at some point the cadets did have a functional 8-inch siege mortar (and Gatling guns!) at their disposal for military drills. (ref: "Adventures in Martial Education" 1993 Duane Ernest Miller, Berlin Green Press, Lansing, Michigan, page 112).

The original Academy opened in 1877 and didn't close until 1908 so the pose happened somewhere in there. It appears the property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 with the Orchard Lake (SE Michigan) Schools Historic District, if it still exists.

btw the ref. also indicates the cadets trained with ".45 caliber Springfield Rifles," whatever those were.
 
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Brian J. Bohnett in his book Them Was the Days! labels this image as 'June 1884 Reunion".
 
Additional research shows that as late as 1902 the Michigan Miilitary Academy had the equipment for this mortar.
 
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