It is the intention....to have the cannon melted down and made into souvenirs

SWMODave

Sergeant Major
Thread Medic
Joined
Jul 23, 2017
Location
Southwest Missouri
cannon on way to be melted for GAR trinkets feb 22 1894.jpg
Feb 22, 1894 Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh hosted the 1894 GAR National Encampment and as with other encampments, surplus Civil War cannons were melted down to supply trinkets and badges to members. Photographed above is the bronze 12 pounder, donated by the US government and pulled from the stockpile at the Allegheny Arsenal. Composed of 90% copper and 10% tin, it supplied 1,756 pounds of metal.
aa1870.jpg
1870 photo showing some of the surplus cannons and ammunition stored at the Allegheny Arsenal
For the source article of this information, including a close up photo of the cannon in question, you can download the complete article here https://journals.psu.edu/wph/article/view/58862/0

One piece of history makes many more - search '1894 GAR encampment copper' in Google images to see what this cannon produced, many for sale​

The following year - for the 1895 encampment in Louisville, KY

cannon 1895.jpg

From a 2005 LA Times story “In the half-century after the Civil War, about 12,000 obsolete cannons were donated to towns and veterans' groups. Many were melted down in scrap-metal drives during the world wars; fewer than 5,700 survive. At least 560 of them, Union and Confederate collectibles valued from $20,000 to $200,000, are in private hands.”

And then there was the World War Two scrap drive ...
Morgan-Monument-Square-Spartanburg-South-Carolina-SC-RPPC.jpg

The Daniel Morgan statue remains to this date in Spartanburg, SC
But the civil war cannons and balls were melted in a World War Two scrap drive - September 1942

Bay City, Michigan donated 8 cannon in October, 1942 to the same war effort.
Two cannons from Ft. Sumter, two cannons from the ship U.S.S. Hartford, two field cannons, and two cannons from the ship U.S.S. Portsmouth.
USS Hartford Cannon.jpg


and so many, many more
 

Attachments

  • Fort Sumter Cannon.jpg
    Fort Sumter Cannon.jpg
    14 KB · Views: 123
Read that the cannon that were made from melted down church bells had a specific "ring" to them. I doubt it, it's the bell shape that rings not the metal in the cannon. I feel a writer was taking liberties in this article.
 
Souvenirs seemed to have been a big interest of Civil War soldiers, from bricks made from the clay of Malvern Hill to portions of the CSS Virginia's armor; souvenirs of the War appealed to the graying participants.
 
Read that the cannon that were made from melted down church bells had a specific "ring" to them. I doubt it, it's the bell shape that rings not the metal in the cannon.
"Old Sacramento", a 9-pounder gun captured in the Mexican War and later used by Bledsoe's Missouri Battery, was said to have had a peculiar ring to it. It was cast from church bells in Chihuahau, although it was said that some silver was used in its construction and it was later converted to a 12-pounder, so that probably had some influence on the sound:
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/a-history-of-bledsoes-missouri-battery.127595/
 
Read that the cannon that were made from melted down church bells had a specific "ring" to them. I doubt it, it's the bell shape that rings not the metal in the cannon. I feel a writer was taking liberties in this article.
I'm sure you're correct, but don't you think it makes a better story the first way?
 
Of course, I knew there were historic cannon on battlefields and court house lawns all over the country. It never occurred to me how many were scrapped for various other uses. It is amazing when you really ponder it.
 
Back
Top