Pea Shooter
Private
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2021
- Location
- Fiddletown, CA.
This is a story about a cannon in the war of northern aggression, out in the gold fields of California. In the small town of Volcano, CA. gold was being mined and sent to the U.S. mint, so it was funding the union government.There was a Confederate faction of business owners in Volcano who were known as the "Knights of the Golden Circle". They were planning on disrupting the gold shipment and sending the money south to the Confederacy. The local Union militia, the "Volcano Blues", got wind of the plot and asked San Francisco for help. All that could be spared was a brass cannon from the Benicia armory. The 800 pound cannon that was called "Old Abe", was smuggled in back of a hearse, into town and used to intimidate the rebel sympathizers.
The cannon was cast by Cyrus Alger & Co. in 1837 in Boston. It was the first of two 6 pounders made on the same day to be stamped with serial number 4. The other cannon still survives the Shiloh Battlefield and is called "Shiloh Sam".
Old Abe was only fired once during the Civil War. It was fired down main street causing windows to break in all the shops not warned to open their windows - the ones sympathetic to the South.
Old Abe is the only cannon of that age in the U.S. still on its nineteenth century wooden carriage with caisson. The Cannon and Hearse both survived to this day. Vaughn
The cannon was cast by Cyrus Alger & Co. in 1837 in Boston. It was the first of two 6 pounders made on the same day to be stamped with serial number 4. The other cannon still survives the Shiloh Battlefield and is called "Shiloh Sam".
Old Abe was only fired once during the Civil War. It was fired down main street causing windows to break in all the shops not warned to open their windows - the ones sympathetic to the South.
Old Abe is the only cannon of that age in the U.S. still on its nineteenth century wooden carriage with caisson. The Cannon and Hearse both survived to this day. Vaughn