Yesterday, on Veteran’s Day, Mike and I continued a tradition that we enjoy. Each year we try to visit a different cemetery and honor our Military Service members who have passed on. This year we went to Fairmount Cemetery in Glendale, Colorado, a southern Denver suburb located near Lowry Field. We dragged Gary along this year, so we had three services represented, Army, Navy and the Marines. This is a medium sized cemetery and we found the military section quickly with it’s curved ranks of white marble headstones. We also found a cannon.
Tracy, Mike and Gary
A Coast Artilleryman, may he rest in peace.
Relatively speaking, other than in the mountains, we have very few trees in Colorado. Those that do take root can become quite aggressive!
Lots of WWI vets were laid to rest here.
Mike is seen through this gun’s 14 spoke, dished, artillery wheels studying headstone inscriptions. These Civil War style wheels do not have the Archibald hubs.
Model 1885? Well, not really. This gun is the far more common Model 1897 with the axial vent through it’s DeBange type breech block spindle. This also makes it a smokeless powder burner with a smaller chamber than the first Model, the 1885 which had a larger chamber for BP and a radial vent like the Civil War guns.
More evidence she ain’t an 1885.
Where the carriage was made, Rock Island Arsenal 1899.
Can you see the cover held in place by a slotted screw in the middle of the 1897 breechblock? That’s a travel cover to keep dust and dirt out of the primer well where you place a friction primer.
Mike discovered this important safety hardware on the carriage. It is a deflector plate which protects the crew from flying fragments of the friction primer and hot propellant gasses.
Gary points out little crescent shaped dents in the vent shield proving that this piece was fired during it’s service life.
Unusually shaped Capsquares adorn this gun with keeper keys and chain retained cross bolts.
An unsuspecting passerby walks up to the gun. Gary blocks his exit to the south, Mike blocks him to the North and Tracy gives him a big Teddy Roosevelt handshake that physically moves him to a position where he is pinned between the wheel’s front and the Chase so he can’t get away! After a 20 minute lecture about artillery, Span-Am War, long range accuracy, BP-white smoke VS smokeless powder, no recoil abatement system, etc., etc. by the three artillery nuts, he staggered away muttering to himself. Mission Accomplished!
Gary is a functional investigator. If it’s not welded, he will get it to move. Very little preponderance on this gun tube, maybe 20 pounds max.
