Help with inscription on small Spanish cannon

[cannonmn]

I need help with some initials(?) on a small Spanish bronze cannon barrel. Provenance: Complete cannon sent from US Army officer who captured it in the Philippines ca. 1899, to Sec. of War Elihu Root, then came down through family until I acquired it from them in 1980's. It came with a huge, heavy tropical hardwood carriage that's now in storage and unfortunately I don't have a good photo to post here, but it wouldn't add any to the discussion.
 
My question, which has bugged me for about 25 years: What's the meaning of the large, engraved initials "A.M.G." on top of the barrel? Note that the letters are inverted compared to the "normal" cannon markings which include the weight, 73 3/4 Spanish pounds, and the mark for "Real" (Royal) which is an engraved "R." There are no other marks on the barrel.
 
The piece is typical of small Spanish cannon cast in the Philippines for the Spanish monarchy. Tube probably dates from the18th or early 19th C.
 
Dimensions of barrel:
Overall length about 30 inches.
Weight about 80 lbs.
Bore: 2 inches ("one pounder" size)
Breech diameter: 5.5 inches

The barrel is chambered so it technically a howitzer. The chamber at the rear of the bore is about 1.5 in. diameter x 2 in. deep.
One possibility I had considered is that the "A.M.G." are the initials of the founder. Spanish cannon with only initials of the founder are unknown so I don't place much store in that theory.
 
Another possibility is that A.M.G. is an abbreviation from the Catholic religion. Both Spanish Army and Navy people were generally deeply religious Catholics, with chapels and shrines and officials of the Church aboard their ships, in their Army camps, etc. This theory comes from the description of another cannon captured in the Philippines, which I saw pictured and described in the 1929 catalog of the Ordnance Museum at West Point (USMA.) Item no. 7573, pp. 208, "Fig. 244, 1 in. bronze gun with charge and carriage, Inscribed 'Ave Maria Gratia Plena.' Captured from Philippine insurgents at Santa Cruz, Laguna Province, Luzon, P.I., April 10, 1899, by a dismounted squadron of the 4th. US Cavalry...."
 
What do you think the "A.M.G." stands for?
 

[KABAR2]

It does look like the AMG might have been added later as on a trophy, if it was stood up on it's muzzel the inscription reads corectly but if on a carriage it would be upside down.

[cannonmn]

I finally found some correspondence that came along with the cannon and thought you might find this part interesting:
 
The cannon came into Elihu Root's possession about 1901, and was displayed in the front hall at his summer home in Clinton, NY.  Root died in 1937, passing the home and contents to his heirs.  In 1945 a young heir discovered that the cannon was solidly obstructed to within an inch of the muzzle.  Plundering the cannon yielded, in order from muzzle to breech,
-a coconut fiber wad
-double handful of broken glass
-small rocks and nails
-another coconut fiber wad
-3 cups of serpentine gunpowder
For over 40 years, the cannon had been fully loaded with a lethal, although short-range, anti-personnel load.  Fortunately none of the many visitors to Root's home had used the open vent of the cannon as an ash tray.

[Cannoneer]

Another possibility is that A.M.G. is an abbreviation from the Catholic religion. Both Spanish Army and Navy people were generally deeply religious Catholics, with chapels and shrines and officials of the Church aboard their ships, in their Army camps, etc. This theory comes from the description of another cannon captured in the Philippines, which I saw pictured and described in the 1929 catalog of the Ordnance Museum at West Point (USMA.) Item no. 7573, pp. 208, "Fig. 244, 1 in. bronze gun with charge and carriage, Inscribed 'Ave Maria Gratia Plena.' Captured from Philippine insurgents at Santa Cruz, Laguna Province, Luzon, P.I., April 10, 1899, by a dismounted squadron of the 4th. US Cavalry...."

Are the whole words (Ave Maria Gratia Plena) spelled out on the West Point gun, and is there any opinion as to whether this was inscribed on the barrel by the Spanish maker's, or added later by the insurgents?

[cannonmn]

Are the whole words (Ave Maria Gratia Plena) spelled out on the West Point gun, and is there any opinion as to whether this was inscribed on the barrel by the Spanish maker's, or added later by the insurgents?

The catalog shows the whole words all spelled out.  Some others have recently pointed out that having only the three initials, if you then assumed they stood for the first 3 words of th AGMP saying, that doesn't make much sense because then the Latin words don't make much sense.  Anyway they convinced me that probably wasn't the right direction to go.
 
My thinking since then kinda involved:
 
Since the "AMG" is inverted from the marks put on when the cannon was finished, they were most likely put on by someone else.  The marks also look a bit "later" than the original Spanish markings, not quite as bashed, anyway.  The "AMG" doesn't appear to have anything to do with the period of ownership by the Spanish monarchy.  So then let's see if it was put on during ownership by the Filipino insurgents.  They had a regular army, at first led by Gen. Aguinaldo.  The Filipinos who made up the army all spoke Tagalog, the older language of the Philippines.  Many probably also spoke Spanish so they could conduct business with the Spanish government, but Tagalog would have been their usual language.
 
So now I'm trying to find out what if any significance AGM had within the Tagalog-speaking Filipino Insurgent Army.  I'm just starting that effort and don't even know what the Tagalog name for that army was.   I've posted on the "Pinoy History" site, but no response yet.  Many of the members on that site speak Tagalog.  I've signed up for FilipinoForum.net, but no word on whether they've accepted my application yet. If you do a lot of forums like I do, you've probably noticed that for whatever reason, maybe 20% of the forums you sign up for never send you the email you need to start posting.
 
I think the letter "A" with the "v" crossbar should tell me something, but not sure what.  For now, I'm taking it as an indication that the AMG abbreviation may be for words in a language other than English. 

[Cannoneer]

cannonmn,
I've never seen it drawn like this, but I'm assuming that the symbol seen between 73 and ¾ is an ampersand; is my assumption correct?

[cannonmn]

I'm assuming that the symbol seen between 73 and ¾ is an ampersand; is my assumption correct?

Good question.  To be honest, I don't know.  I think only someone familiar with old Spanish could answer that.  The symbol might be very similar or identical but I dont' know if it had the same meaning as it does in English texts.
 
There are so many different ways the Spanish cannons had their weight marked, it makes my head spin.  Quintals, Arrobas, Libras....   I think that's, respectively, 100, 25, and 1 Spanish pounds . Quintal = qq   Arroba = @   Libra = (dunno)  L? or l?

[cannonmn]

I am still puzzled by the big letters "A.M.G" engraved on the cannon. This is only the second cannon I know of, captured from Filipino Insurgents, which has engraving on it that is different from what the Spanish had engraved on it when it was made.

That is, except for "capture inscriptions", since I've seen several with small inscriptions engraved on top of the gun, as to when they were captured, by what US Army unit captured, and the location.

The other one with a non-standard inscription is in the 1929 West Point Museum catalog, and bears the engraved Latin words "Ave Maria Gratia Plena."

That got me thinking that mine might also have a Latin saying, perhaps of a religious nature, abbreviated by "A.M.G."  I went off searching for such Latin phrases and found only one that would fit those initials: "Ad Majorem Gloriam" which apparently means "For the Greater Glory."

What do you think?

[GGaskill]

Good as anything; any one could put that on there with relevance.

[cannonmn]

Good as anything

Yup.  However I really didn't feel warm and cozy yet, so kept on looking.  Since there were hundreds of Philippine Insurrection trophies of all kinds in addiiton to cannons in the old West Point Museum catalog, I thought maybe it'd give a clue.  It did.  One entry was no. 4395 "General Guavarra's Flag, ...last flag of the Philippine Insurgents...surrendered to General F.D. Grant at Arenes, Samar, P.I. 1902."
 
Not sure what set off the bells but maybe the last name starting with G.  Then the fact that General F.D. Grant was related to Elihu Root, and I was pretty sure Root got the cannon from some officer who had been on duty in the Philippines.  Then I killed an hour finding out that the General's name was really spelled Guevara, and his full name was Antonino M. Guevara.  A.M.G.!  Then it makes sense that this was engraved with the general's initials when it was taken from the Spanish, which may have been during the Filipino Insurrection against the Spanish ca. 1896.  I feel a little better now with what I think is a more plausible explanation.
 
Here's a link to some info on Gen. Guevara:  http://withonespast.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/muntinlupas-forgotten-hero-antonino-guevarra/

[Zulu]

Cannonmn,
Not only plausible, but likely.  Congratulations on retrieving an historical fact that otherwise would have remained lost.
Zulu

[GGaskill]

... Antonino M. Guevara.

I like that even better.  It could even be a little bit of word play and mean both.

[Cannoneer]

John,
With the discovery of General Antonino M. Guevara's name, I think that you now have the fish in the boat, and on ice.

It sounded familiar, so I did a little research on "Ad Majorem Gloriam" last night, and found that it's a distinctly Jesuit phrase, in fact it's commonly attributed to St. Ignatius of Loyola who founded the "Society of Jesus." The Jesuits have had a strong influence in the Philippines beginning in 1581, so it's certainly plausible that either the Spanish makers, or (at a later date) the Filipino insurgents inscribed the letters on the barrel, but there's something that makes it very improbable that that's what the letters signify. The whole Latin phrase is actually "ad maiorem Dei gloriam" or "ad majorem Dei gloriam", which translates to "for the greater glory of God", and leaving out the initial for Dei/God from the phrase would be like an architect trying to construct an arch without a keystone; it just couldn't be done that way.

[cannonmn]

Thanks.  I finally read the whole bio on Gen. A.M.G. that I linked above.  This statement is interesting:  "

He also served as special commissioner of Ambos Camarines’ finance department, his duty being mainly to inventory property left by the Spaniards, particularly in San Fernando, Pasacao, Bula, Calabanga, Libmanan, and Maguiring."

I expect it was during that duty that he got the small Spanish cannon.
 
I contacted the West Point Museum today and asked if they still had Gen. A.M.G.'s flag, and if so, could they send me a photo of it.  Also asked if they had anything else he may have surrendered.  Waiting.

[cannonmn]

The West Point museum got right back to me on the flag.  I was glad they still had it!
 
The "flag," is actually  guidon-style, and was re-catalogued as WPM#2884. Unfortunately it has not been photographed but it approximately 2' 3" (hoist) x 5' 3" (fly) and is fork-tailed. It is made of cotton, the upper half being blue, the lower half is red.
 
(Description courtesy of West Point museum.)