Cemetery Cannon For quite a few years, as we have traveled the United States in search of seacoast, naval and siege artillery, Mike and I have nurtured a sense that more than 1/3 of the 5,000 plus Civil War cannon that still exist, reside in cemetery locations. We hope, with your assistance, to explore some of them in this thread. Occasionally we will post updates to this thread with new discoveries and this time we will do each location thoroughly, rather than list nine cemeteries with one gun each. So we are asking for any and all discoveries that you may have made, to be posted, with photos if possible, or just descriptions, perhaps of a vacation trip or a history lesson trip with your kids or any occurrence which led to a cannon discovery in one of these places of eternal rest.
The service of two of these cemetery guns is known. The Bohio, a Federal Navy Armed Brig, had only two cannon onboard, 32-pdrs. of 57 cwt.,registry numbers 343 and 344 , according to data obtained from
The Big Guns by Olmstead, Stark and Tucker. She joined the West Gulf Blockading Squadron in January 1862 and cruised along the Louisiana and Alabama coasts and during 1862 she took four prizes and forced the scuttling of a fifth vessel. The other two 32-pdrs. with registry numbers 573 and 575, are listed as serving onboard the Mona Wood by a notation opposite their geographical information in the
Known Surviving Civil War Cannon list.
Regards,
Tracy and Mike
1. These four naval cannon are in the center of a small cemetery in South Duxbury, MA known as The Old Cemetery, The Old Burying Ground, South Duxbury Cemetery or Standish Cemetery and is just off Route 3 on Chestnut Street a little west of town about 25 or 30 miles south of Boston, MA.
2. Mike is standing next to one of the four 32-pdrs. arrayed around the grave of Myles Standish. These cannon are in excellent shape and have been very well cared for in the years since they were cast (1848-1850).
3. The markings on the right trunnion are the weight of shot used in these guns designed for solid shot and the date of casting.
4. The “P” marking on the left trunnion stands for Robert Parker Parrott, mgr. of West Point Foundry in 1850. The A. A. H. markings stand for Naval Ordnance Inspector, Andrew A. Harwood.
5. The markings on the breech ring, W.P.F. designate the foundry where the tube was cast, The West Point Foundry in Cold Spring, NY. And the marking, 575 is the registry number of the tube.
6. The markings 56 . 3 . 24 stand for the weight expressed in hundredweight measure. First set, 56 represents how many units of 112 pounds. The second, 3, represents how many quarters or units of 28 pounds. The third set, 24, represents how many individual pounds. So the total weight is 6,380 pounds.
7. These breeching jaws clearly indicate a Navy contract gun. The recoil limiting hawser passes through them.
8. In the center of the surrounding guns is this marker, although of a more recent age, it marks the grave of Myles or Miles Standish, 1584-1656, the leader of the Colonial militia in the Plymouth Colony. In later years he moved north to found the town of Duxbury.
9. A rough passage indeed. “Cafco” This references Casco Bay where Portland, Maine is now located.
