Looks like a nice one to me, Ed. I’ve always liked that piece, both for it’s unique look and the role one like it played in U.S. History. Your rendition of it captures the business-like shape and no-nonsense look of the original. This historical piece has been written about quite a bit over the years. The mystery surrounding the only one of it’s kind now on display at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, is not if that particular mortar was used in the bombardment of Anderson’s command at Ft. Sumter on April 12, 1861, but rather, who actually pulled the lanyard on the signal mortar which initiated the bombardment.
One name we can rule out is an elderly man from the Charleston area named Edmund Ruffin. He was an agricultural methods experimenter and writer by profession, but as 1861 approached, he became a fire-breathing, secessionist who made his presence known when he arrived at the Cummings Point batteries at the northern end of Morris Island in early April 1861. From my reading over the past year it seems to be agreed that Ruffin did not fire the 10” Mortar signal shot from Fort Johnson about a mile west of Fort Sumter. He was offered the firing of a shot from one of the 8” Columbiads at Cummings Point AFTER the general bombardment had commenced.
It is now generally believed that Lieutenant Henry S. Farley in the command of Captain George S. James fired a 10-Inch Mortar from Fort Johnson to signal the start of the general bombardment. It is speculated that James offered the first shot to Virginia secessionist Roger Pryor. Although Pryor declined, someone fired that signal shell over Fort Sumter, opening the general bombardment at 4:30 A.M. on 12 April 1861 from 43 artillery pieces which circled Fort Sumter.
If anyone wants to learn a bit more about the mortars and events around Charleston Harbor, here are a few links:
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=30647http://markerhunter.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/10-inch-mortar-model1807/http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=40075 If anyone thinks that GLS’s mortar bed looks a little odd, please consider that a famous photo, found in my copy of the book
, The Image of War, Volume 1, Shadows of the Storm, on page 117, corresponds perfectly with the piece that exists today at Fort Sumter which is variously reported as a 10-Inch Seacoast Mortar of 1819 or 1807. The photo, itself, is one which shows the Confederate Trapier Mortar Battery on Morris Island from which the Rebels bombarded Fort Sumter. The book says that this photo is significant in that it may possibly be the first of the Civil War that exists today. When I bought that 5 volume set in 1981, I knew it was the best series I had ever seen, but my fiancé was a little jealous when she found out I shelled out $250 to get it! Can’t wait to see some in-process photos of the bed build from GLS!
Tracy
