US Navy 32-Pounder of 42 Hundredweight Number 230 of USS Cairo
A US Navy 32-Pounder of 42 Hundredweight, Number 230, is displayed aboard USS Cairo at Vicksburg National Military Park. This cannon was cast in 1845 at the Fort Pitt Foundry. It is marked as weighing 42-1-18 Hundredweight (4,750 pounds). It was recovered with the sunken USS Cairo in 1964.
10-Inch Columbiad at South Fort in Vicksburg
A 10-Inch Confederate Columbiad is displayed at South Fort at Vicksburg National Military Park. This Columbiad was cast at Bellona Foundry near Richmond in 1863. It is marked as weighing 13,800 pounds. It is marked on its right trunnion “BF, JLA” for Bellona Foundry, Junius L. Archer (the proprietor).
US Navy 8-Inch Chambered Shell Gun Number 348 on USS Cairo
US Navy 8-Inch Chambered Shell Gun of 63 Hundredweight Number 348 is displayed aboard USS Cairo at Vicksburg National Military Park. Number 348 is one of three of the 8-Inch shell guns aboard. Number 348 was cast at the Fort Pitt Foundry in 1845. It is marked as weighed in hundredweight "64-0-8" (7,176 pounds).
10-Inch Siege Mortar, Pattern 1840, at Vicksburg
US Army 10-Inch Siege Mortar, Pattern 1840, displayed on "Cannon Row" at Vicksburg National Military Park - this mortar was cast in 1859 at West Point Foundry. As manufactured it weighed 1,812 pounds.
US Navy 9-Inch Dahlgren in Downtown Vicksburg
A US Navy 9-Inch Dahlgren is displayed in downtown Vicksburg, Mississippi. I was not able to read the registry number or the weight on the breech of the cannon. I have been told by a friend of the Facebook page that it is one of the two in Vicksburg which was originally carried aboard USS Tuscumbia and later used by the US Army’s 17th Corps.
10-Inch Confederate Columbiad, Bellona Number 4, at Vicksburg
A 10-Inch Confederate Columbiad, Bellona Foundry Number 4, is displayed at “Cannon Row” near the Visitor’s Center at Vicksburg National Military Park. This Columbiad was cast by Bellona Foundry near Richmond, Virginia in 1862. It’s original weight was 13,800 pounds.
9-Inch “Confederate Dahlgren” at Vicksburg
A 9-Inch Naval Shell Gun cast at Bellona Foundry in 1862 is displayed behind the Mississippi Monument at Vicksburg. This shell gun generally follows the shape of US Navy 9-Inch Dahlgrens and may be called a “Confederate Dahlgren.”
US Navy 9-Inch Dahlgren 703 at Vicksburg
US Navy 9-Inch Dahlgren Number 703 was cast at Fort Pitt Foundry in 1863. It is currently displayed at Vicksburg National Military Park, but in 1864 it was one of twenty 9-Inch Dahlgrens sent to the Navy Yard at Sackets Harbor, New York. It weighs 9,265 pounds.
US Army 30-Pounder Parrott Rifle Number 29
US Army 30-Pounder (4.2-Inch) Parrott Rifle Number 29 was manufactured at West Point Foundry in 1861. It is displayed near the site of the Third Louisiana Redan at Vicksburg National Military Park.
3.8-Inch James Rifle, Type Two, at Vicksburg
3.8-Inch James Rifle, Type 2, Number 20 cast by Ames in 1861. It is displayed at Vicksburg National Military Park near the Visitors Center. The James Rifle, named after its inventor Militia General and US Senator Charles Tillinghast James, is a Bronze 3.8-Inch Rifled Cannon. It was developed to fire a projectile also invented by James. It is also called a 14-Pounder James Rifle.
12-Pounder Boat Howitzer of USS Pittsburg at Vicksburg
US Navy 12-Pounder Dahlgren Boat Howitzer, Heavy, Number 96 is displayed in the museum beside USS Cairo at Vicksburg. As the sign attests, the boat howitzer served aboard USS Cairo’s sister ship USS Pittsburgh. The markings on the tube show a weight of 759 pounds with 65 pounds preponderance (the howitzer is breech-heavy by this amount when placed on its carriage). It was manufactured at the Washington Navy Yard in 1862, and it was inspected and approved for service by John A. Dahlgren himself.
Cannon Row at Vicksburg
Placeholder post for Cannon Row at Vicksburg. Photos taken by the author in the mid-1990s.