US Navy 32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds in Farwell, Michigan
US Navy 32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds Number 226 in Farwell, Michigan
US Navy 32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds Number 226 is displayed in Farwell, Michigan. It was manufactured at Seyfert, McManus, and Company in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1865. As manufactured it weighed 4,508 pounds and was inspected by Walter W. Queen. It is mounted on what may be an original mounting for a saluting battery. Many thanks to friend of the page Steve Walton for sharing these photos!
Number 226 served in the saluting battery at Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine. It is not recorded as serving at sea. In 1897 it was loaned to the General Charles Griffin Post Number 386 of the Grand Army of the Republic in Farwell, Michigan.
The 32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds: This type of cannon was designed by the Bureau of Ordnance in 1864 due to a perceived need for lightweight 32-Pounders. The resulting 32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds borrowed the general shape from Admiral Dahlgren’s 9-Inch, 10-Inch, and 11-Inch cannons. However, the 32-Pounders, like the similar 8-Inch Shell guns of 6,500 Pounds, had a simplified ring cascabel. Few if any of this type of cannon would have seen service during the Civil War. Postwar, some served ashore in saluting batteries. Others served afloat on training ships and aboard auxiliary vessels. Many never left storage. However, as the smallest of the Navy’s “big guns”, many were loaned to local communities in the 1890s and 1900s. Consequently, a relatively large number - around 90 - survive to the present.
1876 photograph showing the saluting battery at New York. Note that the mountings appear similar to the surviving mounting in Farwell, Michigan.
