US Navy 9-Inch Dahlgren of USS Hartford in Gaylord, Michigan
US Navy 9-Inch Dahlgren Number 250 of USS Hartford is displayed in Gaylord, Michigan.
US Navy 9-Inch Dahlgren Number 250 of USS Hartford is displayed in Gaylord, Michigan beside the Ostego County Courthouse. It served aboard USS Hartford from the ship’s commissioning in 1859 through the 1880s. It was cast by Cyrus Alger & Company in 1859. As manufactured it weighed 9,035 pounds. It is displayed on an original, post-war US Navy iron carriage. It is one of three 9-Inch Dahlgrens from USS Hartford displayed in northern Michigan, and one of eight associated with the ship to survive.
The carriage bears a plaque stating: “This gun is one of twenty-six nine inch guns composing the battery of Admiral Farragut’s historic flagship Hartford during the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865, at the Battles of New Orleans, Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Mobile. Forevermore a silent reminder to the rising generations of the glorious deeds of our navy during that fierce conflict which the God of Battles watched over our nation and in which this gun effectively spoke for liberty and a united country. Mounted July 4th, 1905.”
Hartford was kept in service by the Navy into the 20th Century. She was intended by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to be preserved in perpetuity alongside Constitution and Constellation. However, with FDR’s death, she was allowed to further deteriorate until she sank at her moorings at Norfolk in 1956. She was subsequently broken up.
Dedication plaque on the carriage of Number 250
