USN BuOrd 32-Pounders of 4,500 Pounds in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania
One of two US Navy 32-Pounders of 4,500 Pounds displayed in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania near the courthouse.
Note: The photos in this post were taken by James Murray and are used with his permission.
Two US Navy Bureau of Ordnance 32-Pounders of 4,500 Pounds are displayed in front of the courthouse in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. They are:
32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds Number 10 cast by Seyfert, McManus, and Co. in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1865. As manufactured it weighed 4,601 pounds.
32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds Number 13 cast by Seyfert, McManus, and Co. in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1865. As manufactured it weighed 4,564 pounds.
According to a local history article, the two cannons were placed in 1897. They were rededicated with a new plaque in 2009.
The Type: This type of cannon was designed by the Bureau of Ordnance in 1864 due to a perceived need for lightweight 32-Pounders. In the 1840s and 1850s, relatively light weight 32-Pounders of 27-Hundredweight, 32-Hundredweight, and 42-Hundredweight had been designed to equip the upper decks of US Navy ships. During the Civil War, these lighter 32-Pounders had been used to equip the many merchant ships which had been taken into service and had not been designed for heavy cannon.
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.
