Mansfield Ohio Cannon
N 40° 45.500 W 082° 30.839
17T E 372205 N 4513032
This is one of four 42-pounder seacoast guns, model 1845 on the grounds of the courthouse lawn in Mansfield, OH. According to a register of Civil War cannons, there are 29 survivors of this type.
Waymark Code: WM2HHM
Location: Ohio, United States
Date Posted: 11/05/2007
Views: 37
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The four cannons on the courthouse lawn are interesting Civil War relics. An 1896 federal act allowed obsolete cannons in the federal inventory to be given to municipalities and veterans organizations that applied for them. Our cannons are 42-pounder seacoast guns, model of 1845. According to a register of Civil War cannons, there are 29 survivors of this type. All four of our cannons were made for the US Army at the Tredegar Foundry in Richmond Virginia in the late 1850s. The foundry became an important Confederate asset at the outbreak of the Civil War.
Benjamin Huger was the inspector whose initials are stamped on the face of the muzzle. Huger became a Confederate inspector after the outbreak of the war. The 42-pounder has a 7 inch bore and weighs 8500 pounds. They are fully lathe-turned. 318 were built by Tredegar Foundry, West Point Foundry, Fort Pitt, Alger, and Bellona. It''s interesting that all four of our cannon came from Tredegar.
The 42-pounder is a "gun", meaning that it is meant for level firing rather than lobbing a shot or shell at a high angle into the air. In sea-coast defense they were meant to fire directly at enemy ships. They fired a round "shot" and also were used to fire "hot shot" which are cannonballs heated red hot in a furnace to become an incindiary device.