Monster Cannons on Display
No other Civil War armament was as formidable as Rodman cannons. Named for their inventor, Thomas Jackson Rodman, the distinctively streamlined cannons were cast in a way that made them much less vulnerable to accidental explosions. Two of the largest Rodmans, behemoths that weighed 90 tons and could fire 20-inch shells 4 1/2 miles, were cast at Pittsburgh’s Fort Pitt Foundry in 1864. A replica of one of those monster guns is on display in a new exhibit, “Pennsylvania’s Civil War,” at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, which is across the street from the site of the Fort Pitt Foundry.
The original cannons were positioned at Fort Hamilton, N.Y., and Fort Hancock, N.J., to defend the New York Harbor. The replica cannon is made of carved Styrofoam reinforced with a steel frame and covered with fiberglass.
Another impressive replica recently debuted at Fort Fisher, in North Carolina; it re-creates the largest piece of ordnance used at the fort in the war. The tube of the original grooved Armstrong Gun weighed in at eight tons and fired a 150-pound studded shell. The original, which was seized as a spoils of war trophy, is on exhibit at West Point.
Slave Cabin Honors Birth of Freedom
When the National Museum of African American History and Culture opens on Washington’s Mall in 2015, its star exhibit will be a one-story frame cabin where African Americans lived as slaves before the war and as freedmen after the war. It is one of only two such cabins that have survived at the Point of Pines Plantation on Edisto Island, S.C.
Although the structure is dilapidated and badly weathered, museum curators were thrilled to have a cabin from Edisto Island because, according to officials, it was one of the first places where slaves declared their own freedom before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. They were able to do so with the help of Union forces that seized the island in 1861.
The simple structures served as homes for black families as late as the 1980s. In 1986, after the last residents had moved from the two 16-by-20-foot cabins, they were listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Three years ago the current owner donated the buildings to the local Edisto Historical Preservation Society, a gift that did not include the land.
The society raised $40,000 to stabilize the house and clear the surrounding land but could not raise enough funds to move it. Museum officials helped solve the problem. Now the little house will be preserved and have a permanent home.
Edwards Ferry Crossing Honored
On June 26, 2013, a ceremony was held to dedicate this marker near Edwards Ferry, Va., exactly 150 years after the majority of the Army of the Potomac crossed over the Potomac River on pontoon bridges at this point during the Gettysburg Campaign. Author Craig Swain, whose articles have appeared in the magazine, gave a short presentation about the importance of Edwards Ferry. The marker is just a few miles from the offices of Civil War Times, which, along with the Loudoun County Sesquicentennial Commission and the Visit Loudoun organization, helped pay for the marker.
Rare Lincoln Document Found in College Closet
A spring cleaning at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pa., turned up a rare private document signed by Abraham Lincoln—a certificate given to Benjamin Crever, a Methodist clergyman and founder of the Pennsylvania college, commissioning him as an army chaplain in 1863. The framed document had apparently been stashed away long ago and forgotten. College officials had known of its existence, but not its location.
Retiring President James Douthat was recently packing up mementos of his 24 years of service at Lycoming when he got to the top shelf of an office closet, where he found Crever’s long-lost certificate. The highly decorative document, which is housed in a slightly worn black frame, was also signed by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
Signed certificates such as this one are considered rare finds because President Lincoln appointed only 500 members of the clergy as military chaplains. Most of the certificates sent to the chaplains remain in private hands. Now that Benjamin Crever’s has been rediscovered, it will reside, at least temporarily, in Lycoming College’s archives in the library’s basement.
Originally published in the October 2013 issue of Civil War Times. To subscribe, click here.
