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Armstrong Cannon Return Visit To Fort Fisher State Historic Site

Contact:
For additional information, please call 910-458-5538 or visit online www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/fisher/fisher.htm.


(KURE BEACH) – One of the largest weapons in North Carolina’s arsenal during the Civil War is making a return visit to its original location. Taken from Fort Fisher by victorious Union forces in the waning days of the Civil War, the Armstrong Cannon has been the centerpiece on “Trophy Point” at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point for 139 years. It will go on display at the Fort Fisher State Historic Site on Nov. 19.

The arrival of the Armstrong will kick off the site’s observance next year of the 140th anniversary of the end of the Civil War in 1865. In January 2005, the final battle at the fort will be re-enacted. Fort Fisher historian and weapons enthusiast Ray Flowers said that in spite of the presence of the Armstrong Fort Fisher fell in the January 1865 attack, which was the largest combined Army-Navy amphibious operation until Normandy in World War II. The Armstrong cannon is on loan until February 2006.

The Armstrong, described as the most effective gun in the fort, was no ordinary cannon. It was manufactured by Sir William Armstrong & Company in England and represented leading edge technology. It was sent to the Confederacy in 1864 to protect Wilmington, the premiere blockade-running port in the South. A muzzle-loading cannon, its nearly 16,000-pound barrel hurled a 150-pound studded shell up to five miles. The studs on the shell aligned with grooves in the barrel to improve the weapon’s accuracy.

England was an early source of munitions and supplier of the Confederacy during the American Civil War. The merchants of London made a gift of a rosewood and mahogany carriage to support the Armstrong cannon barrel. That carriage was replaced years later at West Point. A brand new carriage of treated pine has been constructed by John Braxton of Snow Camp to hold the Armstrong barrel when it returns to North Carolina.

A reinforced concrete pad has been installed at Fort Fisher to hold the Armstrong, along with a protective decorative fence and an alarm system. Interpretive signage that tells the story of the Armstrong will soon be in place.

Before plans for the exhibit could be implemented, they had to be approved by the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, Fort Fisher, the Fort Fisher Restoration Committee, New York State Historic Preservation Office, and several U.S. Army sections. Complex negotiations got underway in 2002; final details were agreed to in November of this year.

The Armstrong Cannon was originally mounted at Purdie Battery, midway in the fort’s seaface. That site, like most of the original fort, has eroded into the Atlantic Ocean. During the exhibit, the Armstrong will be displayed adjacent to the visitor center.

Two other English-made guns that were taken from Fort Fisher by Union sailors also will be exhibited with the Armstrong. One, a Whitworth cannon, was abandoned by Confederate soldiers at Fort Fisher after a skirmish with Union naval forces in 1863. A retreating Confederate soldier removed the cannon’s breech block handle so that it could no longer be fired. The Whitworth has an 1,100-pound barrel and fired 12-pound cannonballs a distance of 4.5 miles. Unlike most cannons of the day, which were loaded from the muzzle, the Whitworth was loaded from the rear. Immensely accurate, mobile and far-reaching, the Whitworth was most effective gun in protecting blockade-runners.

Also returning will be a Blakely cannon, which was taken at the same time as the Whitworth. It had a 921-pound cannon barrel that fired an 18-pound cannonball; the range of its projection is unknown. The Blakely and Whitworth were taken by the U.S. Navy and are being loaned courtesy of the Naval Historical Center, Washington Naval Yard, Washington, D.C. They will be on loan for one year. The Washington Naval Yard also is loaning an Armstrong shell that was originally at Fort Fisher, along with an 8-inch Blakely solid shot shell.

The return of the Armstrong, Whitworth and Blakely cannons represent the major British makers of armament at Fort Fisher that allowed it to protect blockade-runners around Wilmington and feed the supply line to General Robert E. Lee’s Army in Virginia during the Civil War.

A Civil War uniform, saber, canteen and valise that belonged to Capt. Thomas Purdie, who was stationed at Fort Fisher early in the war, also will be exhibited for the 140th anniversary observance. The uniform and effects are being loaned by Aversaboro Battleground in Sampson County.

Fort Fisher State Historic Site is part of the Division of State Historic Sites in the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. For additional information, please call 910-458-5538 or visit online www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/fisher/fisher.htm.

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