Fort Fisher Cannon Dedicated Today in Raleigh

From the September 17th Raleigh (NC) New & Observer "Civil War cannon to be dedicated Tuesday at N.C. history museum" by Jeanna Smialek.

This cannon was used by Confederates at Fort Fisher and now will find a home sitting on a concrete pad in front of the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh's Bicentennial Park.  It is a Blakely cannon, manufactured in 1862 by Fawcett, Preston & Co., of Liverpool, England.

This particular piece was used at the battle over the blockade-runner Hebe which had run aground north of Fort Fisher, guarding New Inlet of the Cape Fear River leading to Wilmington.  This cannon was captured by the USS Minnesota and other gunboats and shipped to Washington, DC, as a war trophy.

It has been at the Washington Navy Shipyard for decades since until the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum at Hatteras requested it for a USS Minnesota display.  When the staff realized it had not been used on the Minnesota, they contacted the Raleigh museum.

The N.C. Museum of History secured a renewable 5-year loan and sent it to East Carolina University where months were spent cleaning and preparing it for display.  Workers there went through many layers of rust and paint and made an exciting discovery.  There was a maker's mark on the weapons carriage.  They also cleared up an inscription concerning the cannon's capture.

Wow, a Fort Fisher Cannon.  --Old B-Runner