Fort Zachary Taylor-- Part 4: All Those Buried Cannons

Then, the former  marine and civil service engineer Howard England began to unearth  Civil War cannons  buried within the walls of Fort Taylor.  In 1899, when  Army engineers removed the top two levels of he fort in order to build the Osceola and Adair Batteries, they built the batteries over the casemates (gun emplacements).

Nearly 200 Rodman, Columbiad and Parrot cannons  were buried with in the battery walls.  Many were excavated and are on display today, but others are still buried, some of them are embedded and some are partially visible in the stone walls of the batteries.

Howard England is the man responsible for the preservation of Fort Zachary Taylor, for his continued work over a ten year period that uncovered the largest collection of Civil War armaments in the United States, including cannons, guns, a desalinization plat and thousands of cannonballs and projectiles.

This earned Fort Zachary Taylor the protection of the U.S. government as a National  Historic Landmark in 1973.

Thanks Mr. England.  --Old B-Runner