This beautiful cannon is marked "JRA / TF” (Joseph Reid Anderson/Tredegar Foundry) is dated 1858, Registry No. 24, Rim base #994, weighing 1,485 lbs., inspected "BH” (Benjamin Huger). The 24-pounder flank howitzer was made from the late 1840’s through the Civil War by several manufacturers. Tredegar made only 25 of these rare guns and all were delivered in 1858. This example being the next to last they made. The inspector, Benjamin Huger, went on to be a Confederate General. The cannon was made in and for Virginia before being used by the Confederacy. It was captured during the War Between the States and taken to Washington. Later it was given to the Soldiers and Sailors Monumental Association of Lycoming County, PA. The Monumental Association placed a wonderful bronze plaque on the gun’s breech.

Confederate used howitzers in the 24-pdr caliber of both bronze and iron produced by Confederate foundries as well as Federal types acquired from arsenals in the south at the start of the war or captured on the battlefield.

Returns and dispatches from the early war period indicate the Confederates made use of the 24-pdr Howitzers throughout the Confederacy, but more specific to this Virginia gun, a report from Major George Randolph indicated that the Virginia Armory at Richmond, Virginia provided four 24-pdr howitzers on field carriages to support the defenses outside Williamsburg, Virginia (OR, Series I, Vol. 4, Serial 4, p. 638). Though it cannot be proven, the likelihood that this was one of those four guns is high.

The Confederates continued to use the big 24-pdrs up to the end of the war. Several 24-pdr howitzers remained in the lines around Richmond and Petersburg, and particularly in the James River forts up to the end of operations in that sector (OR, Series I, Vol. 46, Serial 96, p. 1198). This gun may have served here also.

The famous CS artilleryman, Porter Alexander, said the 24-pounder howitzer was his favorite gun, when he described the employment of a 24-pdr Field Howitzer in Moody’s Madison (La.) Battery at Fredericksburg in his book, Fighting for the Confederacy:

…we discovered that quite a little body of the enemy were lying down in a shallow depression about 400 yards from another of Moody’s 24pr. howitzers, which were my favorite guns. (Emphasis mine) Partly to make the enemy unhappy, & partly to show my companions how effective the gun was, I carefully aimed & fired four shrapnel (each of which contained 175 musket balls) so as to burst each one about 15 feet above the ground & about as many yards in front of the little hollow. While we would not see into it, the bullets & fragment would probe it easily. From the very first shot, we saw, at the far end, men helping three wounded to get out to the rear, but our infantry sharpshooters opened on them & ran them back. The next day, Baldwin & Johnston visited the spot together to study the effects, & told me they found 13 dead which they were sure from the fresh wounds & blood were killed by those four shrapnel. (p. 182)

Moody’s Battery, in particular, used the 24-pdrs for much of the war, likely Model 1841 24-pdr Field Howitzers. The Battery used two 24-pd howitzers along with two 3-inch Ordnance Rifles at Antietam to good effect. The same battery brought four of the heavy howitzers to Gettysburg. (Emphasis mine)

The cannon is mounted on a new Paulson Brothers, powder coated aluminum carriage. These aluminum carriages were developed for the park service so that the guns and carriages could remain exposed to the elements indefinitely without damage to the carriage. The quality is so good that even standing right next to the gun one cannot tell that the carriage is not wooden without tapping it with a metal object.

This will be delivered anywhere in the lower 48 states without charge.