On Monday, the cannons received attention of a different sort when several workers spent more than an hour replacing the deteriorating wooden carriages with new metal ones—just in time for this weekend’s Memorial Day festivities.
“We felt the cannons needed a lift,” Appomattox County’s Economic Development Director Jeff Taylor said. “It’s the ambiance of Appomattox.”
The guns are Napoleon smoothbore howitzers and were built in Richmond in the early 1860s by Tredegar Iron Works, Taylor said.
Abuse from the elements over 15 years was evident in the old carriages. One of the cannon carriages had collapsed, causing the cannon to point upward and rest on the ground. The other had chunks missing.
Wayne Phelps, the Appomattox museum director who also maintains Court House Square—in the town of Appomattox, not at the surrender grounds—said he had received a lot of complaints about the broken carriage.
The two new carriages were built by Steen Cannon & Ordnance Works in Kentucky using a Civil War pattern. They were shipped to Appomattox and unloaded Monday morning, just three months after the order was placed. The county is paying the $35,000 cost.
The county decided to make the purchase for the Memorial Day celebration, in preparation for the Civil War sesquicentennial in 2015, and to reduce money spent long-term. The metal carriages will not have to be replaced as often and are expected to last 60 to 100 years, Taylor said.
This is the third time the cannon carriages have been replaced since 1961.
The carriages were last replaced in 1997, when the county and the Sons of the Confederacy split the $6,700 price tag, using money raised at a reenactment.
Taylor said he believed the original carriages were lost during the Civil War.
Phelps has been working on Court House Square since he was in school. As a student in shop class, he helped build the carriages installed in 1961. He’s stayed connected to the spot ever since.
“Court House Square means a lot to me,” Phelps said, adding it’s a memorial to Appomattox soldiers.
This is an attitude shared by many in Appomattox, Taylor said, who added he is pleased with the project. They will be dedicated during the Memorial Day ceremony.
“These are beautiful, beautiful carriages and we think they’ll fit real well here,” he said.
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AP-WF-05-21-13 1352GMT
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