Civil War Memorial: A Cannon’s story
Originally believed to be an Army artillery cannon, the cannon at Oakwood Cemetery is actually a Navy frigate cannon.
“Instead of putting it on the two big wheels, we put it on a Naval base. As far as I know, it’s the only Naval cannon that’s ever been part of a cemetery memorial.”
Dave Thompson
former leader, Lowell American Legion
By Justin Tiemeyer - Contributing Writer
11/20/2024
On Wednesday, May 30, 1900, Veterans of Lowell installed a Civil War Memorial at Oakwood Cemetery, complete with a Civil War cannon. In those days, Veterans were not celebrated on Memorial Day, but on Decoration Day, declared by John Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) to honor Union soldiers who had perished in the Civil War. The holiday was held on May 30 every year up until 1971, when the Uniform Monday Holiday Act changed it to the last Monday in May.
The cannon was an important component of GAR’s plan for the memorial. According to Dave Thompson, a longtime member of the Lowell American Legion, the cannon on display at Oakwood Cemetery was found by a Civil War Veteran in a scrap heap in Norfolk, Virginia. It was originally believed that this was an Army cavalry cannon, so it was reassembled atop a pair of big, wooden wheels, and it remained that way for about 20 years, at which point, the wooden wheels broke, the cannon collapsed, and it was placed into storage.
At some point prior to 1936, the cannon was removed from storage and reassembled on a new cement base. According to a newspaper report, somebody loaded the cannon with metal and gunpowder and fired it from the cemetery that year. Shortly thereafter, an ordinance was passed banning the practice of firing the Civil War cannon, and the cannon’s vent hole was welded shut.
In the 1990s, the cannon was vandalized, taken down, and subsequently lost. “I tracked it down to some shelves at the DPW,” Thompson said, “but all that was left was the barrel.”
While Veterans worked to restore the Civil War cannon, they learned something interesting. This was not an Army infantry cannon after all, but a Navy cannon. It was created in Boston with the intention of being placed in a lighthouse, but because the Civil War was in progress, the Union forces needed every cannon they could get. The lighthouse cannon was placed, instead, aboard a frigate, and it saw action before ending up in that scrap heap in Norfolk.
“Instead of putting it on the two big wheels,” Thompson said, “we put it on a Naval base. As far as I know, it’s the only Naval cannon that’s ever been part of a cemetery memorial.”
On Monday, May 26, 2014, there was a rededication of the Civil War memorial included with the city’s Memorial Day celebration. Eighteen soldiers from a Civil War group in Sunfield showed up in full Union uniform and performed a four-gun rifle salute with Civil War-era muzzleloaders. “It absolutely mesmerized that crowd,” Thompson said.
Bruce Butgereit, of the Grand Rapids camp of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, was involved in the restoration of the Civil War monument, and it was his group that oversaw the restoration of the 940-pound cannon, as well, which he called “the mystery cannon.”
“The whole situation regarding this cannon is unusual,” Butgereit said. “How we got a Navy gun onto an infantry or artillery-type carriage that dates back to even before the Civil War is what makes it so unique. Maybe some guy just had or found this gun, and somebody else found this carriage, and they just kind of, by hodgepodge, threw this together.”
The Civil War Memorial with its Naval cannon stands in honor of the 141 Civil War Veterans buried in Oakwood Cemetery, but it was also intended, upon rededication, to honor all Veterans from every war. Though the cannon has cycled on and off of a variety of different mounts, and in and out of storage, Thompson believes it will stay standing as a tribute to soldiers for the next 100 years.
