Fredericksburg To Start Artillery Programs With A New Napoleon

By Deborah Fitts

June 2006

 

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — The sound of cannon fire will be heard this year at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, thanks to the park’s acquisition of a brand-new reproduction 12-pdr. Napoleon.

The piece will make its debut June 9-11, when the park will host a major living history event at historic Chatham Manor, park headquarters. Its only other action this year is planned for Aug. 12-13, also at Fredericksburg, but Park Ranger and Historian Stacy Humphreys said the modest start could eventually lead to a once-a -month demonstration in future summer seasons.

“There’s been a lot of interest generated” in the gun, she said.

The $30,000 purchase was spearheaded by Humphreys, whose lifelong enthusiasm for Civil War artillery prompted the park to send her to the National Park Service black-powder school for certification.

When Humphreys arrived at the park nearly three years ago, she inquired about restarting the artillery living history program, which had been defunct for a quarter-century. When she learned about a $1 million congressional grant to boost programs on historic weapons at national parks, “I thought, I’ll give it a try.”

Last year the park received $2,000 from the fund for a black-powder magazine. This year they won $30,000 to buy the gun.

The full-sized tube and carriage, weighing more than a ton, arrived April 9 from Steen Cannons in Ashland, Ky. It is a replica of an 1862 Napoleon on display at the Gettysburg battlefield, down to the markings. The original was manufactured by the Massachusetts-based Ames Co.

Humphreys said she chose a Napoleon because it was versatile, a favorite of both sides, and was in common used from 1862 to spring of 1864 when fighting occurred in and around Fredericksburg.

To operate the gun, Humphreys has marshaled a force of 20 all-male volunteers, mostly from the local area, but including her father, who lives in West Virginia. Most are already living historians and familiar with artillery. Operating as a gun crew with six or seven men at a time, they will portray two units: the 4th U.S. Artillery, a battery associated with the Iron Brigade, and the elite Washington Artillery of New Orleans. The men will procure their own uniforms.

Humphreys said the volunteers will try to live by the mottoes of the two units. The 4th U.S. was fond of saying “Skill is better than luck,” she noted, while the Washington Artillery offered the simple dare, “Try us.” Both units saw action at Fredericksburg.

Russ Smith, superintendent at the park, said safety will be “our No.1 priority.” He said getting Humphreys certified to oversee black-powder use at the park will enable them to “inject more life and variety into our interpretive program.”

Humphreys said working with the new Napoleon was “kind of a dream come true.” She became “fascinated by artillery” when she was 4 and her parents took her to the New Market Battlefield.

She pleaded with them to bring a full-sized cannon home, but her parents assuaged her with a “tiny little Napoleon” from the gift shop. The toy gun still travels with Humphreys wherever she goes.

She expects the park’s new gun will become “an outreach tool” that will attract new visitors to the park. It will also provide an education.

“Through this cannon I hope we can shed some light on this arm of the service,” she said, “but also bring the stories to life of the men who served in the artillery.”

“They were a different breed,” she said. “They were tightly knit, almost like families. The gun was their rallying point, and they’d rather die than lose it.”