Artillery in the USA: Rhode Island: Pawtucket, Portsmouth, Providence, Quonset, South Kingstown, Saunderstown, Warren, Watch Hill, West Warwick, Westerly, Westford, Woonsocket

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Artillery preserved in Rhode Island

Pawtucket, Portsmouth, Providence, Quonset, South Kingstown, Saunderstown, Warren, Watch Hill, West Warwick, Westerly, Westford, Woonsocket

Pawtucket

(Jocelyn Skaarup Photos)

3"/50 calibre US Navy Gun, Slater Park.  (Ashley)

(Author Photos)

German First World War 15-cm schwere Feldhaubitze 1902 (15-cm sFH 02), (Serial Nr. 544), mounted on an American Second World War gun carriage.

The 15-cm schwere Feldhaubitze 1902 (15-cm sFH 02), was a German Heavy Field Howitzer introduced in 1903 and served in the Great War.  It was the first artillery piece to use a modern recoil system in the German Army. Some 416 were in service at the beginning of the war. Its mobility, which allowed it to be deployed as medium artillery, and fairly heavy shell gave the German army a firepower advantage in the early battles in Belgium and France in 1914 as the French and British armies lacked an equivalent.

(Author Photos)

Cast-iron possibly 6-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun mounted vertically with the muzzle down, No. 1 of 2.  In front of the Old Armory on Exchange Street.

(Author Photos)

Cast-iron possibly 6-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun mounted vertically with the muzzle down, No. 2 of 2.  ca. 1800.  Old Armory on Exchange Street.

(Author Photo)

Civil War Memorial, Pawtucket.

Portsmouth

(Atom Photo)

British cast-iron 18-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, c1750, salvaged off of Aquidneck Island, mounted on a wood naval gun carriage. Town Hall, Intersection of Route 138 and Middle Road.

Providence

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(Author Photos)

Bronze 6-pounder Model 1841 smoothbore muzzleloading Field Gun, N.P. Ames, mounted on a field carriage.  "The Bull Run Gun", dated 1861.  This gun was used by the Providence Marine Corps of Artillery (aka. 1st Rhode Island Battery) during the Bull Run campaign.  Inside the State House, North entrance.

(Author Photos)

Bronze 12-pounder Napoleon Model 1857 smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun-Howitzer, (Federal Gun with muzzle swell used in the Civil War), weight 1,233 lbs, marked on the muzzle as Serial No. 2, “HNH & Co.” (manufacturer), T.J.R. (initials of inspector Thomas J. Rodman), 18?? (date obscured due to battle damage).  "The Gettysburg Gun".  This Napoleon was hit by a cannon ball at the battle of Gettysburg and, while the gun crew was attempting to reload it, another cannon ball was jammed in the muzzle.  The gun is located inside the north entrance of the State House.

Providence

(Author Photos)

8-inch mortar Model 1840, replica, No. 1 of 4 mortars mounted on the NW corner of the Civil War monument in Kennedy Plaza, across from City Hall.

8-inch mortar Model 1840, replica, No. 2 of 4 mortars mounted on the SW corner of the Civil War monument in Kennedy Plaza, across from City Hall.

8-inch mortar (Serial No. 1050), No. 3 of 4 mortars mounted on the SE corner of the Civil War monument in Kennedy Plaza, across from City Hall.

8-inch mortar replica No. 4 of 4 mortars mounted on the NE corner of the Civil War monument in Kennedy Plaza, across from City Hall.

Providence

Four 10-inch Siege Mortars Model 1861. Two originally flanked the entrance at each end of the armory. (Removed c2003 and placed in storage by the State of Rhode Island). Cranston Street Armory, on the corner of Cranston and Dexter Streets.

(Library of Congress Photo)

Two Model 1829 32-pounder Model 1829 James Rifles.  The one in the foreground is mounted on a siege carriage, and the one beyond it is mounted on an iron front pintle barbette carriage.

(Geocities Photo)

32-pounder Model 1829 Gun, dated 1833 on left trunnion, mounted vertically as a monument at Prescott GAR Post No. 1 burial plot.  North Burial Ground.

Providence

Cast-iron smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, embedded muzzle down in the sidewalk, Revolutionary War era, No. 1 of 2. Benefit Street Arsenal. (Google Earth Photos)

Cast-iron smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, embedded muzzle down in the sidewalk, Revolutionary War era, No. 2 of 2. Benefit Street Arsenal.

Quonset Air Museum

(Author Photo)

Russian ZU-23-4 towed Anti-Aircraft Gun, Quonset Air Museum. Moved, location TBC.

(Author Photo)

Russian 23-mm ZU-23 towed Anti-Aircraft Gun, Quonset Air Museum. Moved, location TBC.

(Author Photo)

Russian 37-mm twin B47 Anti-Aircraft Gun, Quonset Air Museum. Moved, location TBC.

South Kingstown

(University of Rhode Island Photo)

30-pounder Parrott Rifle.  The barrel is broken forward of the trunnions, no visible markings. University of Rhode Island Quadrangle.

Saunderstown, Fort Kearny

Fort Kearny was a coastal defence fort from 1901 to 1943.

Fort Kearny was built under the Endicott Program 1904-1908 as part of the Coast Defences of Narragansett Bay.  The fort is named for Major General Philip Kearny, killed in the American Civil War.  It protected the West Passage of Narragansett Bay, along with Fort Getty in Jamestown and Fort Greble on Dutch Island.  The fort was primarily armed with six 6-inch M1905 guns (152-mm) on disappearing carriages, four in Battery French and two in Battery Cram.  Two 3-inch M1903 guns (76-mm) were also present in Battery Armistead.  Battery French was named for William H. French, a general in the Civil War.  Battery Cram was named for Thomas J. Cram, a topographical engineer in the Civil War.  Battery Armistead was named for Captain Lewis G. A. Armistead, who was killed in the War of 1812.

6-inch M1905 gun mounted on a disappearing carriage.

The guns of Battery French were removed in 1917 for potential service on the Western Front; three of the guns were sent to France for use on field carriages, but sources indicate that none of the 6-inch gun regiments completed training before the Armistice and thus they did not see combat.  The guns were not returned to Fort Kearny.

In the Second World War a large-scale modernization of coast defenses was implemented; in Narragansett Bay this was centered on Fort Church and Fort Greene.  Fort Kearny was slated for disarmament once the new defenses were completed.  In 1942 the 3-inch guns of Battery Armistead were relocated to Fort Varnum, and in 1943, with improved defenses completed, Fort Kearny's two remaining guns at Battery Cram were scrapped.  Fort Kearny was a prisoner-of-war camp in the Second World War, beginning in February 1945.  (Wikipedia)

Warren

(Library of Congress Photo)

10-inch Rodman Gun, (Columbiad, 10-inch, smoothbore, seacoast, Model 1861), 59, 1866, Confederate Army, Fort Darling, Virginia.

(Elisha Hunt Photo)

(Kenneth C. Zirkel Photos)

10-inch Rodman Gun, (Columbiad, 10-inch, smoothbore, seacoast, Model 1861), weight 14,980-lbs, mounted upright on pedestal.  Veterans’ Park, opposite the Methodist Church, on the Warren Common.  

Watch Hill, Fort Mansfield

Fort Mansfield and similar forts stretching from Galveston to Maine can be traced back to a joint Army-Navy Board created in 1883 known as the Gun Foundry Board.  Its report a year later warned of the defenseless condition of the USA's coasts and recommended a system of fortifications to protect harbors and coastal cities from invasion.  In 1885 this Board was replaced by what has become known as the Endicott Board which in 1886 issued formal recommendations for a major coastal defense network.  Fort Mansfield was one of numerous coastal artillery installations constructed in the Harbor Defenses of Long Island Sound as part of the coastal defense network for New York City.  It was named in honor of Joseph K. Mansfield (1803–1862), who served as an engineer officer during the Mexican War and was eventually promoted to Inspector General of the Army; as a general he was killed at the Battle of Antietam in the Civil War.  During the Second World War a battery of two 16"/50 caliber Mark 2 guns was proposed for the Watch Hill area, but it was never built.  (Wikipedia)

West Warwick

(Roger Davis Photo)

4.7-inch Model 1906 M1 Field Gun, No. 1 of 2. VFW Post No. 2, Main Street.

(Roger Davis Photo)

4.7-inch Model 1906 M1 Field Gun, No. 2 of 2. VFW Post No. 2, Main Street.

Westerly

(Santee1821 Photos)

8-inch 200-pounder Parrot Rifle, M1861, 1864, weight 16,487-lbs, mounted on original top carriage.  From Fort Moultrie, South Carolina.  Westerly Armory.

8-Inch Parrott Rifle is displayed outside the old Armory in Westerly, Rhode Island.  This particular cannon was one of two 8-Inch Parrotts which were unexpectedly found during an archaeological excavation at Fort Moultrie near Charleston, South Carolina in 1974.  (Two 10-Inch Rodmans and a 15-Inch Rodman were discovered a the same time.)

One of the 8-Inch Parrotts was kept at Fort Moultrie where it can still be seen.  However, this Parrott was traded to the Westerly Armory in 1977 for a 4.72-Inch Armstrong breechloading rifle.  Fort Moultrie had two such Armstrongs mounted in 1898 - these original guns being removed by 1925.  

The markings on the muzzle of the 8-Inch Parrott now in Westerly show that it was manufactured at West Point Foundry in 1864.  Its original weight was 16,412 pounds.  “US” is stamped on top of the barrel.  While the mounting resembles an original carriage in its basic shape, I believe that it is a reproduction created for this display.

This 8-Inch Parrott Rifle was produced for the US Army (where the type was sometimes called a 200-Pounder).   It is nearly identical to 8-Inch Parrott rifles produced for the US Navy (where the type was called a 150-Pounder).  The “pounder” designation reflect the weight of projectile which could be fired - though in practice few projectiles weighed as much as 200 pounds. (Santee1821)

Westford

(Barbara Poole Photo)

SBML possibly 24-pounder Gun, possible King George III royal cypher, near the War Memorial.

Woonsocket

(US Army Signal Corps Photo No. 8A/FEC-50-4713)

105-mm M2A2 Howitzer Gun crew waits for the signal to fire on the enemy, Korea, 25 July 1950.

(Trails and Walks in Rhode Island Photo)

105-mm M2A2 Howitzer, carriage Serial No. 11576, Parish Pressed Steel, 1954, WMT.  Second World War Memorial State Park.

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