Quarter million dollar Confederate cannon

[reb64]

I am not selling, endorsing or conected in anyway. Just pointing out for viewing, debate and discussion the ebay listing of "Confederate Cannon" priced at about 225,000. Sized just right for my yard but a little over my budget.

[toptimlrd]

Reb you forgot the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1862-Confederate-Civil-War-Cannon-w-Carriage-Limber_W0QQitemZ230095640588QQihZ013QQcategoryZ139 60QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

All I can say is wow.

[Army30th]

Must have been a hoax or a joke, it's not listed anymore.

[TParker]

eBay doesn't permit items that can actually fire. I didn't see the listing before it got pulled, but if it was an actual cannon in firing condition, eBay wouldn't allow it to be listed.

[csuppelsa]

It might pop up on www.auctionarms.com

[bplvr]

e-bay is an anti-gun, secular regressive site.
If it goes bang ,it is a BAD item and YOU are a BAD person for owning it.
Shame ,Shame !

Sorry, but when I see this kind of anti-gun crap, it get my blood up.

I hope it gets yours up too.

[tompritchett]

It might pop up on www.auctionarms.com

Personally, I hope that some museum has offered a fair and reasonable price and there is no price war for this artifact as funds spent for acquiring it at an inflated price merely reduce the funds available to preserve other such historical artifacts.

[31stWisconsin]

It's for sale on gunbroker.

[mrgrzeskowiak]

Here is the link for the cannon.. I agree All I can say is 'wow'
http://gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=66493675

[bplvr]

OK .......I will put up he first $1000.00 to save this jem and decide which museum it goes to . All I need now is another 200 or so fellow Americans who wish to join in this historic effort. Step up to the plate gentlemen ,and do this for our country.When there are 200 VERIFYABLE pledges,we can bid.

-bplvr

=============================================

[jurgitemvaletem]

So do we all pitch in and have shared custody of it? I'll take it Every other Saturday!

thanks,
Jurg

[flattop32355]

Darn! If only it were a smoothbore, like I want....

[RaiderANV]

Gentleman,

Ebay has done their best to PROTECT us from "Drive-By" shooting with Confederate Artillery(as this seems to be the cannon of choice for drug related crimes) and all you can do is complain about their practice of banning this evil assualt cannons!! It's for the childrens protection!!!


<snicker>

[GrumpyDave]

"We already got one."

[Green Mountain Boy]

This was in the Rutland (Vermont) Herald on Thursday 3/1/07. As a footnote - Mr. Dassatti is missing a hand from an accident with this cannon when he was a cadet at Norwich.


Re-enactors, state tangle over Civil War cannon

March 1, 2007

By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau

MONTPELIER — It's been nearly a century and a half since the bronze cannon paid for by the Proctor family and used by Vermont troops during the waning years of the Civil War was fired in battle.

The cannon is now in the middle of another heated engagement — this time between the state of Vermont, which owns the artillery piece, and a group of Civil War re-enactors who have kept the cannon for three decades.

James Dassatti, head of the Second Battery Vermont Light Artillery, an alliance of Civil War buffs named after the group of soldiers who used the cannon, said his group should be allowed to continue displaying the cannon during the summer months at Civil War gatherings and events.

But state officials disagree. The cannon should be kept by the state, they said, probably in the Vermont Veterans Militia Museum and Library at the Vermont National Guard's Camp Johnson in Colchester.

"They have pretty much got us boxed in a corner, and they are going to take the gun," Dassatti said.

The cannon is now stored at the U.S. Army's Watervliet Arsenal near Albany, N.Y. But it is likely to return to Vermont soon, under state control. Last weekend, the re-enactors considered their options — including returning the brass cannon tube to the state without the wooden carriage and wheels they restored — but decided the best thing to do is to return the cannon as it is, Dassatti said.

"By the end of the meeting, they decided they would give the cannon back in the condition it is in now, which is 10 times the condition we received it in," Dassatti said.

"The state has made a determination that this antique cannon should be maintained as an exhibit for the people of the state of Vermont to enjoy because it belongs to them," said David Mace of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, which oversees the Division of Historic Preservation, which owns the cannon. "The belief, at this time, is that it is best for the cannon not to be fired anymore, both to avoid risking any damage to the weapon as well as any potential risk to the state."

It is not clear where the cannon will end up, but for the short term it will go to the Colchester museum.

But Dassatti calls the state's justification for taking the cannon "the lamest kinds of excuses" for putting the cannon in "a mothballed museum."

The cannon is not at risk, because it has been decades since any projectiles were fired from it, and only a small amount of gun powder is used when the artillery piece is fired, he said. His group carries insurance against lawsuits, just as other groups that use state land for re-enacting do.

And Dassatti argues that more people will see and appreciate the cannon at the festivals and events his group attends. Through the years, they have taken the cannon as far away as Louisiana, one of the states where the Vermonters who made up the original Second Vermont Battery fought.

That is because the museum is open only a few hours during a few days a week in the summer, and less in the winter, Dassatti said.

One objection the state has to Dassatti's group keeping possession of the cannon is that they take it out of state, and in the past few years have stored in at the Watervliet Arsenal. When the gun was built 144 years ago, the bronze barrel was cast in Boston, but the wooden carriage was built at the same federal arsenal where it is now stored.

However, the fact that his organization stored the cannon at the arsenal is a good indication of its plans for it, said Dassatti, a resident of Jacksonville.

"If you want to steal it, you don't put it in a federal facility that is under guard," said Dassatti, who took over the cannon after graduating from Norwich University.

One thing that seems clear is that the cannon is worth a fair amount, said Peter Jorgensen, who puts out Artilleryman Magazine and Civil War News from his Tunbridge home.

A bronze cannon like the 12-pound shot Napoleon cannon in question is generally worth about $70,000, said Jorgensen, who has owned 22 Civil War cannons at one time or another. What makes this particular cannon unusual and even more valuable is that its history is known, he said.

In the 1960s, when military archives were moved from Springfield, Mass., to the Washington, D.C., area, virtually all of the records of Civil War batteries were lost or destroyed, Jorgensen said.

"To have a cannon tube identified to an original battery is very unusual," he said.

As for what should happen to the state's cannon, perhaps it should be stored in the museum during part of the year, but travel around Vermont with the Vermont group when they are going to events, Jorgensen said.

"It would certainly be a travesty to see it lost to the state of Vermont," he said. At the same time, locking it up in a museum would also be a loss, Jorgensen said.

"You really would not be taking full advantage of the educational value that it has," he said.

A group of Rhode Island re-enactors has a similar agreement with the state, and travels with a cannon used by soldiers of the state, Jorgensen added.

"You can't hurt the cannon anyway," Jorgensen said.

Dassatti said he is not sure if the Second Battery Vermont Light Artillery will continue to exist without the cannon that has been its centerpiece. Members are working toward perhaps buying a replica cannon.

The state has offered to give the group some assistance in fund-raising, although not by giving them money directly, Mace said.


John Peterson
Otter Creek Tinware

[reb64]

I'll throw in for a thousand! Now to find a matching fund sponsor!

[tompritchett]

as well as any potential risk to the state

Somehow, I expect that this is the true reason for the state's decision - potential liability risks as interpreted by their legal staff. After all, some lawyers might consider the state to be a deep pocket ripe for the fleecing.