Last Shot Gun from Appomattox Court House

Revision as of 22:49, 23 October 2010

Last Shot Gun from Appomattox Court House at USMA Library, West Point, NY.

• Type: Standard 3-inch Ordanance Rifle, Serial No. 100
• Year of Manufacture: 1861
• West Point Catalogue No.: 167 (162 in the 1898 catalogue)
• Tube Composition: Steel
• Bore Diameter: 3 inches
• Tube Weight: 815 lbs.
• Muzzle Markings: TTSL No. 100 PICo. 1861. 815 lbs.
• US Casting Foundry: Phoenix Iron Company, Phoenixville PA
• Current Disposition: Mounted outside the Library entrance, United States Military Academy at West Point, New York
• Special Notes: This gun is thought to have fired the final cannon shot before General Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to General Grant at Appomattox Court House.

More about the Last Shot Gun from Appomattox Court House

This gun was the left piece of Capt. Elder's Battery "B," 1st U.S. Artillery at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865. It fired the last shot previous to General Robert E. Lee's surrender. It was shipped from Richmond, Virginia in November, 1865 by Capt. J.F. Wood, Acting Ordnance Officer upon orders from Brevet Brigadier General and Acting Chief of Ordnance William Maynadier. It was obtained for the West Point Military Academy through the efforts of Brevet Lt. Col. Peter S. Michie, who was later Colonel and Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at the U.S. Military Academy.

Today this gun is mounted on the right side of the West Point Library entrance at West Point New York. The Library entrance also has a gun mounted on the left, it is marked with a plaque that reads: "Civil War 1861-1865 -- The small gun fired the first shot of the Civil War in the West at Vicksburg - several days before the attack at Fort Sumpter in April 1861. -- The large gun was the left piece of Captain Elder's Battery B, First U.S. Artillery and fired the last shot at Appomattox - April 9, 1865".

More information about the small "First Shot" gun is being researched...

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