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  A cannon that marks the veterans’ plot at Amsterdam’s Fairview Cemetery was forged during the Civil War.

Phyllis Chapman of Friends of the Bennington Battlefield describes the battle and its impact on the Battle of Saratoga.

https://townofhoosick.org/benningtonbattlefield.php?content=benningtonbattlefield

The Battle of Bennington preceded the 1777 Battle of Saratoga during the American Revolution.  It was fought in the hamlet of Walloomsac in the Town of Hoosick New York on August 16 1777—about ten miles from Bennington, Vermont.  

Saturday May 20, 2023-From the Archives- May 25, 2018-Historians Episode 216- Rachel Slade is author of “Into the Raging Sea: 33 Mariners, One Megastorm and the Sinking of El Faro.”  The container ship sank and all on board died during Hurricane Joaquin in the Atlantic in 2015.

The cannon at Fairview Cemetery

By Bob Cudmore

   A cannon that marks the veterans’ plot at Amsterdam’s Fairview Cemetery was forged during the Civil War.

   City historian Robert H. von Hasseln researched the gun’s history, “It was born in 1864 in the fires of the cast iron forges of Builders Foundry in Providence, Rhode Island.”   

   It was the 183rd eleven inch Dahlgren Shell Gun manufactured for the United States Navy.  These guns were named for their inventor, Rear Admiral John Dahlgren.

   Shell guns were developed just before the Civil War.  They fired spherical shells filled with explosives that could tear “jagged holes” in wooden ships as well as igniting “powder, shells, combustibles, and the like.” 

   Gun number 183 appeared in federal records at the Mare Island Naval Yard near San Francisco in 1866.  It is not known if the gun had been mounted on any ship prior to 1877 when number 183 was among about fifty Dahlgren guns converted into eight inch rifles. 

   Von Hasseln wrote, “It became clear the best way to defeat armored vessels was a pointed rifled projectile (think giant rifle bullet): spinning on its longitudinal axis like a well-thrown football.”  The conversion of number 183 was probably done at the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring, New York.

   Visible on the gun is this notation “P; EJH: 1877” which Von Hasseln said meant the gun was proved (test fired), with initials of the federal inspector and date.  Also on the piece you can read: “8 Inch Rifle; 17,240 lbs; No. 13.”  This indicates caliber and type, weight of tube alone and a new registry number. 

   The cannonballs stacked next to the Fairview gun are eleven inch spherical shells that the piece originally fired, not the conical rifle shells it fired after conversion.

   Gun 183-13 saw service around the world on the USS Monongahela, Pensacola and Essex.  It was later used for training and tests, then stored at the Washington Navy Yard.  Some converted eleven inch shell guns were used on ships guarding the East Coast in the Spanish American War.

Listen here for The Story Behind the Story "The Cannon"

      Von Hasseln wrote that most of the original eleven inch shell guns were scrapped, “Others became pier-side and traffic bollards, a few museum displays, and one – an everlasting memorial to Amsterdam veterans.”

   Fairview Cemetery was established off Steadwell Avenue in Amsterdam’s west end in 1899.  Members of the E. S. Young Post 33 of the Grand Army of the Republic, an association of Union Civil War veterans, decided to create a veterans’ plot at Fairview as they had at Green Hill Cemetery.

   The Reverend Putnam Cady of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church on Guy Park Avenue gave a talk about his world travels to raise funds to ship and mount the gun.  The cannon was delivered and installed in July 1906.

   At the dedication, Reverend Cady said: “It was ever ready to obey the gunner’s will, and with its brazen throat commands respect for the stars and stripes that floated above it. Now that its active usefulness is past what better place could it occupy than this where sleep the men who have fought and stacked their arms for the last time?” 

   The first piece of property in the New World purchased by the Cudmore family, immigrants from the United Kingdom, was a cemetery plot at Fairview.

   My grandmother Elizabeth Copp Cudmore, 56, was buried there at Christmas time in 1934.  Her husband Harry lived another 22 years and also was buried at Fairview, as were other family members including my aunts, one uncle, my parents and sister.  When I was a child we visited the cemetery in the summer and had picnics among the tombstones.

Schedule the Date

A Walking Tour

Friends of North Chuctanunda Incorporated

Saturday, June 3, 2023 at 9:30 am

"Clock Tower Building" Amsterdam. An elevator to top floor to enjoy the view. Down to third floor reception Room for coffee & a treat. We are celebrating National Trails Day. We have invited trail spokespeople from around the area to tell about their pathways. The Friends will display maps showing where trails are complete and others future construction.(Bob will have more information over the next two weeks)

Tomorrow, Sunday, May 21, 2023- Focus on History

Amsterdam’s 1925 Progress Exposition

The Progress Exposition was organized by the Board of Trade, predecessor of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. 

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, May 20, 2023

55 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:45AM

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