Historic cannons moved from First Army headquarters

Courtesy Photo | Workers from Firebrand, Inc., of Woodstock, Ga., remove a captured Confederate Civil War cannon from in front of First Army headquarters, Dec. 15. First Army is moving to Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., next year, so the cannons are being moved to Fort Benning, where they will be part of a Civil War sesquicentennial anniversary display. (U.S. Army photo by W. Wayne Marlow)  

FORT GILLEM, GEORGIA, UNITED STATES

12.21.2010

Courtesy Story

First Army

FORT GILLEM, Ga. — In an act representative of the move of First Army from Fort Gillem, Ga., to its future home at Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., two historic cannons were removed from their pedestals in front of the headquarters building, Dec. 13-17.

The bronze, 12-pound Napoleon cannons were originally seized in the Battle of Atlanta on what is now the Georgia Tech campus. The cannons were placed at Fort McPherson, Ga. when that post opened in the 1870s, then transferred to Fort Gillem in the early 1950s.

The cannons are being moved to Fort Benning, Ga., where (according to Mr. Michael Criscillis, director of the National Infantry Museum) they will be part of a Civil War sesquicentennial anniversary display,

• Date Taken: 12.21.2010
• Date Posted: 12.21.2010 14:36
• Story ID: 62422
• Location: FORT GILLEM, GEORGIA, US