Civil War Cannon

The Civil War cannon sitting on the front lawn of the Montgomery County Historic Courthouse is one of only three known Confederate bronze 12-pounder Howitzers manufactured in 1862 by the Noble Brothers & Company of Rome, Georgia. The foundry where it was made was destroyed by General Sherman’s troops two years later, and the remaining two cannons are at the Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania. 

The “Trophy Cannon” is so called because it was captured from the Confederates and has a straight, heavy barrel capable of firing 12 pound projectiles, including both solid and gunpowder filled cannon balls. The cannon was donated by F.D. Hubbel to the Women’s Relief Corps of Hillsboro by an Act of Congress on December 12, 1930. 

The cannon was originally mounted on a concrete pedestal, pointing westward, on the southeast corner of the courthouse lawn. The Lincoln Tablet, containing the Gettysburg address, is embedded in the platform below. The cannon was dedicated for the ?rst time on Memorial Day, 1931. During World War II, many trophy cannons were donated and melted down, their bronze used primarily as war ship propellers. However, this cannon survived intact and remained in place for six decades. 

In early 1997, a Civil War buff from Missouri contacted the Montgomery County Board and offered to purchase the cannon for $45,000. Upon investigation, county officials learned that Civil War experts at the Smithsonian and the Watervliet Arsenal Museum appraised its value at $50,000-$70,000, and recommended it be placed in safe storage. Montgomery County Board members debated where the cannon should be located, and eventually it was placed back on the Historic Courthouse lawn, firmly secured onto a replica Civil War gun carriage built by Paulson Brothers Ordnance Company of Rend Lake, Wisconsin. 

The Lincoln Tablet was again placed below the Cannon. The cannon was formally rededicated in May 1999 during a ceremony conducted by members of the 8th Regiment Missouri Volunteer Infantry US Civil War re-enactors. The regiment camped overnight and marched to the Courthouse from the Beckemeyer School grounds, where Abraham Lincoln spoke on September 9, 1858.

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