Firing Civil War Cannon Built In 1865 

For more Civil War era history, check out ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-c0bEtXAuHbo.html - “The Tale Of Samantha Street” tells the story of a forgotten slave cemetery and a sweet lady, a former slave, who wished to be burried with her family. Also check out ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Nq5RBvEcPmQ.html the story of a forgotten Confederate fort not too far from where this cannon was fired.

I bet that in an actual combat situation, that loading process would have become much less ceremonial and MUCH faster.

In regard to everyone complaining "not enough explosion" here's why that is: The cannon is likely too weak to withstand a full charge. It's over 150 years old and was sitting underwater for quite some time. While it's still in great shape, rust and time can do a lot of damage to metal. Lots of micro-fractures formed by stresses within the metal have weakened the cannon since its production. Firing a full charge would probably shatter the gun, killing or severely wounding anyone standing near. The volunteers would rather be safe than sorry, so they didn't use very much powder. According to Newton's third law, gunpowder on its own provides very little recoil because it doesn't have much mass. There would be a much larger recoil had an actual shell been placed inside. I imagine a solid cast iron shell of that size would be expensive to make, super heavy, and require extensive machinery and safety precautions to load into the gun. Plus, it would probably get dented or shatter upon impact with whatever it hits on the other side of the river. It would just be too costly, dangerous, and time consuming to load a single-use shell just to put on a show. The people firing the gun are volunteers. They're not professionals. Heck, there were a couple of children in the gun crew. Give them a break. They've probably done this only once or twice before. It's not like they fire this gun every other day.

The best part of this is that it was a real Confederate cannon, super rare. My family fought in that war for Mississippi, 4 members perished and 5 made it home. I just love history, that was great.

Woah. They maintained it. Literally MAINTAINED IT.

Probably one tenth the normal charge.

Prior to loading, the cannon would be well cleaned with a sponge to remove all sparks, filth, and dirt. The powder was added, followed by a wad of paper or hay, and the ball was thrown in. After ramming, the cannon would be aimed with the elevation set using a quadrant and a plummet. At 45 degrees the ball had the utmost range. Then the cannon was fired, by which time the war was usually over. ;)

Must have been a 1/4 load. The gun barely moved. I can't IMAGINE a full charge.....

That's one hell of a canon

This needs to be seen on all the news networks.. the first 10 minutes... this is news.

7:23 Thanks me later 😆

Imagine hearing bunches of these things going off in the distance, nonstop. Would be surreal.

China: We have 2 million troops we can defeat America!!! Regular Americans be like

I went to this museum over ten years ago. It was amazing.

0:34...they brought General Grant back from the dead! Well worth the price of admission.

Somebody's probably on the far bank and just had their potato salad blown off the picnic table

It looks like this gun carriage was designed to follow a network of tracks on the deck of the ship similar to the chase gun mounts on HMS Warrior. This allowed one gun to be moved between different firing positions. It was a very new idea at the time and really interesting. Edit: Correction, looking at it more closely, it appears this mount would have followed a circular track and revolved around a central pin similar to the chase gun mount on CSS Richmond.

Once, my swim practice was canceled Because the coaches and lifeguard thought the cannons from West Point were thunder. It was a lucky surprise!

Wow, could you imagine having to heave that cannon in rollin waves at sea!

I can't even imagine the chaos with guns firing, bombs going off, men screaming, and all the labor involved fighting the Civil War. Rest In Peace All You Brave Men and Women.🌹

Awesome! Great background history and the bang! is an added bonus. Thanks for sharing!

For those who just wanna see the blast 7:24

We went to Vickburg, MS battle site. They do the same on weekends for a few weeks during the summer. Videos dosn't reveal how incredibly loud those cannons are. It's something that has to be experienced in reality. Whether Vicksburg, Columbus or other sites, it's something that should be on everyone's bucket list.

Thanks for letting me learn something new today. The Brooke rifled cannon is something to behold. I have been to a few reenactments in Florida in the 80's but the cannon were way smaller. It is great to see something like this fire.

What an experience!! So cool to watch on the iPad, can't imagine how amazing it was in person!! Love it!!!

Imagine the sound of a full broadside with these cannon, fully charged firing full rounds. Must've been quite a sound.

I remember most of the kids in Metal Shop machining small Cannon's for class projects, I chose to make a 12'' Dahlgren.

It gives us a glimpse of the vintage weaponry 💪

I just looked through the comments, I'm surprised no one said anything about the guy putting the gunpowder in barrel was smoking a cigar. Good video Thanks

Imagine being on the receiving end of that bad boy!! That was really awesome to see, many thanks.

imagine getting all warm and fuzzy over a machine that killed a lot of people. time makes us forget the horrors and wrap in nostalgia.

Even in the olden days America was fierce. This cannon alone could be enough to make our enemies crumble in fear

Very cool! All the years I lived in Columbus, I’ve never been to the naval museum. It will be on my list the next time I’m in town for sure! Thanks for making this video!

Very cool. I will be visiting the naval museum.

AWESOME!! Equally amazing is the quality of construction allows it to be fired 154 years later. People think that nothing more than buckshot was used in the Civil War(actually, The War Between the States) had horrific amounts of physical damage done to soldiers who survived. Many suffered both mentally and physically. With scant medicines to control pain, many became alcoholics or addictive to morphine. Without corrective surgery, many were disfigured for life, some to the point they never left the home. If they were lucky, they could work the fields. Others were confined to bed or chair, needing to be nursed the rest of their lives. I love your work...you try to make a record of a world of the past that, without your dedication, would slip into history unnoticed. I liken your passion to the search for and filming of Titanic. Your locations may not have the notoriety, but, is in essence, the same thing.

Loved the slow-mo! Thanks for filming this.

My family and I visited the museum in 2010 while I was attending training at Fort Benning. It really is a cool place. All my years at Benning and we finally went there. While one is in town I highly recommend this museum and the National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning.

just imagine how many lives that cannon ended

Can't imagine how fun it must be to be the guy that gets to yell, "Fire!"

Hearing that sound again...brings me back

Too bad you couldn’t use a live shell, but it was still great!

This was so cool! I went to a Civil War reenactment a few years ago and they were firing off a cannon about half this size. It was pretty loud but I'm sure it was nothing compared to this thing!

No one find anything offensive about the civil war in this video? Damn, you guys are growing balls finally. Congrats

That recoil was amazing!

0:48 the button that wasn’t pushed threw makes my ocd crazy

Damn! Wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that bad boy! I'm a woman and wow! That was so cool!

That's my unit the Pawnee Guard, in the white pants. I had a blast participating at the last river blast event despite freezing our ass off at night. We had fun.

This was a treat to see a double banded 7" Brooke rifle fired. Only watching a Triple Banded 7" Brooke fired at 8" armor plate

That is bad ASS... Thank you for the Video...

Awesome wish I was there watching it

I saw these Brooke rifles a few Years ago. I look forward to visiting the Navel Museum again one day.

So you don’t hear it, or watch it. What a blast.

I'm surprised You Tube didn't pull this video finding it offensive.

7:26 Dang! “ I think we hit Mr. Johnson’s car”!

What a fabulous bit of kit.. It is brilliant that this Gun is still shootable. Thank You.

When a bunch of accountants, lawyers and students play soldier.

Love this stuff , kind of reminds my of my Big Bang cannon when I was a kid .... LOL

Cant imagine having a live round in that gun

Very interesting, thanks for sharing this!

Always wanted to see one fire. The ones in Baltimore on the USS Constellation have been replaced with plastic replicas as have other ones around historic sites in town. I believe the ones at Fort McHenry have been swapped out also. They were just so darn old they needed to be restored and stored properly.

if you want the full effect , stand on the riverwalk just below the cannon. it is awesome. the naval museum is a must see if you get down to columbus.

How many people did it take to load the rounds/powder in the gun and how many to ram the shell home? How many pounds of poweder was use to sire the shell in combat. Thanks for a very good movie. i beleong to a civil war unit but we use3.0-in Parrott and 12 pounders I beleiver. nothing like this big puppy.

Sea Cadets get too see and do some badass stuff. My brother back in the day threw a football around with the blue angels before a air show.

Love love love! We do re-enactments and just can’t wait to get back out there!

Hey, atleast it can kill some modern equipment. Look at that gun mm Also firing at 7:21

I love that blast...

Great video. The gun is a beauty and a real "blast" from the past! One thing that drove me crazy though was the curator's button was unbuttoned. I wanted to reach through the screen and fix it for him.

Question: if you play the slow-mo starting at 7:37 at 1/4 speed, you can see a piece of -something- that appears to fly off the rear of the barrel towards the camera, and it seems to ricochet off the rammer in the foreground and send a splinter of wood or something arching back over the gun screen right. What is it?

I did this one year, I was on the crew that shot it twice. It was a heck of a blast! I think I might have been too close to the muzzle when it went off. My question is, what is the cut around the breach from, and is that safe?

Now I know what happened to my pontoon boat.

excellent...would love to see this being made, especially the rifling.

PRIMO. You can tell that despite the power off the charge demonstrated that this cannon had about 5 times the power when charged with its normal load. Here it recoiled only about 1/5th the distance allowed by the carriage.

what an incredible treasure from the Selma Arsenal

*AYE! SEA CADETS!* *FORMER SEA CADET / HONOR GUARDSMAN HERE!*

This is the cannon that Tchaikovsky used during the opening of his 1812 Overture.

ARTILLERY! Would of loved to see it in action back then. 2-11 FA 2006-2009

Great video and an impressive cannon. Do they ever shoot live rounds with it? It would be interesting to see what damage a real civil war shell can do.

It's even louder firing a shell

I used to do artillery when I was in "the hobby", but we had us a repro 12-pound smoothbore mountain howitzer we had cast at Magnus Metal of Fremont, Nebraska. We could load and fire in about a minute on a good day. It sure looks pretty time consuming with this big boy, but man-an actual gun! That would be neat!

It's the Quaker from Pawn Stars!

Tell the one guy to get the hell out of the way so I can see them load it.

Like many people here. I noticed that the blast level was not the tier we expected. I also remember the story that the canon was found under water. Where it was resting for many a years. Being all iron I am shure the level of rust has a lot to do with. The amount of black powder the canon can safly handle.

My husband family bought and installed a memorial on his great great grandfathers grave. Up to that point, it had been unmarked. The cemetery was next to a very busy roadway. We had civil war re-enactors there, and they fired a cannon at the end of the dedication. They had to wait until the traffic cleared to fire it, because the percussion had blown out the windshield of cars when they fired it near roads before. It was funny because a lot of people slowed down at the sight of the re-enactors to see what was going on.lol. This was N.W. of Atlanta

The only thing I can't stop looking at is that one undone button

Wow! that was awesome! Cheers to the South. It was worth the wait to see that big gun fire off. So cool.

Very intetesting. You made museums with that weapons. In spain we a have a large history but we scrap them. Spanish way of live, you know...

Thanks so much for the video!

That was amazing thanks, I love your videos

The irony of men dressed as Union Soldiers firing a historic Confederate cannon

Especially cool. Too bad that they could only use a relatively weak blank charge due to the age and fragility of the barrel. Some Civil War re-enactments use reproduction cannon that they load up with a battle load of powder, but still blank of course, and they will leave your ears ringing even with double ear protection.

Now imagine being trapped in a hot iron box with TWO of those and they go off!

AWESOME MUSEUM. ONE OF THE ABSOLUTELY BEST IN THE NATION !!

I sit on a howitzer made in 1862 during my bikeride.

6:00 ~ I don't know... you think the dude could have blocked the camera any better during the loading process?

Did u get a pic of the bullet or shell the cannon fires just curious

Fantastic!!! What a rare treat to see this amazing cannon fire

I once stood near the front of a three inch gun that was used to start a Swiftsure sailing race, to get a shot of it firing, and fire it did, nearly sent me ass-over-teakettle and my ears rang for hours, I can imagine what a 7"-er would be like, the thought makes my hair stand up lolol!

Is that one of those fully semi-automatic cannons the Dems are always talking about? It fired three times and once in slow motion without reloading.

No recoil absorber?

5 miles! Good gravy! Thank you from Seattle 🙏❤️