Small Cannon and a bit more about me.

This post has kind of an odd title, but I really could not think of a better one. I did not want to leave it at "Small Cannon", or "12LB Napoleon" as I did not want to disappoint someone looking for information about Civil War artillery. I wanted to arouse some curiosity though.
I operate a very small (and I do mean very small) welding fabrication and repair shop and I do not throw anything away if I think it can be used on a different project. Consequently I end up with a bunch of what most folks would call scraps and junk, stuff they would have thrown away long ago. That is a waste I say. That stuff comes in handy at times, especially on a weekend or after hours. People do not always break down between 8am and 5pm, Monday through Friday. Another thing is I hate to pull down a 20 foot length of steel just for 6 inches worth, so I head for the left over pile. I usually save myself some effort that way.

Anyway, I have another use for that so called junk. When I get slow in the shop, I turn loose and create, well, art work. Steel sculpture, or it might be aluminum, brass, stainless steel or whatever. It allows me to keep myself occupied between jobs. I had some of that slow time over the last week and decided to do some dabbling.

I fabricate just about anything and this year I have built several custom mailbox posts, but they take more material than my leftover pile can provide. I always have enough of something to build a mailbox topper though!
That is a model of a 12lb Napoleon, Model 1857. My first hurdle to clear on this project was to find a full side view of one of these so I could scale how far the muzzle and breach protruded beyond the wheel. Most photos I found were off at an angle so it was difficult to judge. The photo I found also allowed me to judge how far above the center line of the wheel the barrel rode and how far back the trail extended. I am a little off on the trail length but it is OK, I think.

I got a little carried away with the carriage, and tried to shape it like the real deal. I liked the look of it but as you can see it gets lost in the overall scheme of things. You will also note that the wheel only has 8 spokes. 14 should be there but with that many it just looked "busy". Besides the carriage was completely covered by the spokes so I went with the 8 you see. I tried staggering the wheels to get more spokes in the picture but it just did not look right.
A couple of things I did do that I was glad of were on the barrel. The muzzle is flared. And there is a knob on the breech.

The barrel was made of 2 pieces of differing diameters, drilled and tapped on the mating ends, then TIG welded. How I tapered the barrel is a trade secret. Actually, the way I did it is not safe even for me, and I would rather not explain it to someone that has limited experience with machinery or tools. Suffice it to say I put a taper on the barrel! The flare on the muzzle was easy. I heated it up to orange and gently tapped the end until it looked right. The knob was a little more difficult. I drilled and tapped the breech for a 10-24 screw and ran the screw in to within 1/8th inch from the breech. I then TIG welded the screw in and filled the slot with weld. Then I did the dangerous thing again and got it close, then hand filed it the rest of the way.
There were a few things I would like to have added, like the elevation screw, trail loop, and rope cleats, but the size did not allow me to add them. They would have been lost in the overall picture.

The finished product is not painted to match the actual Napoleon. The paint was what I had on hand, although I really wish I had painted it correctly. It would have made a better post for you all to look at but I did want to share it with my loyal reader because I thought it was different. It is not like those black silhouettes you so often see, this one has depth and color, and incorrect paint or no, I think it came out pretty darn good! I do plan on making another one the next slack period I get. I learned a few things on this one that will make it easier to build and paint (correctly) next time!

And it has multiple uses!

There you have it. Just a wee dab more about me, mixing my livelihood with my love of the American Civil War. I could have been fishing! I do love fishing and hunting too!

The Picket

Photos by the author.

Aurora Borealis

This is not exactly where I intended to take this post but as often happens when I look at subjects related to the American Civil War, my direction changes. I was originally looking for eyewitness accounts of the Auroral display at Fredericksburg, Virginia on December 14, 1862. I was hoping to find something beyond what we have all read about the the phenomenon, its appearance so far south and what not. I was able to find some things, including accounts by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, which for pretty prose is hard to beat, even though the particular passage has been used in some very recent works. Feeling discouraged in my pursuit and about ready to pack it in and start looking for something else, I did indeed find something a little fresher, although it was not at Fredricksburg nor was it in 1862.

The years between 1840 and 1865 were grand times for regular viewing of the Northern Lights, and the occurrence at Fredricksburg was just one of several that occurred during the war. Two other appearances of the lights would spark the imaginations of two of the 19^th century's artistic and literary giants.

The first happened on December 23, 1864, a little over two years beyond the more famous 1862 display and was witnessed by Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), who would render the painting titled, fittingly, “Aurora Borealis”. [1]

It is said that Church, as did many people of the North, believed this particular display was of good portent, and signaled the end of the Civil War, and he was trying to convey this hope through the bleakness of the foreground contrasted with the bright beauty of the background. The painting is rendered from sketches Church had drawn in 1860 from his trips to

Labrador and Newfoundland, and from a water color by his friend, arctic explorer Dr. Issac Hayes. The pointed peak near the center of the painting is Church's Peak, so named by Hayes.[2]

Herman Melville (1819-1891) used words for his pallet, no less stirring or vivid as the paints used by Church. In May, 1865 he penned the poem “Aurora Borealis.” The poem is subtitled: Commemorative of the Dissolution of the Armies at the Peace, May, 1865. Melville was also inspired by an auroral display, perhaps the very one that moved Church.

What power disbands the Northern Lights
After their steely play?
The lonely watcher feels an awe
Of Nature's sway,
As when appearing,
He marked their flashed uprearing
In the cold gloom--
Retreatings and advancings,
(Like dallyings of doom),
Transitions and enhancings,
And bloody ray.

The phantom-host has faded quite,
Splendor and Terror gone
Portent or promise--and gives way
To pale, meek Dawn;
The coming, going,
Alike in wonder showing--
Alike the God,
Decreeing and commanding
The million blades that glowed,
The muster and disbanding--
Midnight and Morn. [3]

When comparing his words to the image of Church, one can imagine what he saw as he wrote this poem. The aurora is not a static thing, painted across the horizon. It moves and changes, in color and in shape. Melville captures the essence of it with the lines from the first stanza:

“Reatreatings and advancings, transitions and enhancings” are to me obvious reference to battle, comparing the movements of lines of battle to the moving of the aurora.

The final line is also sounding a weary, yet hopeful note. “The muster” and “Midnight” is the beginning of the war and formation of the armies. All is dark, the future shrouded in mystery.

“Disbanding” and “Morn”, is the end of the war, and a new morn full of promise begins. Sorry, I did not mean to turn this into an English Literature class!

When the two “Aurora” (aurorii???) are taken together we get a sense of what the American, of both sections, may have been hoping for, dreaming of for four long years.

They also remind us that there were other things going on besides the war between 1861 and 1865. Although the war influenced much of life at its periphery and devastated many lives at its core, it did not consume all aspects of life. There was still art, literature, science, church, love, and laughter. These things would be needed in a post war United States and thankfully they survived.

Sources

1) Aurora Borealis, Church, Frederic Edwin, PD-US

This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1923.

Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Frederic_Edwin_Church_Aurora_Borealis.jpg

2) Rally Round The Flag: Frederic Edwin Church and the Civil War, Avery, Kevin J. April 20, 2011, AFAnews.com Retrieved from

http://www.afanews.com/articles/articles/education/rally-round-the-flag-frederic-edwin-church-and-the-civil-war

3) Retrieved from PoemHunter.com http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/aurora-borealis-8/

Written by Herman Melville and appears in “Battle Pieces and Aspects of the War” first published in 1866.