GunnyGene,
What an incredible project!!!!!
Do they know if that gun was the one that was fired in answer to Santa Anna's demand for surrender?
Though I am not a Texan, visiting the Alamo in the early 2,000's was almost like a religious experience to me.
I'm sure this will add greatly to the display at the Alamo.
Semper Fi,
Gus
Yes, it was one of the cannons used. There were 20 or so cannons of various sizes used by the defenders.
One of the odd things about this barrel is that it has "below centerline" trunnions, which makes it difficult to build a carriage for - and probably a real bear to fire, since the barrel sits too high. Michael is of the opinion that it was originally a ships cannon, since cannon's this big were rarely - if ever - mounted on field carriages due to the weight. But that's what the Alamo wanted, so that's what he's providing. Even museums take certain liberties with historical facts, it seems. As noted below, this and other artillery was disabled by Santa Ana to prevent it's use in subsequent battles. Typical of most battles throughout history. If you can't use it yourself you don't want your opponents to use it either.
Quoting from Zulu's (Michael's) posts:
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" The historians at the Alamo say the barrel was made in Spain in the early 1700's so it was well over 100 years old at the famous battle.
It was used by the Texas side, not the Mexicans.
This is some interesting information on the 16 pounder barrel that the Conservator of the Alamo sent me yesterday.
Zulu
16 PDR, another cannon in poor condition, with the trunnions and cascabel broken off, the vent spiked with a nail, and no visible markings. There are a few distinctive features, the wide breech band and a bell curve going down to the missing cascabel, and the muzzle with a prominent square / straight projection. These two features are a French design from the Saint Gervais Foundry, from the early 1700’s. The cannon is relatively short and very light for a 16 pdr (94” & 2,240 lbs.), the size actually reflects that of a 9 or a small 12 pdr cannon. It was most likely re-bored (to a larger diameter), and was originally a lightweight commercial cannon. This is what gunners referred to as a “lively” cannon, in that it was lightweight and recoiled violently from the firing – less iron to absorb the recoil shock. This cannon was one of five guns recovered from a wreck in Matagorda Bay (Ellen Tooker ?), in 1817, that originally came from (“merchants in” ?) New York. The vessel was aground in Bay, and the locals had managed to recover the cannon and get them onto the beach. The Spanish / Mexican authorities then arrived, and took the cannon to the Alamo. The cannon is one of the guns found by Sam Maverick in 1852, and was later recovered from the Gibbs building in 1908.
A few facts here – an 18 pdr cannon has a bore diameter of about 5.29 – 5.3”. American and British 18 pdr’s are generally the same size, the Americans carried on the known establishment – in regards to the bore. The cannon currently at the Alamo is actually 5.19”, which would be an undersize 18 pdr or an over size 16pdr in respect to bore diameters. More likely, it is a worn out 16 pdr cannon. Now, when one looks at the actual size of a regular 18 pdr cannon, you are talking about 10’ in length and potentially 3,600 lbs. The 16 pdr at the Alamo is ~ 94” long, and weighs 2,240 lbs, which would be very small for an 18 pdr. Now, it is feasible that a smaller cannon (9 or 12 pdr) was bored out to a larger diameter, so that it could fire shells with a smaller propellant charge – but cause more damage. The Mexicans were known to fire explosive shells, but did the Texans have any at the Alamo . . ."
