11-Inch Dahlgren, “W. P. No 29”, displayed at a Cemetery in Eldon, Iowa.

It’s been twenty-two years since the 11-Inch Dahlgrens of USS Monitor, registry numbers 27 and 28, inside the turret of Monitor broke the surface off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina on August 5th, 2002. These two cannon, possibly the most significant US Navy cannon of the Civil War, were cast at West Point Foundry in 1859, and they are currently undergoing conservation at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia.

The next 11-Inch Dahlgren in the series, Number 29, also manufactured by West Point in 1859 has been on display at the cemetery in Eldon, Iowa since 1898. Prior to the recovery of Monitor’s guns, it was the earliest surviving 11-Inch Dahlgren.

According to book on Eldon’s history by local author Patti Durflinger, the cannon was brought to Eldon by a Civil War Veteran by the name of John Houghton (who had served in the US Army). The cannon was first displayed on Memorial Day in 1898. A local Facebook group shows that the tradition of marking national days with a US Flag display near the cannon continues into the present. (Many thanks to the people at the Eldon Depot Railroad Museum for sharing the relevant page of the book.) Unfortunately the imposing brick pedestal upon which the Dahlgren is mounted prevents the trunnion ends from being photographed.

The Registry in the appendix of The Big Guns by Olmstead/Stark/Tucker notes that this Dahlgren was aboard USS Savannah. Articles by the Mariners’ Museum and Naval History and Heritage Command also refer to this cannon in connection to USS Savannah. (I’d love to see a primary source making that connection.)

If so, this could be the 11-Inch Dahlgren brought aboard in late 1862 when Savannah began serving as a school ship for the US Naval Academy. (Paul Silverstone’s books note that the September 1862 armament of Savannah was “1 - 11” SB, 2 - 9” SB” with “4 - 32pdr/57” added in December 1862.) Like USS Santee which also became part of the Naval Academy “fleet”, USS Savannah was begun as a 44-gun frigate of the US Navy in the early 1820s but not completed for many years. Entering service as a “44” in 1844, she served in the Pacific and off Brazil in the 1840s and 1850s. In 1857 she was razeed to a 24-Gun Sloop of War in a similar fashion to USS Cumberland. She served as part of the blockading fleet - including off of Savannah, Georgia, until reassigned to the Naval Academy as an instruction ship in 1862.

I would be curious to know whether 11-Inch Dahlgren No. 29 saw any other service afloat with the US Navy prior to 1862. Given the number of US Navy ships that had such cannon added to and removed from the armaments during the war, it would seem possible that this cannon saw other service.