The Bureau of Ordnance 32-Pounders at Stark Park

Aug 14

Four US Navy Bureau of Ordnance 32-Pounders of 4,500 Pounds beside pyramids of 11-Inch round shot (or shells) are displayed in Stark Park in Manchester, New Hampshire. A statue of Major General John Stark is in the background.

Four US Navy Bureau of Ordnance 32-Pounders of 4,500 Pounds are displayed at Stark Park in Manchester, New Hampshire. All four cannons were manufactured in 1866. Two were cast at Builders Foundry and two at Cyrus Alger and Company.

The four cannons are:

Builders Foundry - Registry Number 342 - Weight: 4,545 Pounds
Cyrus Alger - Registry Number 222 - Weight 4,525 Pounds
Cyrus Alger - Registry Number 242 - Weight 4,525 Pounds
Builders Foundry - Registry Number 138 - Weight 4,505 Pounds

This type of cannon was designed by the Bureau of Ordnance in 1864 due to a perceived need for lightweight 32-Pounders. In the 1840s and 1850s, relatively light weight 32-Pounders of 27-Hundredweight, 33-Hundredweight, and 46-Hundredweight had been designed to equip the upper decks of US Navy ships. During the Civil War, these lighter 32-Pounders had been used to equip the many merchant ships which had been taken into service and had not been designed for heavy cannon.

The resulting 32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds borrowed the general shape from Admiral Dahlgren’s 9-Inch, 10-Inch, and 11-Inch cannons. However, the 32-Pounders, like the similar 8-Inch Shell guns of 6,500 Pounds, had a simplified ring cascabel. Few if any of this type of cannon would have seen any service during the Civil War. The four cannon in Stark Park were manufactured after the end of the war.

The type is well represented in monuments to soldiers and sailors in the Northeastern United States. When Congress passed legislation in the 1890s allowing the government to give obsolete surplus ordnance to communities for use with monuments, the BuOrd 32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds seems to have been a commonly supplied cannon.

Stark Park is named after Major General John Stark who is known as the “Hero of the Battle of Bennington” during the Saratoga Campaign of the American Revolution. General Stark is buried in the park, and a large statue is nearby the cannon display. An early 20th Century photograph shows the four cannons and four pyramids of shells.

Two other cannons of this type may be found in Manchester at the Weston Observatory. They are Cyrus Alger Numbers 223 and 225. Photos of the cannons may be found here: https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WME0XW_Weston_Observatory_Cannons_Manchester_NH