Revolutionary War Cannons Return to Fort Moultrie

Date: March 13, 2013
Contact: Bill Martin, [phone] x 11

The public is invited to a dedication ceremony at Fort Moultrie to celebrate the return of two reproduction Revolutionary War 18-pounder cannons to Fort Moultrie. The program will take place at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, March 18, 2013 and is free.

The cannon carriages and tubes underwent extensive rehabilitation over the last eight months. Years of paint coatings were carefully removed and replaced with a new state-of-the-art industrial coating. The old wooden carriages were deteriorated beyond repair, so new carriages were fabricated out of very old salvaged white oak.

The two rehabilitated cannons are once again on display in the field in front of Fort Moultrie; a third is located inside the visitor center. A total of twelve of these replicas were made for the National Park Service around 1974 for the United States Bicentennial.

"These cannons play an important role in helping our visitors understand Fort Moultrie's history," said Park Superintendent Tim Stone. "Since the original Fort Moultrie no longer exists, we've placed the cannons to mark the location of one corner of the 1776 palmetto log wall. You can see where it was in relation to the 1809 fort that stands today. Along with park rangers and interpretive exhibits, they help us tell the story of the Revolutionary War on Sullivan's Island."

Fort Sumter National Monument and the American College of the Building Arts (ACBA) collaborated on the carriage fabrication in conjunction with the annual conference of the Association of Preservation Technology and the Preservation Trades Network, held last August in Charleston. During the conference, students from ACBA and Savannah Technical College worked on fabricating the new carriages. The work on the tubes was performed by Phillips Industrial Services Corp, of North Charleston. Funding for the project was provided by Eastern National, a cooperating association of the National Park Service.

Fort Moultrie is administered by the National Park Service as a unit of Fort Sumter National Monument. Located at 1214 Middle Street, Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, the fort and visitor center are open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. except for New Year's, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Days. While the visitor center is free, an entrance fee of $3 per adult or $5 per family is charged to tour Fort Moultrie. For more information call [phone].