Artillery and Armour in the USA: Massachusetts (1)

Armour and Artillery preserved in Massachusetts

One of the aims of this website is to locate, identify and document every historical piece of artillery preserved in New England.  Many contributors have assisted in the hunt for these tangible pieces of our military history and the list you see here is constantly being revised as new finds are discovered and the data is updated.  The photos have come from various contributors, but the author likes to "ground truth" the reports, so a good number of the photos are by the author unless otherwise credited.  Any errors found here are by the author.   It often happens that military monuments that are relatively mobile, have been moved for restoration or scrapped, sometimes they are repainted with different markings and serial numbers, or they are replaced with a different piece of kit.  For those reasons, any additions, deletions, corrections or amendments that you may be able to add to this list of Artillery and AFVs in New England would be most welcome and may be e-mailed to the author at hskaarup@rogers.com.  The primary aim is preserve our military history and to keep the record accurate.

Tanks and Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV) preserved in Massachusetts are listed on a separate page on this web site.

Amesbury

(Brian Eaton Photo)

(Anne Blake Photo)

3.2-inch Rifled Gun (Serial No. 1), built and cast by the Watervliet Arsenal in Watervliet, N.Y., in 1892, mounted on an iron carriage, on a concrete stand, Mount Prospect Cemetery, Elm Street, near Oak Street.  The city or the Mount Prospect Cemetery association has now mounted the 3.2-inch FLG on wheels.

(Allen Tanner Photos)

German First World War 10.5-cm leichte Feldhaubitze 16 (10.5-cm leFH 16) light field howitzer (Serial Nr. TBC), mounted on a wheeled gun carriage, standing on a plinth.  This gun was captured during the First World War, Route 110, Union cemetery.  The 7.7cm Feldkanone 16 (FK 16) and 10.5cm light field howitzer were mounted on the same field carriage.

Andover

(Town of Andover Photo)

German First World War 10.5-cm leichte Feldhaubitze 16 (10.5-cm leFH 16) light field howitzer (Serial Nr. TBC), mounted on a wheeled gun carriage, barrel in the recoil position, captured by American forces during the First World War.  Donated to the Town in 1932 by Andover Post No. 2128 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.  This field gun was restored in 2009.

Ayer

(king.hubi Photos)

105-mm M3 Howitzer, Serial No. 2080, dated 1943.  Town Hall, 1 Main Street.

The 105-mm M3 Howitzer was a U.S. light howitzer designed for use by airborne troops.  The gun utilized the barrel of the 105-mm Howitzer M2, shortened and fitted to a slightly modified split trail carriage of the 75-mm pack howitzer.  The howitzer was used by the U.S. Army during the Second World War.  It was issued to airborne units and to artillery companies of infantry regiments.

Ayer Town Hall with the 105-mm M3 Howitzer on the right, on 1 Main Street.  (John Phelan Photo)

American 105-mm M3 howitzers shelling German forces retreating near Carentan, France, summer 1944.  (NARA Photo 531199)

Belmont

(Pablo Photo)

German Great War  7.7-cm FK 16 Field Gun, Belmont Center First World War Memorial.

(Daderot Photo)

Cast Iron 24-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, mounted on a wood naval gun carriage, War Memorial standing across from the Belmont Lions Club.  This Gun was removed from the USS Constitution at Boston 1931.

(Pablo Photo)

Cast Iron 24-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, mounted on a wood naval gun carriage, No. 1 of 2, Belmont Lions Club.

Cast Iron 24-poundersmoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, mounted on a wood naval gun carriage, No. 1 of 2, Belmont Lions Club.

Billerica

(Daderot Photos)

4.2-inch (30-pounder) Parrott Rifle, mounted on a concrete stand, on the Town Common.

Boston

(Jonathan Skaarup Photos)

105-mm M2A1 howitzer (Serial No. 10622), US ARMY 14-84-125M, on the water front.

(City of Vancouver Archives Photo, AM54-S4-: Mil P141.6)

Gatling Gun being used by a National Guard Unit visiting Vancouver, British Columbia for an international competition in 1906.

(Daderot Photo)

Gatling Gun. (TBC).  Anthony’s Pier Four Restaurant.  Similar to this Gatling Gun, M1805, in the Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta.

The Gatling gun is one of the best-known early rapid-fire spring loaded, hand cranked weapons and a forerunner of the modern machine gun.  Invented by Richard Gatling, it is known for its use by the Union forces during the American Civil War, which was the first time it was employed in combat.  Later, it was used again in numerous military conflicts, including the assault on San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War.  It was also used by militias and the National Guard.  The Gatling gun's operation centered on a cyclic multi-barrel design which facilitated cooling and synchronized the firing-reloading sequence. Each barrel fired a single shot when it reached a certain point in the cycle, after which it ejected the spent cartridge, loaded a new round, and, in the process, allowed the barrel to cool somewhat. This configuration allowed higher rates of fire to be achieved without the barrels overheating.

 (Daderot Photo)

Boston, Faneuil Hall.

Faneuil Hall is located near the waterfront and serves as the Government Center, in Boston.  It has been a marketplace and a meeting hall since 1743.  It was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others encouraging independence from Great Britain.  Now it is part of Boston National Historic Park and is a well-known stop on the Freedom Trail.  It is sometimes referred to as "the Cradle of Liberty".

(Metro2 Photo)

Gatling Gun, mounted on an iron tripod stand without the magazine.  Faneuil Hall.  This gun is inside the Hall and a sign states it was "Gatlin's (sic) United States Navy Experimental of 1881.  Calibre .45, ten barrels.  The Gatling gun is one of the best-known early rapid-fire spring loaded, hand cranked weapons and a forerunner of the modern machine-gun.  Invented by Richard Gatling, it is known for its use by the Union forces during the American Civil War in the 1860s, which was the first time it was employed in combat.  This gun has ten barrels on a common axis with a revolving breech.  The cartridges were fed into the breech on top by gravity and struck by hammers as they came into position.  The Gatling gun's operation centered on a cyclic multi-barrel design which facilitated cooling and synchronized the firing-reloading sequence.  Each barrel fired a single shot when it reached a certain point in the cycle, after which it ejected the spent cartridge, loaded a new round, and, in the process, allowed the barrel to cool somewhat.  This configuration allowed higher rates of fire to be achieved without the barrels overheating.

(Metro2 Photo)

Bronze 3-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading gun mounted on a wheeled gun carriage.  This gun has a 48" barrel and was manufactured by P. Seestra in 1778.

Cast Iron 24-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, mounted on a wood naval gun carriage.  This Gun was removed from the USS Constitution at Boston 1931.  It is located in the Gardens at Gethsemane in the West Roxbury section of Boston, between the fork in the road at the beginning of the Gardens, as a memorial to veterans.  The Gun has a plaque on the side with the following text:

"This gun was procured from the Charlestown Navy Yard March 8, 1932 by the Supt. of the Martin Luther Orphans' Home, Rev. C. T. Ohlinger, by order of Rear Admiral Larimer, Chief of Ordnance Department, Wash., D.C. The gun was formerly on the Frigate Constitution.  Placed here in memory of Camp Andrew, Second Mass. Infantry, 1861-1865".  

Camp Andrew was a temporary facility to train soldiers for the Civil War.  The Massachusetts Second took part in a number of battles in that war, including Gettysburg and Antietum.  Robert Gould Shaw was with this infantry for 18 months before leading the Massachusetts 54th Colored Infantry.  The USS Constitution is currently the world's oldest active commissioned warship.  This ship is also one of the most celebrated U.S. warships, having taken engaged the British in many battles.   To get to the cemetery, from the VFW Parkway, take a left onto Baker Street and drive approximately a quarter mile to the access road on the left.  Take a left and follow the access road to the cannon, straight ahead.

Boston Navy Yard

(Kevin Rutherford Photo)

USS Boston ship's bell and two 3-inch (76-mm)/50 calibre deck guns facing the harbour.

32-pounder M1864 (6.2-inch) Dahlgren Shell Gun, 4,500 lbs, near flag pole.

4.2-inch 30-pounder Parrott Rifle.

42-pounder M1845 smoothbore muzzleloading Seacoast Gun, Cyrus Alger & Co., Boston, weight 8,500-lbs, No. 1 of 2 being used as a bollard near Dry Dock No. 1.

42-pounder M1845 smoothbore muzzleloading Seacoast Gun, Cyrus Alger & Co., Boston, weight 8,500-lbs, No. 2 of 2 being used as a bollard near Dry Dock No. 1.

(USN Photo)

IX-inch Dahlgren Shell Gun on a slide-pivot mounting is seen in operation aboard a U.S. Navy warship during the Civil War.

IX-inch Dahlgren Shell Gun, No. 1 of 4.

IX-inch Dahlgren Shell Gun, No. 2 of 4.

IX-inch Dahlgren Shell Gun, No. 3 of 4.

IX-inch Dahlgren Shell Gun, No. 4 of 4.

Eleven IX-inch Dahlgren Shell Guns being used as bollards at Dry Docks No. 1 and No. 2.

1,185 IX-inch Dahlgren shell guns were cast at Alger, Bellona, Fort Pitt, Seyfert, McManus & Co., Tredegar, and West Point foundries between 1855 and 1864. Fort Pitt Foundry also made 16 for the army in 1861.  The IX-inch Dahlgren was the most popular and versatile of Dahlgren shell guns made. The IX- guns served as broadside armament on larger ships such as the USS Susquehanna, which carried 12 IX-inch Dahlgren guns in broadside mounts in addition to her two pivot guns and the USS Powhatan which carried 10 IX-inch guns in broadside mounts in addition to her two XI-inch Dahlgren pivot guns.  These broadside guns would normally be mounted on a Marsilly carriage.  Smaller coastal blockade ships such as the USS Fort Henry and USS Hunchback mounted IX-inch Dahlgrens on pivot mounts.  IX-inch Dahlgrens were used on several river gunboats such as USS Essex and the USS Benton.  If mounted as either a pivot gun or a broadside gun the IX-inch Dahlgren had a crew of 16 and a powderman.  (Wikipedia)

(Gutekunst Photo)

USS Susquehanna, sidewheel steam frigate, ca 1860s.

Boston Harbor, Little Brewster Island

(USCG Photo)

Boston Harbor Lighthouse Gun, ca 1914.

(Tom Richardson Photo)

Cast Iron 24-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, dated 1700.  Boston Harbor Lighthouse Gun, mounted on a wood naval gun carriage inside the Lighthouse Museum.  In 1719, America’s first fog signal, this gun, was installed beside the lighthouse on Little Brewster Island where it remained until the early 1960s, when it was moved to the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.  In 1993, it was brought back to the island, where it is currently on display.

Boston Harbor, Peddecks Island, Fort Andrews

(Coast Defense Study Group Photo)

Fort Andrews aerial view, ca 1932.  At right are the three concrete gun batteries: Battery Rice (never armed) at top, Battery McCook (two 6-inch guns M1900), and Battery Bumpus (two 3-inch guns) at the extreme right edge of the photo.

Fort Andrews was created in 1897 as part of the Coast Defenses of Boston, Massachusetts. Construction began in 1898 and the fort was substantially complete by 1904. The fort was named after Major General George Leonard Andrews, an engineer and Civil War commander, who assisted in the construction of nearby Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. It occupies the entire northeast end of Peddocks Island in Boston Harbor, and was originally called the Peddocks Island Military Reservation. Once an active Coast Artillery post, it was manned by hundreds of soldiers and bristled with mortars and guns that controlled the southern approaches to Boston and Quincy Bay. The fort also served as a prisoner-of-war camp for Italian prisoners during the Second World War, who were employed as labourers following the Italian surrender to the Allies in 1943. Today, the fort is abandoned, and is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, as part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.

(Library of Congress Photo)

At the height of its armament, the fort had sixteen M1896 mortars in four pits of four mortars each.

This photo most likely depicts Pit A of Battery Cushing at Fort Andrews.  Fort Andrews' gun and mortar batteries as built were as follows:

Battery Cushing with eight 12-inch M1890 coast defence mortars mounted on M1896 barbettes; Battery Whitman with eight 12-inch M1890 coast defence mortars mounted on M1896 barbettes; Battery McCook with two 6-inch M1900 guns mounted on M1900 pedestals; Battery Rice with two 5-inch M1900 guns mounted on M1903 pedestals; and Battery Bumpus with two 3-inch M1902 guns mounted on M1902 pedestals.

In its heyday, the fort's armament was impressive. Fort Andrews was the site of one of Boston Harbor's two 12-inch coast defense mortar complexes (the other was Fort Banks), meant to protect the southern approaches to Boston Harbor. The two pits of Battery Whitman at the northwest end of the fort were initially planned to be the first two pits of a four-pit (16-mortar) battery, in a so-called Abbott Quad design. With a range of 7 miles, these batteries could in fact have reached both the northern and southern channels into the harbor, interlocking with the fire of Fort Banks' mortars.

As it was, only two pits (in a north-south alignment) were built for Battery Whitman (Whitman Pit A is the southerly one, with Pit B behind it), and two more, of a slightly different design, became Battery Cushing (built just to the east and in an east-west alignment). When fully equipped, these pits contained 16 12-inch coast defense mortars, able to bombard the southern approaches to the harbor with projectiles weighing over 1,000 pounds (450 kg) each. Three of the mortar pits are still visible. The fourth (the most easterly of Cushing's two pits - Pit A) has been partially filled with debris from the recent demolition of other structures at the fort.

The Boston press reported that when the mortars were test-fired in the 1920, they literally blew doors off of nearby barracks buildings and broke windows at the fort. Island residents also told of the blast from the mortar barrels igniting brush fires on the grassy slopes of the mortar pits.

In addition, the fort had two 6-inch guns of Battery McCook (and until 1917 two 5-inch guns of Battery Rice) and two 3-inch guns of Battery Bumpus in concrete emplacements at the top of the bluff northeast of the fort, overlooking Nantasket Roads (the main channel to Quincy Bay), the shipyards beyond, and (formerly) the southern entrance to Boston Harbor itself. The gun emplacements can still be seen, but they are seriously deteriorated and somewhat dangerous to visit.

Fort Andrews was constructed in 1898-1904, one of many forts of the Endicott program, including an initial seven forts in the Boston area. Fort Andrews was one of two Endicott period forts of this size in Boston Harbor, the other being Fort Strong, on Long Island, and after the demolition of almost all of Fort Strong's wooden structures in about 2005 to make way for a children's camp, Fort Andrews is the sole survivor of its type in Massachusetts.

In 1910 the four M1890 mortars of Battery Whitman, Pit A, were removed to provide half the armament for Battery Geary at Fort Mills on Corregidor Island in the Philippines. In 1913 Pit A was rearmed with four M1908 mortars.

The First World War brought further changes to Fort Andrews' armament. In February 1917 Battery Rice's two 5-inch guns were transferred to Fort Story at Cape Henry, Virginia for an emergency battery. The 5-inch gun was withdrawn from Coast Artillery service shortly after the war, and these guns were never replaced. In August 1917, Battery McCook's two 6-inch guns were ordered dismounted for potential service on field carriages on the Western Front. It appears these guns never left the fort, and they were remounted in 1920. As part of a forcewide re-alignment, almost half of Fort Andrews' mortars were removed in early 1918. It was determined that attempting to simultaneously reload four mortars per pit was inefficient, and that a similar rate of fire could be obtained with only two mortars per pit. Also, many 12-inch mortars were needed as railway artillery for potential service on the Western Front. None of these mortars were shipped to France before the Armistice, but many were retained as railway mortars through the Second World War. The result at Fort Andrews was that Battery Cushing was reduced to four mortars and Battery Whitman was reduced to six mortars. For some reason, Pit A of Battery Whitman retained its four M1908 mortars. By the 1920s, Fort Andrews consisted of some 30 structures (see map at left), ranging from large brick barracks buildings that housed over 100 soldiers each to elegant officers' quarters and a 50-bed hospital. The fort had a radio transmitting station, one of the Army's earliest.

After the First World War, Fort Andrews was put on caretaker status ("mothballed"), and was brought back into action again during the Second World War. By the 1930s the fort's mortars were superseded by the long-range guns of Fort Ruckman and Fort Duvall. In 1942 the fort's massive coast defense mortars were scrapped, but its 6-inch and 3-inch guns served out the war guarding the southern approaches to Boston Harbor. In 1946, Ft. Andrews was decommissioned by the Army, and in the 1970s it was purchased, along with the rest of Peddocks Island, by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (Wikipedia)

(US Army Signal Corps Photo)

16-inch Gun M1919, Fort Duvall, Hog Island, Hull, Massachusetts, 11 July 1928.

Boston Harbor, Castle Island, Fort Independence

(US Navy Photo)

Aerial view of Fort Independence on Castle Island in Boston harbour, ca 1942.

(National Parks Service Photo)

Fort Independence.

(Victor Grigas Photo)

(Chris Wood Photo)

Fort Independence, view from the water.

Fort Independence is a granite star fort that provided harbor defenses for Boston.  Located on Castle Island, Fort Independence is one of the oldest continuously fortified sites of English origin in the United States.  The first primitive fortification was placed on the site in 1634 and replaced in 1701 with a more substantial structure known as Castle William.  Re-built after it was abandoned by the British during the American Revolution, Castle William was renamed Fort Adams and then Fort Independence.  The existing granite fort was constructed between 1833 and 1851.  Today it is preserved as a state park and fires occasional ceremonial salutes.  Fort Independence was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.  (Wikipedia)

(National Parks Service Photo)

Fort Independence Battery looking North East, four of five guns shown in 1941.

15-inch Rodman Gun, (Columbiad, 15-inch, smoothbore, seacoast, M1861), fibreglass replica, mounted.

10-inch Rodman, fibreglass replica, mounted.

(US Navy Photo)

8-inch Siege Mortar M1861, Fort Warren.

(Hal Jespersen Photo)

3.67-inch (20-pounder) Parrott Rifle, No. 1 of 2.  

3.67-inch (20-pounder) Parrott Rifle, No. 2 of 2.  These guns were used in the American Civil War by the Navy and were converted to breechloaders in the 1880’s.

Spanish bronze smoothbore muzzle-loading gun.

Cast Iron 24-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, mounted on a wood naval gun carriage.  This Gun was removed from the USS Constitution at Boston 1931.

(Author Photo)

Cast Iron smoothbore muzzle-loading 24-pounder replica guns mounted on wood naval carriages, USS Constitution.

(USS Constitution Facebook Photo)

USS Constitution underway off Castle Island for the 200th anniversary of her victory over HMS Guerriere, 19 August 2012.  

Boston Harbor, Lovell's Island, Fort Standish

(Fish Cop Photo)

3-inch gun emplacement of Battery Williams at Fort Standish.

Fort Standish was a coastal fort completed in 1907 and located on Lovell's Island in Massachusetts. Named after Myles Standish, the fort would serve to host up to 7 batteries until it was disarmed and deactivated in 1947. It was also named Lovell's Island Military Reservation during the early part of its existence. It was part of the Coast (later Harbor) Defenses of Boston.  Along with Fort Warren, Fort Andrews, Fort Banks, Fort Strong, and others, it was among the first modern defenses of Boston Harbor. The fort was de-activated in 1947 and in 1962 became part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.

Fort Standish was built 1899-1907. The gun batteries over its history through 1947 included:

Battery Burbeck, with two 10-inch M1900 guns mounted on disappearing M1901 carriages; Battery Morris with two 10-inch M1900 guns mounted on disappearing M1901 carriages; Battery Terrill with three 6-inch M1897 guns mounted on disappearing M1898 carriages; Battery Whipple with two 6-inch M1900 guns mounted on M1900 pedestal mounts; Battery Vincent with four 3-inch M1898 guns mounted on M1898 masking parapets; Battery Weir with two 3-inch M1902/M1903 guns mounted on pedestals; Battery Williams with three 3-inch M1898 guns mounted on M1898 masking parapets. Two or three Anti-aircraft Batteries mounted 3-inch M1917 guns on AA pedestals; and Anti-Motor Torpedo Boat Battery (AMTB) 943 was equipped with four 90-mm M1A2 anti-aircraft guns, two fixed M3 and two towed.

(Library of Congress Photo)

10-inch Gun at Fort Standish, Boston Harbor, Circa 1918.

Batteries Burbeck and Morris were originally combined as Battery Burbeck, but were administratively separated in 1909. The 10-inch guns were the fort's main armament against enemy battleships; the 6-inch guns could fire more rapidly against cruisers. The 3-inch rapid fire guns were intended to defend an underwater mine field against minesweepers. One source states the fort was first garrisoned in 1909, and at that time the 10-inch guns had not yet been mounted and Battery Williams' guns were not on site.

After the American entry into the First World War in early 1917, the fort was expanded to include temporary structures such as quarters and additional storehouses.  The 10-inch guns of Batteries Burbeck and Morris were earmarked for potential use as railway artillery but never left the fort. Battery Whipple's two 6-inch guns were removed from the fort in September 1917 for potential use on field carriages, but apparently were not sent overseas and were returned to the fort in April 1919.  An anti-aircraft battery of two guns was on the island 1917-1923. After the war the fort's support buildings were reduced to three "permanent" buildings.

In 1920 Battery Vincent was disarmed as part of a general removal from service of its 3-inch M1898 Driggs-Seabury guns.  Official plans of the fort indicate that Battery Williams was also armed with this type of gun, but the battery was not removed from service until 1946.  Both batteries are listed with "BP" (balanced pillar) carriages; this was a retractable carriage used for 5-inch guns that was functionally identical to the "masking parapet" carriages that were Driggs-Seabury's patent. In 1926 Battery Weir was disarmed and abandoned due to beach erosion; it is possible that Battery Williams was disarmed in 1920 and rearmed with Battery Weir's guns, or rearmed from some other source.  In 1925 two of Battery Vincent's vacant positions were converted for an antiaircraft battery of two 3-inch M1917 AA guns; a third gun was added in 1938.

Prior to the American entry into the Second World War in December 1941, the fort also included many new temporary structures as it had previously in the First World War.  In addition, the fort's complement increased to around 800 men, including 14 officers and 4 NCOs.  In 1942 the fort's 10-inch guns were scrapped; they were superseded by the long-range guns of Fort Duvall and Fort Ruckman, soon to be augmented by Battery Murphy at the East Point Military Reservation.  Battery Terrill's 6-inch disappearing guns followed in 1943, leaving only Batteries Whipple and Williams active.  That year Anti-Motor Torpedo Boat Battery (AMTB) 943 was built, with two fixed and two towed 90-mm M1A2 anti-aircraft guns.  Fort Standish's guns were scrapped and the fort abandoned in 1946-1947.  The island was transferred to the state in 1958 and became part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area in 1962.

Boston Harbor, George’s Island, Fort Warren

(Doc Searls Photo)

Aerial view of Fort Warren on Georges Island in Boston Harbor.

(Zandcee Photo)

(AlexiusHoratius Photo)

Views of the sallyport or entrance to Fort Warren, pictures taken from the guardhouse.

Fort Warren is a historic fort on Georges Island at the entrance to Boston Harbor.   The fort is a pentagonal star fort, made with stone and granite, and was constructed from 1833–1861, completed shortly after the beginning of the American Civil War.  Fort Warren defended the harbor in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1861 through the end of the Second World War, and during the Civil War served as a prison for Confederate officers and government officials.  The fort remained active through the Spanish-American War and the First World War, and was re-activated during the Second World War.  It was permanently decommissioned in 1947, and is now a tourist site.  It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970 as a masterpiece of coastal engineering of the pre-Civil War period, and for its role in the Civil War.  It was named for Revolutionary war hero Dr. Joseph Warren, who sent Paul Revere on his famous ride, and was later killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill.  The name was transferred from the first Fort Warren in 1833, which was renamed Fort Winthrop.

(Zandcee Photo)

(Alexius Horatiius Photo)

10-inch Rodman Gun, (Columbiad, 10-inch, smoothbore, seacoast, M1861), Fort Warren. The Rodman gun is any of a series of American Civil War–era columbiads designed by Union artilleryman Thomas Jackson Rodman[1] (1815–1871). The guns were designed to fire both shot and shell. These heavy guns were intended to be mounted in seacoast fortifications. They were built in 8-inch, 10-inch, 13-inch, 15-inch, and 20-inch bore. Other than size, the guns were all nearly identical in design, with a curving bottle shape, large flat cascabels with ratchets or sockets for the elevating mechanism. Rodman guns were true guns that did not have a howitzer-like powder chamber, as did many earlier columbiads. Rodman guns differed from all previous artillery because they were hollow cast, a new technology that Rodman developed that resulted in cast-iron guns that were much stronger than their predecessors. (Wikipedia)

The fort was originally designed for over 200 guns, including some mortars and flank howitzers.  During the Civil War it was armed with 10-inch Rodman Guns, (Columbiad, 10-inch, smoothbore, seacoast, M1861), and 15-inch Rodman Guns, (Columbiad, 15-inch, smoothbore, seacoast, M1861).  In the 1870s Fort Warren was upgraded with new barbette batteries on the parapets, and a six-gun external battery was added; these were armed with Rodman guns.  From 1892 to 1903 Fort Warren was rebuilt to accommodate modern breech-loading rifled guns under the Endicott program.

Five batteries were added to the fort, replacing some of the older gun positions, as follows:

Battery Adams, one 10-inch M1888 gun mounted on an M1894 disappearing carriage; Battery Bartlett, four 10-inch M1888 guns with mounted on M1894 disappearing carriages and two mounted on M1896 disappearing carriages; Battery Lowell with three 3-inch M1898 guns mounted on M1898 masking parapets, Battery Plunkett with two 4-inch M1896 guns mounted on M1896 pedestal mounts and Battery Stevenson with two 12-inch M1895 guns mounted on M1897 disappearing carriages.

(Coast Defense Study Group Photo)

12-inch gun M1895 on a disappearing carriage, M1896.

The gun shown in this photo is in the "from battery" position, with its breech lowered (for loading) to a level just above the gun platform.  After loading, the tripping lever (seen here slanting back and down from the front of the carriage) was released, letting a 9 foot tall, 82-ton pile of lead weights (the counterweight) descend into a pit beneath the carriage, and rotating the gun, suspending from the two massive gun levers, up and forward so that its muzzle rose above the parapet for firing. After firing, the gun's recoil was damped primarily by the two large recoil cylinders, one on each side of the top carriage, and also by the work of lifting the counterweight back into position, where it was held until the tripping lever was released again. The two long bars running back to the carriage from near the breech of the gun are the gun arms, which guided the breech during recoil and were used to elevate the gun. The bright white object at top center-left is the telescopic sight for the gun, covered by a protective tarp. The soldier sighting the gun did so from the catwalk on the top left side of the piece. From here he could control the motors that traversed the gun carriage and changed the elevation of the gun. He could also fire the gun electrically.  (Wikipedia)

The two 12-inch (305-mm) and five 10-inch (254-mm) guns were Fort Warren's main armament against enemy battleships. For defense against smaller vessels, particularly to defend nearby mine fields against minesweepers, two 4-inch (102-mm) and three 3-inch (76-mm) guns were included.  The 4-inch guns were a Navy design by Driggs-Schroeder, and in the whole US Army coast defense system only Fort Warren and Fort Washington in Maryland had this type of gun.  Battery Adams was built of low-quality concrete and was disarmed and abandoned due to deterioration in 1914.

Fort Warren was the headquarters of the Coast Defences of Boston in the First World War.  In 1917-1918 the four 10-inch guns of Battery Bartlett were removed for potential service as railway artillery on the Western Front.  Contrary to some references, no 10-inch railway guns were mounted in time to be shipped to France for the First World War.    Different 10-inch M1888 guns, including two from Battery Reilly at Fort Adams in Rhode Island and two from storage, replaced these weapons in 1919.  In 1920, with the First World War over, several weapon types were withdrawn from Coast Artillery service.  These included the 4-inch Driggs-Schrode guns of Battery Plunkett and the 3-inch Driggs-Seabury guns of Battery Lowell.  The 4-inch guns at Fort Warren remained as display pieces at least through 1941.  None of these were replaced.

During the Second World War, the fort served as a control center for Boston Harbor's south mine field, a precaution taken in anticipation of potential attacks by Kriegsmarine U-boats.  At that time, Fort Warren was garrisoned by the 241st Coast Artillery Regiment (Harbor Defense), a Massachusetts National Guard unit that was federalized in September 1940.  As new 16-inch batteries were built, particularly Battery Murphy at the East Point Military Reservation, Fort Warren's remaining guns were scrapped in 1942-1944.  Fort Warren was permanently decommissioned after 1950.  (Wikipedia)

 (Hal Jespersen Photo)

3-inch Ordnance Rifle M1861 smoothbore muzzle loader, on a wheeled mount, likely a saluting gun at the fort, No. 1 of 2.

3-inch Ordnance Rifle M1861 smoothbore muzzle loader, on a wheeled mount, No. 2 of 2.

Boxford

(Allen Tanner Photos)

XI-inch Navy Dahlgren Gun, Civil War Memorial, Washington Street and Main Street.  No. 1 of 2.

(Allen Tanner Photo)

XI-inch Navy Dahlgren Gun, Civil War Memorial, Washington Street and Main Street.  No. 1 of 2.

Brimfield

(Ten Twenty One Brewing Photo)

4.2-inch (30-pounder) Parrott Rifle, mounted on a concrete stand, No. 1 of 2 in front of the Civil War Memorial.

(neoc1 Photos)

4.2-inch (30-pounder) Parrott Rifle, mounted on a concrete stand, No. 2 of 2 in front of the Civil War Memorial.

Burlington

(Expedia Photo)

Cast Iron 6-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, Cyrus Alger & Company.  1838 S B I Co on the left trunnion, possibly S B F Co, referring to the South Boston Foundry, and CA PATENT on the right trunnion.  The upper breach markings read "1 568 GT".  This gun is mounted on a concrete stand and is located near the memorials at the northwest corner of Burlington Common in Burlington.  According to the plaque affixed to the base, it was a gift from Samuel E. Walker, presented by Col. Wilford A. Walker, to Milligan-McKenzie Post 273 American Legion, 29 May 1957.

Cambridge

(Norstar Photo)

(Daderot Photos)

Cast Iron 32-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading British Naval Gun, (A) on the right trunnion, mounted on a naval gun carriage.  No. 1 of 3. Town Common, Harvard Square.

This 32 pounder was cast in the reign of George II. The A indicates Ashburnham on the Kent-Sussex border. In this period Ashburnham was owned by the Crowley family, by two brothers Ambrose and John and their mother Theodosia who ran it while the two boys were underage and again, on behalf of her daughters, after their deaths. Ashburnham was the last of the Wealden furnaces to close, surviving into the 1820s, although its gunfounding days were long past. Again this would have been cast for the Georgian navy, as the main armament for the larger ships. (Ruth Rhynas Brown)

(Daderot Photos)

(Norstar Photo)

Cast Iron 32-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading British Naval Gun, mounted on a naval gun carriage.  No. 2 of 3. Town Common.

This was listed as spare at Woolwich in 1699 by Colonel Browne in his Survey. This is what the number 1293 engraved on the piece means. It is a cast-iron demi-cannon of 9 and ½ feet, weighing 50 cwt 1 quarter and 9 pounds. When new it would have been intended for the Stuart Navy. It dates from the third quarter of the 17th century. If there is no trunnion mark, it might be worth looking either side of the touch-hole where the initials of founders are often engraved. The rose and crown and the broad arrow indicates casting for British service

(Cambridge School Photo)

(Wally Goebetz Photo)

(Daderot Photo)

Cast Iron 12-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, mounted on a naval gun carriage.  No. 3 of 3.

This gun has a trunnion mark but no Browne number. This indicates a casting date between c1700-1712. The weight (28-2-00) indicates a whole number of possible guns: it can be a 9 or 8 ½ ft 12 pounder; 9 ½ foot 9 pounder or even a 9 ½ foot 6 pounder! The R indicates it was cast at Robertsbridge in the Sussex Weald; probably by either Westerne family or the Peter Gott-William Benge partnership. Robertsbridge was an ironworks which was leased out regularly by gunfounders on short leases to complement their other ironworks. The 22 engraved on the barrel shows it was gun 22 on either a ship’s gun deck or a fort battery. (Ruth Rhynas Brown)

The three guns on display in the Cambridge Common near the intersection of Garden Street and Appian Way, were recovered from Castle William when the British Army evacuated Boston and abandoned the fort in today's South Boston.  A stone marker by these guns has the following text: "THESE CANNON were abandoned at Ft Independence (Castle William) by the British Forces when they evacuated the City of Boston March 17, 1776".  Castle William was an early fortification on an island off what is now South Boston and provided protection - and control - of Boston's inner harbor. Today, Castle Island as its now known as, is joined to the mainland by a causeway and is a park run by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. Ft. Independence, a pentagon shaped fort, stands over the spot Castle William occupied.  

(CaribDigita Photo)

(Sswonk Photo)

Marker concerning General Henry Knox turning over these guns to General George Washington in a park along Garden Street away from Harvard University.  These guns were brought to a hill at Dorchester Heights - now South Boston - and led to the British evacuation.

Cambridge, Fort Washington

Fort Washington, also known as Fort Washington Park, is an historic site at 95 Waverly Street in Cambridge.  It was built by soldiers of the Continental Army under the orders of George Washington in November 1775.  It is the oldest surviving fortification from the American Revolutionary War and the only surviving fortification from the Siege of Boston.  Fort Washington was placed on the List of Registered Historic Places in Massachusetts on 3 April 1973.

(Friends of Fort Washington Photos)

Cast Iron 18-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, weight 30-0-17 (3,377 lbs), Serial No. 36, mounted on an iron seacoast top carriage, No. 1 of 3.

Cast Iron 18-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, weight 30-0-16 (3,376 lbs), Serial No. 40, mounted on an iron seacoast top carriage, No. 2 of 3.

(Daderot Photo)

Cast Iron 18-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, weight 30-0-13 (3,373 lbs), Serial No. 45, mounted on an iron seacoast top carriage, No. 3 of 3.  These three guns on display in Cambridge Common near the intersection of Garden Street and Appian Way, were recovered from Castle William when the British Army evacuated Boston and abandoned the fort in today's South Boston.  The three 18-pounders were among those over-age cannon that were removed from the original Fort Warren on Governor's Island, when a new Fort Warren was built on George's Island. Mr. Marcus Morton, of Cambridge, learned by correspondence with the Historical Section of the Chief of Ordnance in Washington, in 1942, that the gun carriages were cast by the West Point Foundry on the Hudson River, and he discovered in the city records that it cost the city $13.50 to bring these guns from Governor's Island to Cambridge.

Cambridge

(Rob Radrez Photos)

(Eric Nygren Photos)

Model 1890 5-inch siege gun of the Spanish-American War era, mounted on a wheeled carriage (it did not see action).  This gun stood on the grounds of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), located between McDermott Court and the Green Building.  It was previously on display at Caltech in Pasadena, California, and has now been returned.

Camp Edwards

(Sf46 Photo)

3-inch M1905 Field Gun.

Charlestown, Bunker Hill

(Jacob Rottman Photo)

The Bunker Hill Monument stands 221 feet tall at Breed's Hill, the site of the first major battle of the American Revolution fought on 17 June 1775. Control of this high ground near the harbor was important to the British occupation of Boston.  When colonial forces chose to fortify Charlestown, they bypassed the more dominant "Bunker Hill" and dug in on Breed's Hill which was lower and closer to the water.

(Author Photo)

Bronze 3-pounder Smoothbore Muzzleloading Gun, mounted inside the observatory at the top of the Bunker Hill Memorial obelisk.  Nick-named the "Adams Cannon", this bronze gun is heavily engraved.  It was one of four bronze guns stolen from the British  in 1774.  For a time, they were the only guns in the Colonial arsenal at the start of the Revolutionary War.  Apparently these guns disappeared from an armoury in Boston under redcoat guard in September 1774, and were then smuggled out of town by Boston patriots to Dorchester by early 1775.  From there they were moved to James Barret's farm in Concord, where General Thomas Gage got word of them again.  Two of the guns were recaptured by the British, but the Colonials hid the Adams Gun and a companion gun named the "Hancock Cannon" in a swamp near Dedham, Massachusetts to conceal them.  After the war, the barrel of the Adams gun burst while it was being fired in a ceremonial salute.  The "Adams Cannon" has been part of the Bunker Hill Monument for more than 160 years, and is currently undergoing preservation.

The matching Bronze 3-pounder gun called the “Hancock Cannon” also hung in the same location until the 1970s, when it was taken to Metropolitan District Commission police station.  The "Hancock Cannon" was turned over to the National Park Service, which had become the custodian of the monument.  The cannon then went into preservation storage at the Charlestown Navy Yard.  The "Hancock” cannon is currently on display in the Minute Man National Historical Park Visitor Center in Concord.  (J.L. Bell). (Author Photo)

(Author Photo)

View of Boston Harbor from the top of the Bunker Hill Monument.

Chicopee

(Edward Bellamy Memorial Association Photo)

Bronze 6-pounder M1841 smoothbore muzzle-loading Field Gun, Chicopee, N.P. Ames, mounted on a wheeled carriage.  This gun was given to Chicopee by the Lavallee family, currently shown here sitting in a storage shed.  In the 1970s, John Lavallee purchased this N.P. Ames 6-pounder from a New Jersey Arms dealer.  The mustard-colored cannon was one of the few in the country that was in its original form, complete with buckets and plungers.  The purchase included a carriage, limber and accessories.  The storage carriage was made in 1864 by the Wason Car Manufacturing Co. of Springfield.  According to the appraiser, it was one of only 15 privately owned cannons in the country.  The weapon was manufactured in 1847 by the Ames Foundry in the Cabotville section of what was still Springfield. The cannon was brought home as a trophy of the Civil War by the founder of the Peekskill Military Academy.  It remained in the school's possession until it was purchased in 1959 by Val J. Forgett Jr. of Ridgefield, New Jersey.

M5 Stuart Light Tank (Serial No. 3487), Szot Park, off Front St 656.

M60A3 Main Battle Tank (Serial No. 3782), RN 09B04168, Szot Park, off Front St 656.

Concord, Minute Man National Historical Park Visitor Center

 (Minute Man National Historical Park Photos)

(Dave Pape Photo)

Bronze 3-pounder Smoothbore Muzzleloading Gun, known as the "Hancock Cannon" mounted on a wheeled gun carriage, on display in the Minute Man National Historical Park Visitor Center in Concord.

This Gun, nick-named the "Hancock Cannon", is heavily engraved.  It was previously on display mounted on the wall inside the observatory at the top of the Bunker Hill Memorial obelisk, along with another one nick-named the "Adams Cannon", which remains in place.  It was one of four bronze guns stolen from the British  in 1774.  For a time, they were the only guns in the Colonial arsenal at the start of the Revolutionary War.  Apparently these guns disappeared from an armory in Boston under redcoat guard in September 1774, and were then smuggled out of town by Boston patriots to Dorchester by early 1775.  From there they were moved to James Barret's farm in Concord, where General Thomas Gage got word of them again.  Two of the guns were recaptured by the British in Canada, but the Colonials hid the "Hancock Cannon" and a companion gun named the "Adams Cannon" in a swamp near Dedham, Massachusetts to conceal them.   The "Hancock Cannon" had been part of the Bunker Hill Monument until the 1970s, when it was taken to the Metropolitan District Commission police station.  It was later turned over to the National Park Service.  The bronze gun then went into preservation storage at the Charlestown Navy Yard.  The "Hancock Cannon” is currently on display in the Minute Man National Historical Park Visitor Center in Concord.  

Danvers

(Fletcher6 Photo)

3-inch M1905 Field Gun, High Street Cemetery.

(Bill Ricker Photos)

4.7-inch M1906 M1 Field Gun, Northwestern Ordnance Co., No. 5?6? (number obscured by paint), mounted on an M1906 carriage, No. 603, Studebaker Corp, 1918.  The gun is located with "Charlie Battery, 1st Battalion 101st Field Artillery", "Mountain", at the Massachusetts National Guard Armory, 2 Armory Rd.

Dedham

M5A1 Stuart Tank, "Delores", American Legion Post 18, 155 Eastern Ave.

Duxbury

(New York Pulbic Library Photo)

Cast Iron 32-pounder gun, 57 cwt, smoothbore muzzle-loading Naval Gun, weight 57-2-22 (6,462 lbs), Serial No. 343, No. 1 of 4. Miles Standish Gravesite, Depot Road.

Cast Iron 32-pounder gun, 57 cwt, smoothbore muzzle-loading Naval Gun, Serial No. 344, No. 2 of 4. Miles Standish Gravesite, Depot Road.

Cast Iron 32-pounder gun, 57 cwt, smoothbore muzzle-loading Naval Gun, Serial No, 573, No. 3 of 4. Miles Standish Gravesite, Depot Road.

Cast Iron 32-pounder gun, 57 cwt, smoothbore muzzle-loading Naval Gun, Serial No. 575, No. 4 of 4. Miles Standish Gravesite, Depot Road.

The Myles Standish Burial Ground (also known as Old Burying Ground or Standish Cemetery) in Duxbury, Massachusetts is, according to the American Cemetery Association, the oldest maintained cemetery in the United States.

The 1.5-acre (0.61 ha) burying ground is the final resting place of several well-known Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620, including Captain Myles Standish. The site was the location of Duxbury's first meeting house. It was in use from approximately 1638 until 1789 at which point the cemetery was abandoned. It was reclaimed in 1887 by the Duxbury Rural Society, generating a widespread interest in locating the resting place of Duxbury's most famous colonist, Myles Standish. After two exhumations in 1889 and 1891, it was generally agreed that Standish's remains had been located and a memorial was built over his gravesite. The Standish gravesite memorial is today the most prominent feature in the burying ground.

The burying ground is now owned and maintained by the Town of Duxbury. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. (Wikipedia)

East Douglas

(Wikiwand Photo)

3-inch Ordnance Rifle. Serial No. 317 (TBC).  Photo is of a similar gun.

Easton

M3A1 Stuart Light Tank, American Legion Post 7.

M60A3 Tank (Serial No. 3800A), RN 09B07468, VFW Post 2547, 170 Allen Rd., North Easton.

Fairhaven

(Author Photo)

57-mm Anti-tank Gun M1, No. 1 of 2. Armed Forces Memorial Park, Huttleston Avenue, similar to this one at the 1st Cavalry Division Museum, Fort Hood, Texas.

57-mm Anti-tank Gun M1, No. 2 of 2. Armed Forces Memorial Park, Huttleston Avenue.

Fairhaven, Fort Phoenix

Fort Phoenix is an American Revolutionary War-era fortification located at the entrance to the Fairhaven-New Bedford harbor, south of US Highway 6 in Fort Phoenix Park.  The fort was originally built in 1775 but was not initially given a name.   The first naval engagement of the American Revolution took place not far from the fort in Buzzards Bay, the Battle of Fairhaven on 14 May 1775.  On 5-6 September 1778, the fort was destroyed by the British during a raid on the harbour.   A force led by Major Israel Fearing drove off the British, both during the attack on the fort and when they attempted an attack on the town the next day. The fort was then renamed Fort Fearing.   In 1784 it was given the name "Fort Phoenix" after the mythical bird that rose from its own ashes.  The fort was rebuilt in 1798, and rebuilt again in 1808 with 12 guns with Commonwealth resources, contemporary with but not part of the second system of US fortifications.  During the War of 1812, HMS Nimrod bombarded the fort on 13 June 1814 when the local militia refused to surrender some guns.  After an exchange of fire Nimrod sailed away.

(Schlitzer90 Photo)

The fort is currently armed with five 24-pounder M1819 smoothbore muzzleloading guns mounted on reproduction wooden carriages.  The guns were all made in the 1820s.

There is also a smaller cannon at the fort which was captured by the Continental Marines during a  raide on Nassau in the Bahamas in 1776. This raid was the first amphibious landing on foreign soil by United States Marines.  The fort was rebuilt with a new powder magazine and regarrisoned with eight guns during the Civil War.  During the Second World War, an Anti-Motor Torpedo Boat (AMTB) battery of four towed 37-mm guns defended the fort.  (Wikipedia)

(Schlitzer90 Photo)

24-pounder M1819 muzzleloading rifle, No. 1 of 5, mounted on a reproduction carriage, dated 1828.

24-pounder M1819 muzzleloading rifle, No. 2 of 5, mounted on a reproduction carriage, dated 1828.

24-pounder M1819 muzzleloading rifle, No. 3 of 5, mounted on a reproduction carriage, dated 1828.

(Schlitzer90 Photo)

24-pounder M1819 muzzleloading rifle, No. 4 of 5, mounted on a reproduction carriage, dated 1828.

(Schlitzer90 Photo)

24-pounder M1819 muzzleloading rifle, No. 5 of 5, mounted on a reproduction carriage, dated 1828.

(Schlitzer90 Photo)

Cast Iron 24-pounder M1819 smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, No. 1 of 2. Mounted on a reproduction carriage, dated 1828.

(Schlitzer90 Photo)

Cast Iron 24-pounder M1819 smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, No. 2 of 2. Mounted on a reproduction carriage, dated 1828.

(Fairhaven, MA office of Tourism Photo)

(Millicent Library Photo)

Cast Iron 6-pounder Smoothbore Muzzleloading Gun, nick-named the "John Paul Jones".  This is a British gun mounted on a wood naval gun carriage.

This gun was captured at Nassau in 1777 by the U.S.S. Alfred in the first combat action of the U.S. Marine Corps.  There is an inscription on a brass plate on the breech stating the gun was taken from the British at Nassau in 1777 by the Colonial Ship of War Alfred.  (Young John Paul Jones was an officer on the ship at the time). The gun was placed in Fort Phoenix in 1778.  It was re-captured by the British and left in the Fort spiked and with its trunnions knocked off.  The gun was afterwards mounted in Union Street for Village defence, placed there in 1883.  In 1832 the cannon was placed muzzle down at the Four Corners.  Around 1847 it was place back in its original upright position at union Street where it remained upon a pair of skids.  On 15 July 1885, the Fairhaven Improvement Association placed the inscription on a plate attached to the cannon’s breech.  In 1950 the cannon was removed to the Southwest corner of the town hall lawn, then later moved to Fort Phoenix.

Fall River

(Allen Tanner Photos)

German 21-cm Mörser 10 (21-cm Mrs 10), captured during the First World War, located in a memorial park.

German First World War 21-cm Mörser 10 (21-cm Mrs 10) , built by Krupp and dated 1917.  City Park, Opposite Saint Anne’s Shrine.  (Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3397899)

The 21-cm Mörser 10 (21-cm Mrs 10) was a heavy Mortar/Howitzer used by Germany in the Great War. It replaced the obsolete 21-cm Mörser 99 that lacked a recoil system. For transport it broke down into two loads. Some Howitzers were fitted with a gun shield during the war. As it was also intended for siege use a concrete-penetrating shell was also used. Unusually it had two spades, one fixed at the end of the trail and another folding one about half-way down the trail. 216 were in service at the beginning of the war. It was replaced by the 21-cm Mörser 16 also known as the langer 21-cm Mörser since it was merely a lighter 21-cm Mrs 10 with a longer barrel for extra range and other refinements.

Feeding Hills (Agawam)

M60A3 Main Battle Tank (Serial No. 4067A), RN 9B7747, American Legion Post 185, 478 Springfield St.

Fort Devens, 94th Division Headquarters

British Ordnance BL 60-pounder 5-inch (127-mm) heavy field gun, Valcartier, Quebec, 1914.  (Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3336982)

British 60-pounder (5-inch (130-mm)) field gun at full recoil, in action during the Battle of Gallipoli, 1915.  (Ernest Brooks Photo, Imperial War Museum, Q13340).

(Doug Culver Photo)

Ordnance BL 60-pounder Howitzer, inside Fort Devens in front of the US Army Reserve, M.G. Harry J Malony Building, of the 804th Medical Brigade on Saratoga Blvd.

The British Ordnance BL 60-pounder was a 5-inch (127-mm) heavy Field Gun designed in 1903-05 to provide a new capability that had been partially met by the interim QF 4.7-inch 72 cwt Gun.  This highly accurate heavy artillery gun threw shrapnel and explosive shells approximately 9,150 metres, a range that was later extend by munitions development.  This was the Canadian army’s main heavy gun throughout the First World War.  It was designed for both horse draft and mechanical traction and served throughout the main theatres of the First World War.  The BL 60-pounder remained in service with British and Commonwealth forces in the inter-war period and in frontline service with British and South African batteries until 1942 being superseded by the BL 4.5-inch Medium Gun.  Two Canadian BL 60-pounder Howitzer batteries were still active on the Western Front at the end of the war.

(Sf46 Photo)

3-inch M1905 Field Gun.  Present in June of 2000, this gun has been relocated.

The M1902, a.k.a. M1905 3-inch gun (76.2-mm) was the U.S. Army’s first steel, rifled, breech loading, quick-firing field gun. The features of rifling, breech loading and springs to absorb the gun's recoil and quickly return it to the firing position combined to improve the range, accuracy, and rate of fire of the gun, allowing it to be used more effectively in operations with infantry. These new capabilities allowed the gun to provide accurate indirect fire on targets not in a direct line of sight, which provided crucial firepower for infantry attacks.  It was also one of the first artillery guns to have an armoured shield to protect the crew from small arms fire.

The gun fired 3inch (76-mm) Shrapnel or Explosive Shells that weighed 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms). This was of a heavier poundage than the older guns, in its role, could cope with (the use of steel provided this benefit) meaning that the M1902 could fire a shell (when taking note of the use of tighter rifling) at a greater muzzle velocity at a greater accuracy than any other field gun of American origin to that point. It had a muzzle velocity of 1,700 ft/s (520 m/s) with an effective range of 6,500 yards (5,900 m), and a maximum range of 8,500 yards (7,800 m). The maximum rate of fire was 15 rounds per minute.

(Author Photo)

US M1897 75-mm Field Gun.  This gun is equipped with rubber tires indicating it was modified after the First World War. No. 1 of 2.  Similar to the photo of this one in the Louisiana National Guard Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana.

US M1897 75-mm Field Gun.  This gun is equipped with rubber tires indicating it was modified after the First World War. No. 2 of 2.

Based on the French 75 field gun, it was horse-drawn during the First World War or equipped with the M2A- split-trail, truck-towed field carriage in the Second World War.   Both versions saw combat at different times.

French 75-mm field gun being fired by Battery C, 6th Field Artillery.  This gun fired the first shot for America on the Lorraine front.  (NARA Photo 530744)

The French 75-mm field gun was a quick-firing field artillery piece adopted in March 1898. Its official French designation was: Matériel de 75-mm Mle 1897. It was commonly known as the French 75, simply the 75 and Soixante-Quinze (French for "75"). Initially, the French 75 had been designed as an anti-personnel weapon system for delivering large volumes of time-fused shrapnel shells on enemy troops advancing in the open. After 1915 and the onset of trench warfare, other types of battlefield missions demanding impact-detonated high-explosive shells prevailed. By 1918 the 75s became the main agents of delivery for toxic gas shells. The 75s also became widely used as truck mounted anti-aircraft artillery. They were also the main armament of the Saint-Chamond tank in 1918. The French 75 is widely regarded as the first modern artillery piece.

The US Army adopted the French 75-mm field gun during the First World War and used it extensively in battle. The US designation of the basic weapon was 75-mm Gun M1897. There were 480 American 75-mm field gun batteries (over 1,900 guns) on the battlefields of France in November 1918. Manufacture of the French 75 by American industry began in the spring of 1918 and quickly built up to an accelerated pace. Carriages were built by Willys-Overland, the hydro-pneumatic recuperators by Singer Manufacturing Company and Rock Island Arsenal, the cannon itself by Symington-Anderson and Wisconsin Gun Company. American industry built 1,050 French 75s during the First World War, but only 143 had been shipped to France by 11 November 1918; most American batteries used French-built 75s in action.

The first US artillery shots in action in the First World War were fired by Battery C, 6th Field Artillery on 23 October 1917 with a French 75 named "Bridget" which is preserved today at the United States Army Ordnance Museum. During his service with the American Expeditionary Force, Captain (and future U.S. President) Harry S. Truman commanded a battery of French 75s.

During the 1930s most M1897A2 and A3 (French made) and M1897A4 (American made) guns were mounted on the modern carriage M2A3 which featured a split trail, rubber tires allowing towing at any speed, elevation limit increased to +45 degrees and traverse increased to 30 degrees left and right. Along with new ammunition, these features increased the effective range and allowed the gun to be used as an anti-tank gun, in which form it equipped the first Tank Destroyer battalions.  (Wikipedia)

Foxboro

XI-inch Navy Dahlgren Gun mounted on a concrete stand, Rock Hill Cemetery in Foxboro.

Gardner

(Daderot Photos)

3-inch breech-loading (BL) landing howitzers of the 1870s/1880s generation.  No. 1 of 3, grouped around the central monument in Monument Park.

(Daderot Photos)

3-inch breech-loading (BL) landing howitzers of the 1870s/1880s generation.  No. 2 of 3, grouped around the central monument in Monument Park.

3-inch breech-loading (BL) landing howitzers of the 1870s/1880s generation.  No. 3 of 3, grouped around the central monument in Monument Park.

Georgetown

M37 Gun Motor Carriage (GMC) Self-Propelled Gun (SPG). This vehicle is located at the VFW in Georgetown, along Highway 133.  The M37 mated the gun of the M4 Sherman 105 series with the chassis of the M24 Chaffee light tank.

Dodge M37 3⁄4-ton 4x4 truck (G741) VFW Post 7608, 435 Andover St.

(Allen Tanner Photos)

8-mm Hotchkiss Model 1914 Machine Gun, mounted on a tripod stand in front of the war memorial.  The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in France purchased 7,000 Mle 1914 Hotchkiss machine guns in 8-mm Lebel, and used them extensively at the front in 1917 and 1918.

(Army Heritage and Education Center Photo)

8-mm Hotchkiss Model 1914 Machine Gun being operated on a range near Froissy, Oise, France, by a US Army Machine Gun Team from Company 1, 2nd Brigade, Machine Gun Battalion, 1st Division, 10  May 1918.

  (Allen Tanner Photos)

6-mm Colt-Browning M1895 as-operated machine gun, mounted on a tripod stand in front of the war memorial.

The Colt–Browning M1895, nicknamed "potato digger" because of its unusual operating mechanism, is an air-cooled, belt-fed, gas-operated machine gun that fires from a closed bolt with a cyclic rate of 450 rounds per minute.  Based on a John Browning and Matthew S. Browning design dating to 1889.  The M1895 was the first machine gun adopted by the United States military, and it saw service with the Army (who never formally adopted it), and the US Navy/US Marines, and was adapted to use in many roles.  It was mounted on tripods, horse-drawn carriages, boats, aircraft, and even armored cars. The US Navy was the first to begin testing, as early as 1893, with a version chambered in the Navy's 6-mm cartridge

(US Army Photo)

One of the later versions of the Colt-Browning M1895 machine gun is demonstrated by a US Army operator. The gun is shown mid-action, with the operating lever extending downward below the front of the barrel.

Gloucester, Stage Head, Stage Fort Park

This area has been fortified and manned intermittently from 1635 until the Spanish–American War.  The works were also known variously as "Gloucester Fort", "Eastern Point Battery", "Fort Conant" and other variants of these names.

4.2-inch (30-pounder) Parrott Rifle, 4296, No. 391, 1865, weight 4,291 lbs, R.M.H., mounted on a concrete stand, No. 1 of 4 guns in this fort.

(Allen Tanner Photo)

Cast iron possible 32-pounder smoothbore muzzleloading, mounted on a concrete stand, No. 2 of 4 guns in the park.

(Allen Tanner Photo)

XI-inch Navy Dahlgren Gun, mounted on a concrete stand, No. 3 of 4 guns in the park.

(Allen Tanner Photo)

Cast iron possible 12-pounder smoothbore muzzleloading gun, No. 4 of 4 guns in the park.

Hamilton

(John M. Sullivan Photo)

German First World War 7.7-cm Feldkanone 16 (7.7-cm FK 16), (Serial Nr. unknown), Patton Memorial Park.

(John M. Sullivan Photo)

US Model 1897 3.2-inch BL field gun mounted on a wheeled gun carriage, Patton Memorial Park.

M4A1(75) Sherman tank, Patton Memorial Park, 330 Bay Road.

Hanover

(Wicked Local Photos)

Dahlgren bronze 12-pounder landing howitzer, AMES MFG Co CHICOPEE 77 LBS 75 PRE, N. 255, No. 1 of 2, via Main and Hanover streets. These artillery pieces form part of the town's memorial to its Civil War dead. The cannon were cast in Chicopee in April 1865, the month General Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, so it is very likely that these particular cannon were never fired beyond their initial testing.

Dahlgren bronze 12-pounder landing howitzer, No. 2 of 2.  Silver runs into Main, which runs into Hanover, but any one of them will take you straight to the war memorial.  Main and Hanover surround the memorial, with Silver leading directly to it like an arrow.

‍Haverhill

(Lawrence Mirsky Photos)

US Army 3-inch M1905 Field Gun, Grand Army of the Republic Park (G.A.R. Park).

(Allen Tanner Photos)

US M5 3-inch Anti-Tank Gun, Hayes Blvd and North Main Street.

(Allen Tanner Photos)

4-inch Slide Mk. VII Model 4 Naval Deck Gun, Hilldale Ave cemetery.

Hingham

(Author Photo)

37-mm M3 Anti-Tank Gun, No. 2 of 2, similar to this one in the National WWII Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana.  

The 37-mm Gun M3 was the first dedicated anti-tank gun fielded by United States forces in numbers. Introduced in 1940, it became the standard anti-tank gun of the U.S. infantry with its size enabling it to be pulled by a jeep. However, the continuing improvement of German tanks quickly rendered the 37-mm ineffective, and by 1943 it was being gradually replaced in the European and Mediterranean theaters by the more powerful British-developed 57-mm Gun M1. In the Pacific, where the Japanese tank threat was less significant, the M3 remained in service until the end of the war. Like many other light anti-tank guns, the M3 was widely used in the infantry support role and as an anti-personnel weapon, firing high-explosive and canister rounds.

(US Army Photo)

37-mm M3 Anti-Tank Gun, No. 1 of 2. Park near the Town Beach.

Hingham

(Woodlot Photo)

57-mm Gun M1A1, dated 1942, at the Grand Army Memorial Hall, similar to this one at the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum, Camp Shelby, Forrest County, Mississippi.

The Ordnance Quick-Firing 6-pounder 7 cwt, or just 6 pounder, was the primary British 57-mm anti-tank gun, in service during the middle of the Second World War, as well as the main armament for a number of armoured fighting vehicles.  It was first used in North Africa in April 1942, and quickly replaced the 2-pounder in the anti-tank role, allowing the 25-pounder to revert to its intended artillery role.  The United States Army adopted the 6-pounder as their primary anti-tank gun under the designation 57-mm Gun M1.

Hinsdale

(David Pelland Photos)

Bronze 12-pounder Napoleon Model 1857 smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun-Howitzer, (Federal Gun with muzzle swell used in the Civil War), mounted on a wheeled gun carriage, Hinsdale War Memorial.

Bronze 12-pounder Napoleon Model 1857 smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun-Howitzer, (Federal Gun with muzzle swell used in the Civil War), Hinsdale War Memorial, near the intersection of South Street (Route 8) and Maple Street (Route 143), dedicated in 1923.  The cannon was used in the siege and battle of Port Hudson, Louisiana.

Holbrook

(Allen Tanner Photos)

Bronze 12-pounder Napoleon Model 1857 smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun-Howitzer, No. 351, H.N.H & Co., 1,223 lbs, C & S 1861, No. 1 of 2 in the Town Common.

(Allen Tanner Photos)

Bronze 12-pounder Napoleon Model 1857 smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun-Howitzer, No. 205, H.N.H & Co., 1,289 lbs, T.J.R., 1863.  No. 2 of 2 in the Town Common.

Holyoke

IX-inch Dahlgren Shell Gun, Serial No. 199, mounted on a concrete stand in a small park in downtown Holyoke.  A plaque on the gun reads: "Dahlgren Shellgun No. 199, discovered in Springdale Park May 1979, restored 1979, mounted 1980, by Holyoke, Inc.  Used as broadside guns on mid-19th Century Warships, these guns could fire a 32-pound shot 1,756 yards.  Obsolete by the mid-1880's, they were given to communities for ornamental purposes".

Hudson

(Pinterest Photo)

German First World War 15-cm schwere Feldhaubitze 1902 (15-cm sFH 02), (Serial Nr. TBC) heavy field howitzer, facing the Assabet River in Liberty Park.

3-inch field gun M1902 (76.2-mm), reported to be in Liberty Park (TBC).

Hull

(US Army Signal Corps Photo)

3.2-inch M1885 BL Field Gun with crew, Spanish American War era.

The 3.2-inch M1885 BL field gun has two hoops that have been shrunk onto the breech end of the gun, while later models have a single hoop.

(Naval History & Heritage Command Photo)

3.2-inch M1897 Gun crews, 6th US Artillery, Spanish American War.

3.2-inch M1897 breech loading rifle.  The barrel is marked 1895, No. 368 (868?), 796 lbs. 3.2-inch, M1897 on one trunnion. Veterans’ Memorial Park.

Cast Iron 24 pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, (ca. 1775 - 1815), weight (corroded), Serial No. corroded. No. 1 of 2, removed from Fort Adams in the 1980’s. Fort Revere Park.  This Rifle was the US Army's first steel, rifled breech loading field gun.  It was the Army's primary field artillery piece in the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War from 1898 to 1902.

Cast Iron 24 pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, (ca. 1775 - 1815), weight (corroded), Serial No. corroded. No. 2 of 2, removed from Fort Adams in the 1980’s. Fort Revere Park.

(USN Photo)

USS Pivot firing its forward 3”/50 caliber gun.

3-inch 50-caliber Naval gun, Mark 22 Mod 0, dated 1942, Fort Revere Park.

The 3″/50 caliber gun in United States naval gun terminology indicates the gun fired a projectile 3 inches (76-mm) in diameter, and the barrel was 50 calibers long (barrel length is 3 in × 50 = 150 in or 3.8 m).  Different guns (identified by Mark numbers) of this caliber were used by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard from 1890 through the 1990s on a variety of combatant and transport ship classes.

Cast Iron 24-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading replica Gun, mounted on a wooden naval gun carriage. This gun came from the USS Constitution (made for the ship’s restoration of 1907).  Inside a small park/ traffic circle by the waterfront.

Kingston

(Kerry Van Ham Photo)

German First World War 7.65-mm MG 08 machine gun, mounted on a Stand, No. 1 of 2. First World War Memorial, Corner of Route 3A and Green Street.  Similar to this one on display at Taber, Alberta.

German First World War 7.65-mm MG 08 machine gun, mounted on a Stand, No. 2 of 2. First World War Memorial, Corner of Route 3A and Green Street.

The Maschinengewehr 08, or MG 08, was the German Army's standard machine gun in the First World War and is an adaptation of Hiram S. Maxim's original 1884 Maxim gun. It was produced in a number of variants during the war.

Leominster

(Jason Freedman Photos)

German First World War 10.5-cm leichte Feldhaubitze 16 (10.5-cm leFH 16) light field howitzer (Serial Nr. TBC), mounted on a wheeled gun carriage, captured during the First World War.  This field howitzer is on display at the southwest corner of Carter Park.  VFW Post No. 1807 presented it to the town on 13 Sep 1931.

(arthurpolaroid Photo)

Bronze 6-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, mounted on a wheeled iron carriage, located on the Town Common.

M60A3 Main Battle Tank, Johnny Ro Veterans Memorial Park.

Lowell

10-inch Rodman Gun, (Columbiad, 10-inch, smoothbore, seacoast, M1861), weight 14,980-lbs, mounted on a concrete stand, No. 1 of 2 in Edson cemetery beside the cenotaph,

10-inch Rodman Gun, (Columbiad, 10-inch, smoothbore, seacoast, M1861), weight 14,980-lbs, mounted on a concrete stand, No. 2 of 2 in Edson cemetery beside the cenotaph,

This memorial, established in Lowell's Edson Cemetery in 1905, honours the memory of veterans of America's Civil War and the Spanish-American War.  The entire memorial consists of a large granite structure, several cannons and anchors and a flag pole, all located around and near the final resting places of veterans of the two wars.  The memorial is located inside Lowell's Edson Cemetery, having been purchased from the City of Lowell by the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Association in 1905 for one dollar.  Originally, the granite monument that serves as the centerpiece of the memorial had the metal figure of a Civil War soldier mounted on top, but the soldier figure is no longer in place.  (Wikipedia)

(Catherine of Chicago Photo)

(Emw Photo)

13-inch Seacoast Mortar, Reg. No. 1172, 1863, weight 17, 280-lbs.  This mortar was transferred from the Portsmouth, NH Navy Yard to the city of Lowell in 1913 but not mounted until December 1915.  It is located between the Pollard Memorial Library and Lowell City Hall along Merrimack Street.

Lynn

3-inch field gun M1902 (76.2-mm), standing in the center of a traffic rotary in Lynn, Massachusetts. The rotary (named the Donald J. Aliferis Memorial Rotary) lies at the entrance to Nahant, at the intersection of the Lynnway, Nahant Road, and Lynn Shore Drive.  Parking is available off of neighborhood streets.   A plaque in front of the gun states: "Freedom - Patriotism - Humanity.  The M1902 was used during the Spanish-American War and is dedicated to honour and commemorate the valor and patriotism of the men of the city of Lynn, who served in the war with Spain, the Philippine Insurrection and the China Relief Expedition from 1898–1902, under the auspices of General Joseph P. Sanger Camp 15, United States War Veterans Department Massachusetts".  

The 3-inch M1905 Field Gun, based on the M1902 was the US Army’s first nickel steel, rifled, breech loading, quick-firing field gun with a recoil mechanism.  The difference is mostly seen in the face of the breechblock.  The features of rifling, breech loading and springs to absorb the gun's recoil and quickly return it to the firing position combined to improve the range, accuracy, and rate of fire of the gun, allowing it to be used more effectively in operations with infantry. These new capabilities allowed the gun to provide accurate indirect fire on targets not in a direct line of sight, which provided crucial firepower for infantry attacks. It was also one of the first artillery guns to have an armoured shield to protect the crew from small arms fire.

The M1902/5 was used from 1905-1917.  During the First World War, the Army used the French 75-mm gun instead of the M1902s, which were mostly kept in the United States for training.  Very few of the M1902s were used in combat in Europe.  They were phased out of active service in the 1920s.  The gun fired 3-inch (76-mm) Shrapnel or Explosive Shells that weighed 15 pounds.  It had a muzzle velocity of 1,700 ft/s (520 m/s) with an effective range of 6,500 yards (5,900 m), and a maximum range of 8,500 yards (7,800 m).  The maximum rate of fire was 15 rounds per minute.  (Wikipedia)

It is similar to this M1905 preserved with the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery School, 5 Canadian Division Support Base Gagetown, New Brunswick, Canada.

(Author Photo)

The 3-inch M1905 Field Gun.

Marblehead, Fort Pickering

(Magicpiano Photos)

Fort Pickering, 17th-century historic fort site on Winter Island in Salem, Massachusetts.

Fort Pickering operated as a strategic coastal defense and military barracks for Salem Harbor during a variety of periods, serving as a fortification from the Anglo-Dutch Wars through the Second World War.  Construction of the original fort began in 1643 and it saw use as a military installation into the 20th century.  Fort Pickering is a First System fortification named for Colonel Timothy Pickering, adjutant general of the Continental Army and secretary of War in 1795.  Today, the remains of the fort are open to the public as part of the Winter Island Maritime Park, operated by the City of Salem.

Winter Island at the time of English settlement in the early 17th century was an island separated from the mainland, held as common land by the Proprietors and used as a fortification and for fishing activities.  The old fortification which was named Fort William then renamed Fort Anne (for then Queen Anne), was rebuilt around 1706 under the direction of the Royal Engineers who had originally been sent by King William III to fortify the colonies.  It was known as Fort Number Two in Patriot hands during the American Revolution.  In 1794, the City of Salem ceded the fort to the federal government and a new fort was constructed in its place.  Major repairs to the fort were conducted in 1796 and a restoration in 1799. Later in 1799 it was renamed Fort Pickering in honor of Timothy Pickering, then Secretary of State of the USA.

The fort received its fourth military restoration in 1814.  During the 1800s the island was used primarily for fortification and in 1864 the City of Salem again ceded the island to the federal government in support of the Civil War efforts.  It was also called Salem Barracks in that war.  The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.  In 1994, the National Register designated the entire collection of cultural resources at Winter Island and Fort Pickering as the Winter Island Historic District and Archeological District. (Wikipedia)

Marion

(Andrea Ray Photo)

155-mm Schneider Howitzer Model 1918, dated 1919.  The breech is marked A.B.S. & PDY. CO. The left side of the breech is marked 155-mm Howitzer Model of 1918 SCHNEIDER. VFW Post 2425, U.S. Route 6.  This gun was a copy of the French M1917 field gun in use with the US Army and USMC to 1945.

Marlborough

M114 C & R Carrier, American Legion Post 350.

105-mm M2A1, similar to this one on display outside the Woolastook Museum, Fredericton, New Brunswick.   (Author Photo)

(Peter Phaneuf Photo)

Howitzer, 105-mm, M2A1, 1954. DPW Garage, off Route 85.

Mattapoisett

(Scott Barrow Photos)

10-inch Rodman Gun, (Columbiad, 10-inch, smoothbore, seacoast, M1861), weight 16,145-lbs, mounted on an iron rail carriage.  S.B.F.n1879, No. 8, C.B., WPF 8 PI on the muzzle, in front of the Library and Civil War Memorial.

In the 1870s and 1880s, efforts focused on converting existing Rodman guns into rifles. 10-inch Rodman smoothbore guns were converted into 8-inch rifles. The first method used was inserting a wrought iron rifle sleeve through the muzzle; a similar steel sleeve was also used later. The last method involved drilling and tapping the breech of the 10-inch Rodman and inserting a rifled steel sleeve and screwing it in tight with a threaded breech plug. These breech-inserted guns are easily recognized by the square cascabel which was designed to provide purchase for screwing the breech plug and liner securely into the gun. (Wikipedia)

Medway

(PanzerAlarm Photos)

5-cm Panzerabwehr Kanone 38 (L/60) Anti-Tank Gun, aka PaK 38.  Shown here when it was on display outside the American Legion Post 367.  This post is now closed and the Pak 38 has been moved, location unknown.

The 5-cm PaK 38 (L/60), (5-cm Panzerabwehr Kanone 38 (L/60)) was a German Anti-Tank Gun developed in 1938 by Rheinmetall-Borsig AG as a successor to the 3.7-cm PaK 36.  This weapon was in turn followed by the 7.5-cm PaK 40.  The PaK 38 was first used by German forces in April 1941.

Milford

(Ernie Jones Photos)

German First World War 10.5-cm leichte Feldhaubitze 16 (10.5-cm leFH 16) light field howitzer (Serial Nr. 7534), 1918, mounted on a wheeled gun carriage, standing in front of Memorial Hall on the corner of School and Spruce St.

(Ernie Jones Photos)

4.2-inch (30-pounder) Parrott Rifle, mounted on a concrete stand, in front of Memorial Hall on the corner of School and Spruce St.

(Ernie Jones Photo)

Smoothbore Muzzleloading Gun, strapped to a concrete stand, Confederate Army, in front of Memorial Hall on the corner of School and Spruce St.

 (Ernie Jones Photo)

Cast Iron Smoothbore Muzzleloading Gun, strapped to a concrete stand, also in front of Memorial Hall on the corner of School and Spruce St.

(Magicfingers Photo)

Milford, Northeast Military vehicle services

M18 Hellcat (Serial No. 1240)

M18 Hellcat (Serial No. 1550)

M8 Greyhound

M20

M20

M24 Chaffee Light Tank (Serial No. T2883)

M26 Pershing Tank

M5A1 Stuart Light Tank

Millbury

(Daderot Photos)

4.7-inch Gun M1906, weight 2,665 lbs, Serial No. 379, RBH, built by the Northwestern Ordnance Co., mounted on Carriage Serial No. 700, built by the Studebaker Corp 1918.

Monson

(cmh2315fl Photo)

3.67-inch (20-pounder) Naval Parrott Rifle, mounted on a granite stand in front of the Civil War memorial near the center of town.

Natick

(Author Photos)

Natick War Memorial, Town Common.

or Photos)

Bronze 12-pounder Napoleon Model 1857 smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun-Howitzer, No. 100, Revere Copper Co., 1,245 lbs, T.J.R., 1862.  No. 1 of 4 in the Town Common.

(Author Photos)

Bronze 12-pounder Napoleon Model 1857 smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun-Howitzer, No. 296, Revere Copper Co., 1,235 lbs, T.J.R., 1863.  No. 2 of 4 in the Town Common.

(Author Photos)

Bronze 12-pounder Napoleon Model 1857 smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun-Howitzer, (Federal Gun with muzzle swell used in the Civil War), Ames No. 65, weight corroded, No. 3 of 4. Town Common.

(Author Photos)

Bronze 12-pounder Napoleon Model 1857 smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun-Howitzer, No. 293, Revere Copper Co., 1,229 lbs, T.J.R., 1862.  No. 4 of 4 in the Town Common.

105-mm M3 Howitzer.  Town Common (not observed).

Natick, Museum of WWII

M42B1E9 Sherman Tank (Serial No. 415), RN  3015171, 8 Mercer Road.  This tank from North Africa campaign was later refitted for the planned invasion of Japan.

New Bedford, Fort Rodman

(Marc N. Belanger Photo)

Fort Rodman, New Bedford, Fort Taber District or the Fort at Clark's Point.

Fort Rodman is a historic American Civil War-era military fort on Wharf Road within the former Fort Rodman Military Reservation in New Bedford.  The fort is now part of Fort Taber Park, a 47-acre town park located at Clark's Point.  Fort Taber was an earthwork built nearby with city resources and garrisoned 1861-1863 until Fort Rodman was ready for service.

After the Civil War began in April 1861, it was apparent that the Fort at Clark's Point was still years from completion.  Fort Taber, a small earthwork with six cannon, was built nearby with city resources and named after New Bedford's mayor during that period.  It provided a temporary defense until the stone fort was garrisoned in 1863.  Fort Taber is marked by a stone outline today.  However, the outline's position directly behind the stone fort is probably not Fort Taber's original location.  The Fort Taber name was unofficially used to refer to the Fort at Clark's Point for many years, even by the garrison in letters home, and is used to refer to the stone fort in some recent references.  Also known as the Old Stone Fort, Fort Rodman (known as "Fort at Clark's Point" until 1898) began construction in 1857 under the third system of US fortifications.  The fort as built had emplacements for 72 guns in three tiers.  Construction was halted in 1871 and the fort as planned was never completed.  (Wikipedia)

With new batteries being constructed under the Endicott program in 1898, the U.S. Army officially named the military reservation at the site and the fort as Fort Rodman Military Reservation, in honor of Lieutenant Colonel Logan Rodman, a New Bedford native with the 38th Massachusetts Infantry who died in the assault on Port Hudson, Louisiana in 1863.  It was the primary fort of the Harbor Defenses of New Bedford. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

The Endicott period batteries at Fort Rodman were built 1898-1902, with other batteries added later as follows:

Battery Walcott with one 8-inch M1888 Gun mounted on an M1896 disappearing carriage; Battery Barton with one 8-inch M1888 Gun mounted on an M1896 disappearing carriage; Battery Cross with two 5-inch M1900 gun mounted on M1903 barbettes, Battery Craig with two 3-inch M1898 guns mounted on M1898 masking parapets; Battery Gaston with two 3-inch M1898 guns mounted on M1898 masking parapets; Battery Milliken with two 12-inch M1895 guns mounted on M1917 long-range barbettes; and one un-named Battery with two 155-mm M1918 towed guns set on Panama mountes.

Battery Walcott was named for William H. Walcott of the 17th US Infantry in the Civil War. Battery Barton was named for William Barton of the Revolutionary War. Battery Cross was named for Charles E. Cross, an engineer officer killed at the Battle of Fredericksburg in the Civil War. Battery Craig was named for Presley O. Craig, 2nd US Artillery, killed at the First Battle of Bull Run in the Civil War. Battery Gaston was named for William Gaston, 1st US Dragoons, killed in 1858 fighting Native Americans. Battery Milliken was named for Alfred S. Milliken, an engineer officer killed in the First World War.

After the American entry into the First World War many 5-inch guns were withdrawn from forts for potential service on field carriages on the Western Front. However, Battery Cross's two guns were removed in 1917 and installed on the Army transport ship USAT Kilpatrick.  They were returned to Fort Rodman in March 1919, and scrapped in 1921 under a general removal from Coast Artillery service of 5-inch guns.  The 8-inch guns of Batteries Walcott and Barton were dismounted for potential service as railway artillery in June 1918, but were remounted later without leaving the fort.  In 1920 the Driggs-Seabury M1898 3-inch guns of Batteries Craig and Gaston were removed due to a general removal from service of this type of gun; they were not replaced.

(US Army Photo)

12-inch M1895 on long-range barbette carriage M1917.

Battery Milliken was built 1917-1921 as part of a general upgrade of the Coast Artillery with existing 12-inch M1895 guns on new long-range carriages, initially in open mounts.  Compared with disappearing carriages, this increased the range of this type of gun from 18,400 yards (16,800 m) to 30,100 yards (27,500 m).  This effectively replaced the fort's previous 8-inch guns, but these were not removed until the Second World War.

In 1938 a battery of two 155-mm guns on "Panama mounts" (circular concrete platforms) was built at Fort Rodman. In 1940-1941 numerous temporary buildings were constructed on site to accommodate newly mobilized units.  In 1942 the two 8-inch guns of Batteries Walcott and Barton were scrapped, leaving only the 12-inch Battery Milliken and the 155-mm battery active. Battery Milliken was casemated for protection against air attack during the war.  In 1946, with the war over, Fort Rodman was disarmed and subsequently turned over to the Commonwealth.

Several additional small-caliber batteries defended New Bedford and Buzzards Bay during the Second World War.  Chief among these was Battery 210 at Mishaum Point Military Reservation in Dartmouth.  It had two 6-inch M1 guns in long-range shielded mounts with a large bunker for ammunition and fire control between them.  It currently has a private residence built on it. A two-gun 155-mm battery was at the location until the 6-inch battery was completed in 1945, along with the harbor entrance control post for New Bedford.

Defending the passage to New Bedford between Dartmouth and Cuttyhunk Island were two batteries of 90-mm M1A2 anti-aircraft guns, one at Barneys Joy Point Military Reservation and one on Cuttyhunk Island, part of the Elizabeth Islands Military Reservation.  These were called Anti-Motor Torpedo Boat Batteries (AMTB) 931 and 932, respectively.  The AMTB batteries had an authorized strength of four 90-mm M1A2 anti-aircraft guns, two on fixed mounts and two on towed mounts. An additional 90-mm M1A2 anti-aircraft gun battery, AMTB 933, was on Nashawena Island, just east of Cuttyhunk Island.

(AWM Photo 054026)

Towed 155-mm M1917 Field Gun employed in Coastal Defence, Garden Island, Washington, 1943.

Protecting the southern entrance to the Cape Cod Canal was a two-gun 155-mm battery on Panama mounts, replaced in 1943 by AMTB 934, at Butler Point Military Reservation in Marion. The Clarks Point Light stands on the parapet of the fort.  Originally established as a freestanding tower, it was moved to the fort in 1869 because the fort's walls obscured the beacon from some angles. it was deactivated in 1898, but was relit in 2001 by the city as a private aid to navigation. (Wikipedia)

New Bedford

(Brian "Hrefna" S. Photo)

Cast Iron 24-pounder M1844 smoothbore muzzle-loading Siege and Garrison Howitzer, used to cover blind approaches and moats around masonry fortifications, specifically the flanks of the walls, thereby earning the nick-name “Flank Howitzer”. No. 1 of 3. Rural Cemetery.

Cast Iron 24-pounder M1844 smoothbore muzzle-loading Siege and Garrison Howitzer, No. 2 of 3. Rural Cemetery.

Cast Iron 24-pounder M1844 smoothbore muzzle-loading Siege and Garrison Howitzer, No. 3 of 3. Rural Cemetery.

(Metro2 Photos)

Cast Iron 24-pounder M1844 smoothbore muzzle-loading Siege and Garrison Howitzer, dated 1846, the muzzle is marked “112”.  It is on display in Peter Francisco Square.

3-inch M1905 Field Gun, tube dated 1910, Serial No. 171, carriage M1902, dated 1911.  National Guard Armory, Sycamore Street.

Bronze 12-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading “Insurance” Howitzer, dated 1847 on one trunnion, mounted on a Naval gun carriage.  Located in front of the New Bedford Sewage Treatment Plant.

(Metro2 Photos)

Whaling Gun, dated 1936, mounted on an iron pintle stand.  This gun has an attached plaque that reads: "KONGSBERG VAABENFABRIK BREMSEN FYLDES HELT MED 2/3 GLYCERIN OG 1/3 VAND.  DER MEDGAAR 3.2L. VAESKE."  This gun is located in a small park within the New Bedford Whaling National Historic Park.

M4A1(76) HVSS Sherman Tank, Exercise Tiger Memorial, VFW Post 1531, 477 Park St.  This Sherman Tank stands near the Fort Taber Military Museum at the southern tip of eastern New Bedford.  It is the centerpiece of a monument dedicated to those who lost their lives in Exercise Tiger, in preparation for the D-Day landings at Normandy.  During this exercise on 28 April 1944, German E-boats sank two tank landing ships and crippled a third, killing 749 US servicemen (551 Army and 198 Navy).  These were the heaviest American losses for a battle up to that point in the war after Pearl Harbor.  The exercise and D-Day went on as planned.

M4A3(75) Sherman Tank (Serial No. 2703), RN 3055663, Pvt. Norbert A. Papineau Memorial, Mount Pleasant St & Lang St.  Abrams Company, 4th Battalion "Burt's Knights", United States Army Brotherhood of Tankers.  T5 Norbert Papineau was the youngest of 3 brothers who served in the Army during the Second World War.  All three were in Germany in February 1945. The two older brothers crewed Shermans in different Tank Companies.  Norbert served on an M18 Hellcat in a Tank Destroyer Company. T5 N. Papineau was KIA 17 Feb 1945.

M26A1 Pershing Tank (Serial No.1693), Reg. No. 30128439 . The turret casting (Serial No. 977) is from Scullin Steel Company, St Louis, Missouri.  This tank is on display in the Franco-American Square, at Mount Pleasant St & Nauset St.

Newburyport

 (Allen Tanner Photos)

4.2-inch (30-pounder) Parrott Rifle, mounted on a concrete stand, on Atkinson Common, No. 1 of 2.

(Allen Tanner Photo)

4.2-inch (30-pounder) Parrott Rifle, mounted on a concrete stand, on Atkinson Common, No. 2 of 2.

(Allen Tanner Photos)

Bronze Lyle Gun, WPF No. 424, 1894, JCA.  Newburyport Customs House.  Used to fire a rescue line to ships in distress

(Author Photos)

German First World War 10.5-cm leichte Feldhaubitze 16 (10.5-cm leFH 16) light field howitzer (Serial Nr. 12160), mounted on a wheeled gun carriage, in the George Washington Memorial Park.

North Attleboro

Belgian FN 4RM-62F armoured car, only 62 built in 1971-72, all served with the Belgian Gendarmerie.  This AFV's hull is made of all-welded steel.  The three man crew included a driver sitting in the center-front of the vehicle, having a single piece hatch (opening upwards) and three periscopes.  He can also see through a bullet-proof window at the very front of the hatch, which had an armored cover in case the vehicle came under fire.  

This particular version was armed with a 60-mm (2.36 in) breech-loaded mortar and a 7.62 mm (0.3 in) FN MAG machine gun mounted co-axially, while another was pintle-mounted in front of the commander’s cupola.  For concealment, six electrically-fired smoke dischargers were installed on either side of the turret.

A single door on either side of the hull allowed access to the vehicle, the right one being fitted with an observation port.  The rest of the crew, the commander (right) and the gunner (left) were seated in the all-welded turret placed in the middle of the vehicle.  Each of crewman has his own one-piece hatch and searchlight.  The commander’s cupola has 8 vision blocks, while the gunner has three and the main gun optical sight.  The turret has an electric-powered traverse, with two-speeds and manual backup.  The crew was also protected by an NBC system.  This FN 4RM is the only one of its kind in the USA.  It appeared in the 1980 movie "Dogs of War", that starred Christopher Walken and Tom Berenger.  Its stands outside G.I. Joe's Army & Navy Surplus Store.

Northborough

M60A0 Main Battle Tank, American Legion Post 234, 402 W Main St.

Northbridge

(nomadwillie Photos)

M116 75-mm Pack Howitzer M1.  This Howitzer is on display at the Northbridge Veteran Hall on Hill Street.

The 75-mm Pack Howitzer M1 (also known by its post-war designation M116) was designed in the United States in 1920s to meet a need for an artillery piece that could be moved across difficult terrain. The gun and carriage was designed so that it could be broken down into several pieces to be carried by pack animals. The gun saw combat in the Second World War with the US Army (primarily used by airborne units), with the US Marine Corps, and was also supplied to Canada and foreign forces. In addition to the pack/air portable configuration, the gun was mounted on a non-dismantling carriage to serve as a field artillery piece.

Norton

(Author Photos)

German First World War 15-cm schwere Feldhaubitze 1902 (15-cm sFH 02), (Serial Nr. 51) heavy field howitzer, Ingolstadt, mounted on an American Second World War gun carriage.

The 15-cm schwere Feldhaubitze 1902 (15-cm sFH 02), was a German Heavy Field Howitzer introduced in 1903 and served in the Great War. It was the first artillery piece to use a modern recoil system in the German Army. Some 416 were in service at the beginning of the war. Its mobility, which allowed it to be deployed as medium artillery, and fairly heavy shell gave the German army a firepower advantage in the early battles in Belgium and France in 1914 as the French and British armies lacked an equivalent.

(Author Photos)

Norwood

(Author Photos)

German First World War 15-cm schwere Feldhaubitze 1902 (15-cm sFH 02), (Serial Nr. 1860), 1917, heavy field howitzer.  The sFH 02 and mount were donated to the Town of Norwood by the Norwood American Legion (Post 70) in 1928.  It is currently located in front of the Norwood Memorial Municipal Building.

Orange

(US Army Signal Corps Photo, 14 May 1901)

3-inch gun M1898M1, No. 88 Driggs-Seabury, rapid fire breech-loading artillery gun with a 360-degree traverse.

Paxton

(neoc1 Photos)

Four Civil War Cannon embedded muzzle down at the base of the Paxton Civil War Memorial.

Pembroke

Civil War boat howitzer on iron carriage.

Plymouth

Cast Iron smoothbore muzzle-loading replica Gun, dated 1601 on breech, mounted on naval carriage.  Plymouth Village.

Quabbin Park

(ZMANS BOARDS Photo)

(WN1E Photos)

3.67-inch (20-pounder) Naval Parrott Rifle, mounted on a concrete stand in the Quabbin Park Cemetery.

(WN1E Photo)

Bronze 6-pounder M1841 smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, Cyrus Alger & Company, mounted on a concrete stand in the Quabbin Park Cemetery.

At one time these guns were located in Enfield.  In 1938 the town of Enfield was disincorparated to make way for the construction of the Quabbin Reservoir. These guns and the bodies buried in the cemeteries were moved to the Quabbin Park Cemetery.

Quincy

32-pounder Gun of 57 cwt Naval Gun, No. 1 of 4.  Downtown Cemetery.

32-pounder Gun of 57 cwt Naval Gun, No. 2 of 4.  Downtown Cemetery.

32-pounder Gun of 57 cwt Naval Gun, No. 3 of 4.  Downtown Cemetery.

32-pounder Gun of 57 cwt Naval Gun, No. 4 of 4.  Downtown Cemetery.

German First World War 7.7-cm Feldkanone 96 neuer Art (7.7-cm FK 96 n.A.), Field Gun, (Serial No. unknown).  Downtown Cemetery.

The 7.7-cm Feldkanone 96 neuer Art (7.7-cm FK 96 n.A.), Field Gun, combined a barrel of the older 7.7-cm FK 96 with a recoil system, a new breech and a new carriage. Existing FK 96s were upgraded over time. The FK 96 n.A. was shorter-ranged, but lighter than the French Canon de 75-mm modèle 1897 or the British Ordnance QF 18-pounder Field Gun as the Germans placed a premium on mobility, which served them well during the early stages of the Great War. However, once the front had become static the greater rate of fire of the French guns and the heavier shells fired by the British guns put the Germans at a disadvantage. The Germans countered this by developing the longer-ranged, but heavier 7.7-cm FK 16.

As with most Guns of its era the FK 96 n.A. had seats for two crewmen mounted on its splinter shield. Guns taken into service by Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia upon independence in 1919 served until replaced during the 1930s.

(US Army Photo)

US Gunners manning a 37-mm AA Gun in the Solomon Islands area, 1942.

37-mm anti-aircraft gun M1 mounted on an M3 carriage, Serial No. 2385, dated 1942.  Gilbert Memorial Square in Squantum.

The 37-mm Gun M1 was an anti-aircraft auto-cannon developed in the United States and used by the US Army in the Second World War.

(Emw Photo)

Cast Iron smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, No. 1 of 2 in front of the Civil War Memorial, Mount Wollaston Cemetery.  

 (Sswonk Photo)

Cast Iron smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, No. 2 of 2 in front of the Civil War Memorial, Mount Wollaston Cemetery.

Rehoboth

(Jonathan Skaarup Photos)

4.7-inch M1906 Field Gun, made at the Watervleit Arsenal, dated 1918. (Serial No. 120). Corner of Moulton Street (Route 118) and Bay State Road opposite American Legion Post 308.

The 4.7-inch M1906 Field Gun was designed and issued by the US Army Ordnance Department in 1906.  The design was orthodox for its time with a box trail and hydro spring recoil system.  When the United States entered the First World War 60 had been produced and issued to the army.  Once the US entered the war the US Army came under pressure to adopt French artillery systems and the 4.7-inch Field Gun was re-chambered to fire French 120-mm ammunition.  The switch to French 120-mm ammunition eased logistical problems due to the availability of French ammunition.  However the decision to change ammunition upset production and only 16 new pieces were finished before the end of the war.

155-mm M114 Howitzer, 1 Pond Street.

Rochester

M3A1 Half-track (Serial No. 230), Fighting Iron.

M5A1 Stuart Light Tank, Fighting Iron.

Rockland

(Allen Tanner Photos)

3-inch (76-mm)/50 calibre deck gun Mk. 2, No. 1 of 2 on Church Street and West Water Street.

(Allen Tanner Photo)

3-inch (76-mm)/50 calibre deck gun Mk. 2, No. 1 of 2 on Church Street and West Water Street.

Roslindale

M60A3 Main Battle Tank (Serial No. 3804A), VFW Post 1018, 263 American Legion Hwy.

Salem

(Ryan Roams Photo)

Cast Iron 24-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Carronade, ca. early 1800s, mounted on a wood naval gun carriage, No. 1 of 2. Peabody Essex Museum.

Cast Iron 24-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Carronade, ca. early 1800s, No. 2 of 2. Peabody Essex Museum.

Cast Iron smoothbore muzzle-loading field artillery piece of late 18th early 19th century vintage, No. 1 of 2. Peabody Essex Museum.

Cast Iron smoothbore muzzle-loading field artillery piece of late 18th early 19th century vintage, No. 1 of 2. Peabody Essex Museum.

75-mm Pack Howitzer M1A4. 23rd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Civil War Monument.

Bronze 6-pounder M1841 smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, muzzle down embedded in the ground, No. 1 of 2 near the monument to the Civil War. Greenlawn Cemetery.

Bronze 6-pounder M1841 smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, muzzle down embedded in the ground, No. 2 of 2 near the monument to the Civil War. Greenlawn Cemetery.

Bronze smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, possibly Spanish, No. 1 of 2. Greenlawn Cemetery.

Bronze smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun, possibly Spanish, No. 1 of 2. Greenlawn Cemetery.

(Yelp Photo)

XI-inch Navy Dahlgren Gun, Harmony Grove Cemetery, No. 1 of 2.

(Yelp Photo)

XI-inch Navy Dahlgren Gun, Harmony Grove Cemetery, No. 2 of 2, given to the cemetery by the War Department in 1888.

The XI inch Dahlgren shell gun was manufactured for the U.S. Navy.  It was named for Rear Admiral John Dahlgren. The XI-inch shell guns served with the Union Navy, fighting in every major engagement of the Civil War. An XI-inch shell gun aboard the USS Kearsarge sank the CSS Alabama in the Battle of Cherbourg, France in June of 1864.  465 XI-inch Dahlgren guns were cast at Alger; Builders; Fort Pitt; Hinkley, Williams & Co.; Portland Locomotive Works; Seyfert, McManus & Co.; Trenton Iron Works; and West Point foundries between 1856 and 1864.  This is the only Dahlgren gun to have been designed both with and without a muzzle swell.  The gun was typically mounted on a pivot or in a turret on a monitor.  When mounted in a turret, the crew for an XI-inch Dahlgren was seven including powdermen.  The crew for the gun when mounted on a pivot was 24 men and a powderman. XI-inch Dahlgrens were carried on many US Navy ships.

M4A2 Sherman tank.

M60A3 Main Battle Tank (Serial No. 4112A), Brigadier General Albi F. Irzyk Park, Fort Ave.

Salem, Fort Lee

(Historic Salem Inc Photo)

Fort Lee pre-dates the Revolutionary War and was rebuilt during the Civil War to contain a four gun battery.  It is located at a high point next to Fort Avenue and Memorial Drive on Salem Neck, and is a relatively rare fortification from that period whose remains are relatively unaltered.  Although there is some documentary evidence that the Neck was fortified as early as the 17th century, the earthworks built in 1776 are the first clear evidence of the site's military use.   It is a star shaped earthworks, and was manned during the Spanish-American War of 1898.  The site, of which only overgrown earthworks survive, was repaired at the time of the War of 1812 and the American Civil War, but was not substantially modified in those times, or overbuilt with more modern fortifications.

The property was federalized in 1867, and transferred to the City of Salem in 1922.  The site was briefly rehabilitated at the time of the United States bicentennial in 1976, with trails and interpretive signs, but these were later removed, and the site has again become overgrown.  The fort site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

Sandwich

3-inch Ordnance Rifle M1861. Serial No. 104. Heritage Plantation.

Scituate

(Peter McPherson Photo)

Cast Iron 24-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading replica Gun, mounted on a wooden naval gun carriage. This gun came from the U.S.S. Constitution (made for the ship’s restoration of 1907). Scituate Federal Savings Bank.

(Scituate Historical Society Photo)

3-inch Ordnance Rifle M1861, cast in 1863, mounted on a wheeled wooden gun carriage, standing in front of the GAR Hall on Country Way.

3-inch gun M1898M1, No. 39 Driggs-Seabury, rapid fire breech-loading artillery gun with a 360-degree traverse.  This gun is located in front of American Legion Post 397.

Southboro

(Peter Phaneuf Photo)

(Daderot Photo)

(Claudette Millette Photo)

German First World War 15-cm schwere Feldhaubitze 13 (15-cm sFH 13), (Serial Nr. TBC), heavy field howitzer.  This gun came to Southboro as a war trophy in 1919 and was restored in 2002. Town Common.

Springfield

(Library of Congress Photo)

Federal  Battery No. 4, 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery, with 13-inch Seacoast Mortars, M1861, weight 17,196-lbs, during the Siege of Yorktown, Virginia, 1862.

(nec1 Photos)

13-inch Seacoast Mortar, M1861, Reg. No. 1188, Fdy No. 1188, weight 17,124-lbs, located in St. Michael's Cemetery in Springfield, with a plaque attached honoring the brave men who fought in the Civil War.  The mortar was cast at the Fort Pitt Foundry (PA) in 1862.  There is an anchor insignia on the piece which suggests it was once used by the Union Navy.  Located in the Springfield-St. Michael’s Cemetery, it was placed there by the E. K. Wilcox Post 16 of the GAR.  A newspaper article from 4 Dec 1902 states that this mortar was in the cemetery at that time and had been brought from the Portsmouth, NH Navy Yard.

The 13-inch Seacoast Mortar, M1861, weight 17,124-lbs, was manufactured between 1860 and 1864.  They had a maximum range of 4,300 yards using a 20 lb powder charge firing a 200 lb projectile through a 56.5-inch tube.  The mortar weighs 17,250 pounds.  Since it was used by both the Army and the Navy, the 13" Union Seacoast Mortar was used in many different places during the Civil War.  At the rear of the mortar is a plaque which reads:  Honor the Brave.  This memorial is here placed by E. K. Wilcox Post 16,  Department of Mass. G.A.R, to mark the last resting place  of brave men who in 1861-5 offered their lives for the honor and integrity of the nation.  (Wikipedia)

M42A1 Duster, 1525 Roosevelt Ave.

Stockbridge

(Joe Mabel Photos)

(Dave Pelland Photo)

Cast Iron 6-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun in front of the Stockbridge Civil War Memorial, dedicated in 1866, on Main Street.

Stoughton

(Derrick G. Photo)

Bronze 12-pounder Napoleon Model 1857 smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun-Howitzer, (Federal Gun with muzzle swell used in the Civil War), No. 1 of 2 Guns in Faxon Veteran's Memorial Park, 83 Walnut Ave.

Bronze 12-pounder Napoleon Model 1857 smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun-Howitzer, (Federal Gun with muzzle swell used in the Civil War), No. 2 of 2 Guns in Faxon Veteran's Memorial Park, 83 Walnut Ave.

(Internet Photo)

Smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun mounted on top of the Civil War Monument at the Grand Army of the Republic lot in the Evergreen Cemetery.

(Internet Photo)
155-mm M114 Howitzer,  Faxon Veteran's Memorial Park.
M60A3 Main Battle Tank, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post.Stow, Collings Foundation

M18 Hellcat.
M22 LocustM2A1 Half-track.
M3A1 Scout Car.
M4A3(75) Sherman Tank.
M5A1 Stuart Light Tank (Serial No. 5085), RN 3048197.
British Mk. IVA Tank.German Sd.Kfz 222 leichter panzerspähwagen.German Sd.Kfz 251/1 Ausf D, WH 1785098.German StuG III Ausf G (Serial No. 92475), RN Ps531-16.German G-13 Hetzer, RN M-78057PzKpfw V Panther Ausf A.
Swansea

(Jonathan Skaarup Photos)
Bronze 12-pounder Napoleon Model 1857 smoothbore muzzle-loading Gun-Howitzer, (Federal Gun with muzzle swell used in the Civil War),
dated 1864, possibly cast by the Revere Copper Co, No. unknown, weight ca 1,245 lbs, Town Common.

Tisbury, Martha's Vineyard

(Stacey Rupolo Photo)
‍

155-mm M114 Howitzer, American Legion Post 257 in Tisbury

Townsend

(Library of Congress Photo)

XI-inch Navy Dahlgren Gun emplaced on Morriss Island, South Carolina during siege of Charleston, 31 Dec 1864

(Marine Biologist Photos)

XI-inch Navy Dahlgren gun, mounted on an iron stand, Townsend Memorial Hall, No. 1 of 2.

XI-inch Navy Dahlgren gun, mounted on a iron stand, Townsend Memorial Hall, No. 2 of 2.  The Hall was erected as a memorial to soldiers who fell in Civil War.  Since that time, the town hall also includes memorials to Townsend men and women who served in other wars.

Upton

M59 APC, private owner.

Uxbridge

(nomadwillie Photo)

(Author Photos)

German First World War 10-cm Kanone 17 (K17), (Serial Nr. 278).  First World War Memorial, Town Common.

Wakefield

(Nelson Lawry Photo)

3-inch BL howitzer (landing gun), No. 1 of 2, on the Wakefield Common.

3-inch BL howitzer (landing gun), No. 2 of 2, on the Wakefield Common.

(Nelson Lawry Photo)

Maxim-Nordenfelt 1-pounder converted during the First World War to an antiaircraft gun, Mk. VI, a stopgap piece that preceded the 3-inch/23 cal AA and DP guns.  This 1-pounder is located on North Avenue.

Wareham

(Joel Abrod Photo)

(Scott Barrow Photos)

10-inch Rodman Gun, (Columbiad, 10-inch, smoothbore, seacoast, M1861), weight 15,204-lbs, 1864, 36. M.S. S.Mca.M. & Co. No. 1 of 2. Veterans Memorial, Main Street and Gibbs Avenue.

(Scott Barrow Photo)

10-inch Rodman Gun, (Columbiad, 10-inch, smoothbore, seacoast, M1861), weight 14,980-lbs, No. 342, S.C.L. FORT PITT PA. 1865. No. 2 of 2. Veterans Memorial, Main Street and Gibbs Avenue.

Watertown

(Daderot Photo)

Cast Iron 32-pounder Gun, 57 cwt smoothbore muzzle-loading Navy Gun (Serial No. 520--), made by Cyrus Alger and Co. in South Boston, MA, in 1849. The inspector was AAH, most probably Alexander Harwood, a naval officer.  No. 1 of 2.  

(Daderot Photos)

Cast Iron 32-pounder Gun, 57 cwt smoothbore muzzle-loading Navy Gun (Serial No. 52157), made by Cyrus Alger and Co. in South Boston, MA, in 1849.  No. 2 of 2.  These two guns are mounted on concrete stands and are located at Saltonstall Plaza.  There is no apparent record of ship service history on these two guns.

Webster

(nomadwillie Photos)

Dahlgren bronze 12-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading landing howitzer, No. 1 of 3.  Located in front of the Town Hall.

The pair of bronze pieces in front of the town hall are (not 6-pounder) landing howitzers.

Dahlgren bronze 3.4-inch rifle, inside the town hall.  No. 3 of 3.

These three Civil War-era howitzers with relatively short barrels originally flanked the Soldiers' Monument.  After the construction of the Town Hall, the howitzers were moved to their current position in front of the town hall.  The two outside are mounted on wheeled metal carriages and sit on concrete pads.  The Dahlgrens date from the 1860's and were placed on site between 1907-1913.  They were captured and recaptured by both the Union and Confederate Armies during the Civil War, and serve to commemorate the town's contributions to the Civil War.

Wenham

M4A2 Sherman tank, Wenham Museum Park.

Westford

(stanInChelmsford Photo)

Blomefield 18-pounder smoothbore muzzleloading Gun, weight unknown, (Serial No. 75347, CARRON, 1809) on left trunnion, (18P) on right trunnion, mounted on a concrete stand on the Town Common.  This gun is a trophy from Moro Castle, at the entrance of Santiago Harbor, Cuba, taken 17 July 1898.

Westminster

(Marine Biologist Photos)

3-inch M1905 Field Gun, located on the old Town Common.

West Newbury

(Allen Tanner Photo)

German First World War 7.92-mm MG 08 mounted on a Schliten stand.  Training Field Road.

West Springfield

British Ferret Scout Car, Army Surplus Store.  

West Stockbridge

 (Team Smokey Photos)

M1918 155mm howitzer on display at the intersection of Rt. 102 (State Line Road) and Rt. 41 (Albany Road).

Winchendon

(Allen Tanner Photos)

German First World War 7.7-cm Feldkanone 96 neuer Art (7.7-cm FK 96 n.A.), (Serial Nr. unknown).  In front of the War memorial.

(Allen Tanner Photos)

Spanish bronze rifled gun mounted on a wood carriage.  Dolphin carrying handles, royal cypher of King Charles IV of Spain.

Royal cypher of Charles IV (Carlos Antonio Pascual Francisco Javier Juan Nepomuceno José Januario Serafín Diego; 11 November 1748 – 20 January 1819) was King of  Spain from 14 December 1788, until his abdication on 19 March 1808.

Worcester

(Author Photos)

Bronze 12-pounder SBML Boat Howitzer, 1852, J.A.D. Worcester History Museum. Dahlgren guns were muzzle-loading naval gun designed by Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren USN (November 13, 1809 – July 12, 1870), mostly used in the period of the American Civil War.

In 1849, then-lieutenant Dahlgren began to design a family of smoothbore muzzle-loading boat howitzers that could be mounted in ships' launches and cutters as well as being mounted onto field carriages. The first boat howitzers to be designed were a light 12 lb (5.4 kg) "12-pounder", a heavy 12-pounder (originally designated a "medium"), and a 24 lb (10.9 kg) "24-pounder". Later a lighter 12-pounder (the "small") and a rifled 12-pounder heavy howitzer were introduced. All of the boat howitzers were very similar in design, cast in bronze, with a mounting lug or loop on the bottom of the barrel instead of trunnions, and an elevating screw running through the cascabel. Having the single mounting lug expedited moving the howitzer from the launch to field carriage and back. In naval service the boat howitzers had gun crews of 10 in the boat and 11 ashore. (Wikipedia)

(Author Photos)

11.5-foot-long 7-ton bronze rifled gun with dolphin carrying handles.  This Spanish-American War cannon was brought to Worcester in 1904 in commemoration of the local soldiers and sailors who served in the 1898 war. Daniel E. Dewey of the Grand Army of the Republic George H. Ward Post 10 was instrumental in acquiring the cannon taken in the Battle of Santiago, Cuba. He was assisted by U.S. Sen. George Frisbie Hoar of Worcester, whose statue can be seen next to City Hall. The cannon, forged in Seville, Spain, and used to defend a fort in Santiago, Cuba, was displayed for 70 years at the headquarters of the Army National Guard 181st Infantry Regiment at the corner of Salisbury and Grove streets. The old National Guard Armory, now home of Veterans Inc., has the design of a castle, with turrets and what appear to be gun ports. The cannon was moved to the Naval Reserve Center at 640 Plantation St. in the 1970s and remained there until the Navy left the center in 2008. When the Navy moved, the cannon moved with it.The National Guard left the armory at Salisbury and Grove streets in 2014 and took up residence in the Plantation Street property. With the move, efforts were made to locate the cannon, which was found in 2015 in Newport, Rhode Island. It was returned to Worcester and is now displayed by the National Guard at its armory on Plantation Street.