Artillery and Armour in the USA: Texas (1) Austin

Artillery and Armoured Fighting Vehicles preserved in Texas (Part 1), Austin

One of the aims of this website is to locate, identify and document every historical piece of artillery and all armoured fighting vehicles preserved in Texas.  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 Texas 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.

Artillery on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol

Wrought Iron 12-pounder Smoothbore Muzzleloading (SBML) Gun, TTSL No. 303, PI Co, 1862, 816 lb on the muzzle.  The gun is mounted on an iron carriage simulating a wooden carriage.  One of three guns mounted on carriages on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol.

Bronze 12-pounder Smoothbore Muzzleloading Field Gun, No. 363, CAPITOL, 1240 lbs, TJ1, 1864 on the muzzle, No. 1 of 2 mounted on an iron carriage, sumulating a wooden carriage.

Bronze 12-pounder Smoothbore Muzzleloading (SBML) Gun, No. 414, 1236 lbs, CC, 1864 on the muzzle, No. 2 of 2 mounted on an iron carriage, sumulating a wooden carriage.

Cast Iron 24-pounder Smoothbore Muzzleloading Howitzer, No. 1 of 2, MGen T.J. Chambers, Capitol building entrance.

Cast Iron 24-pounder Smoothbore Muzzleloading Howitzer, No. 2 of 2, MGen T.J. Chambers, Capitol building entrance.

Small bronze smoothbore muzzleloading signal guns mounted on replica Naval Gun Carriages in the Bullock Museum.

Cast Iron smoothbore muzzleloading gun in the Bullcok Museum.  Eight iron guns defended the Fort St. Louis settlement established by La Salle on Garcitas Creek, until the Spanish officer Alonso de León arrived in 1689 and buried them at the site.  The Spanish had been searching for La Salle for several years, sending eleven expeditions before León found the settlement.  The guns lay hidden until 1996, when a local ranch foreman discovered them.  They were subsequently excavated by the Texas Historical Commision.

Small Cast Iron smoothbore muzzleloading gun mounted on large solid wooden wheels in the Bullock Museum.

Cast Iron smoothbore muzzleloading gun mounted on a naval gun carriage in the Bullock Museum.

French Bronze 4-pounder smoothbore muzzleloading gun from the wreck of La Belle, with ship model in the Bullock Museum.  This was the first of three bronze 4-pounder guns discovered in the hold of La Belle, recovered in July 1995.

La Salle's Expedition to Louisiana in 1684.  The ship on the left is La Belle, in the middle is Le Joly, and L'Aimable, which has run aground, is to the right, at the entrance to Matagorda Bay.  Painting by Theodore Gudin.

La Belle was one of Robert de La Salle's four ships used when he explored the Gulf of Mexico with the ill-fated mission of starting a French colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River in 1685.  La Belle was wrecked in present-day Matagorda Bay the following year, dooming La Salle's Texas colony to failure.  For over three centuries the wreckage of La Belle lay forgotten until it was discovered by a team of state archaeologists in 1995.  The discovery of La Salle's flagship was regarded as one of the most important archaeological finds of the century in Texas, and a major excavation was launched by the state of Texas that, over a period of about a year, recovered the entire shipwreck and over a million artifacts.

Scultpure on Congress Street, Angelina Eberly saves the Texas Archives, 1842.

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