The Confederate Six-Pounder, also known as the OCS Cannon

I was an OCS Candidate in 50th Company, 5th OCS Battalion from May to October 1966, Class 16-66. It was our company that was assigned the task of preparing and mounting the cannon in front of Wigle Hall. Although I do not know all the details, my memory of that event is still fresh in my mind and is related here.

Midway though our cycle, about August 1966, we were informed that Colonel Maybry, our Brigade Commander, had acquired a Naval cannon that had been salvaged from the Mississippi river near Vicksburg. This relic of the Civil War was to be transported to Fort Benning and housed in the day room of 50th Company to be polished and prepared for mounting by the OCS candidates.

The cannon arrived by truck and we soon discovered that the project would be no easy task. Having been submerged in the river for more than a hundred years, its outer surface was thoroughly rusted inside and out. The cannon weighed in the neighborhood of 800 pounds or more, so we were told.

The cannon was made of bronze, but you couldn‘t tell that due to the corrosion. The first attempts to scrape off the rust proved futile and the cannon was tricked off to a local sandblaster to be cleaned. In a few days it was back in the dayroom, the outer rust having been nicely removed. The polishing began at a furious pace. A schedule of two-man teams, in shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, was established for shining the cannon and every member of the company did their share of scraping and polishing with Brasso.

One member of our OCS Company had recently graduated from college with a degree in civil engineering. He was tasked to design and build the pedestal for the cannon. He admitted that he had never built anything except on paper, but he agreed to give it his best efforts. Under his direction, we excavated the hole, built the wood forms, gathered a half-ton of junk iron and steel items for reinforcement and then contracted for a cement truck. Many people who passed by the site or stopped to watch the work often remarked that it looked like that base, “Could hold up the Empire State building!” I tend to agree. It was a marvelous effort by that young engineer and the Cadet workers.

We waited a week or more for the cement to set and sometime in late September of 1966, the big moment arrived. A platoon of 50th Company Candidates wrestled that monster from the day room and lugged it, yard by yard, to the site. We used solid wood boards or planks and some rope to lift the cannon several inches off the ground as we moved it toward Wigle Hall. After catching our collective breath, we lifted it onto the pedestal, reluctant to release it for fear that the whole damn thing would collapse. Our Student Engineer had learned his lessons well. It held and I am told it still sits there, minus the cannon, more than 50 years later.

Job Well Done, Candidates!

Excerpts from an article written by SP4 David Yharra state that the OCS Cannon was cast in bronze by the J. T. Ames Foundry in Chicogee, Massachusetts, and delivered to the U.S. Army in 1845. It was one of 50 cannons ordered and was constructed to fire a six-pound ball. Although records were not kept, historians believe the cannon saw combat during the Mexican War.

The cannon was called into action again when used by Union Forces in the Civil War, and it was among several lost to Confederate Forces at the Battle of Chicamauga. Records kept by the Department of the Army later reveal that the Cannon was mounted at the entrance to Fort Jay on Governor's Island, New Jersey, in 1863 after the cannon was recaptured from Confederate Forces, however, the cannon kept its name - "the Confederate Six-Pounder."

Attempts to acquire the cannon began in February of 1965 when Colonel (then Lieutenant) Robert B. Nett, commanding officer of the 5th Student Battalion (OC), The Student Brigade, first saw the cannon while on a visit to Fort Jay. Aware that Fort Jay was to be deactived with the merging of the First and Second U.S. Armies, Colonel Nett sought to transfer one of the cannons to Fort Benning. With the help of Brigadier General John T. Corley, Chief of Staff of First Army, the Six Pounder came to the 5th Battalion in 1966.