Program

NYS Historic

Subject

Cemetery, People, Site

Location

302 Steadwell Ave, Amsterdam, NY 12010, USA

Lat/Long

42.95607559787, -74.214889672069

Grant Recipient

Fairview Cemetery

Perched on a hill overlooking the Fairview Cemetery in Amsterdam, New York, sits a cannon. Amidst the scenic resting place, the former deck armament commemorates the service of the veterans interred nearby.

Placed by a local chapter of the G.A.R. in 1906, the Dahlgren Cannon, named after its inventor Rear Admiral John Dahlgren, occupied a transformative period in Naval warfare. The 11’ model of the Dahlgren Cannon first entered production around 1856, and was noted for its soda bottle shape, which reduced explosive mishaps.

R. H. Von Hasseln, whose credentials include serving as a Lieutenant Colonel of Field Artillery, the New York State Military and Naval Historian, Director of the New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center, and the City Historian of Amsterdam, has conducted extensive research into the cannon in Fairview. That research appeared in an article in the Amsterdam Reporter titled, “The Gun that Went Around the World to Amsterdam.”

The cannon in Fairview Cemetery, gun number 183, started as an 11” inch cannon that fired a spherical projectile, and was likely produced in 1864 in Rhode Island according to Von Hasseln. Around 1877 it was refitted as an 8” gun capable of firing a bullet-shaped shell, better designed to penetrate ironclad ships of the time. The gun saw service around the world on the USS Monongahela, Pensacola and Essex before arriving in Amsterdam in 1906.

For those looking to pay their respects to the veterans interred nearby, or inspect the Dahlgren Cannon closer, both the cannon and the original veterans plot of the cemetery can be found in section nine.

Next to it are carefully stacked several 11-inch shells the cannon would have fired during the early part of its career before being refitted.

Links

• Pomeroy's NYS Historic Marker Grant Program