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Ironclad gun on display at the Fredericksburg Area Museum is powerful in more ways than one. Date published: 3/10/2006
The Fredericksburg Area Museum & Cultural Center is closed for renovations.
The doors are locked, but the museum keeps getting visitors because its big gun--both literally and figuratively--is outside. The big draw, even after museum hours, is a cannon from the famous Merrimac ironclad. There's something compelling about the gun. "People are drawn to it," said Mary Helen Dellinger, vice president and curator of the museum. "They want to touch it." This week saw the 144th anniversary of the immortal battle between the Union's Monitor and the Confederacy's Merrimac--the first clash between metal warships in history. The 8,300-pound, 9-inch smoothbore "Dahlgren gun," named after its designer, Rear Adm. John A. Dahlgren, has been stopping downtown tourists and shoppers in their tracks since it was loaned to the museum by the Naval Historical Center in 2003. The Naval Surface Warfare Center at Dahlgren signed off on the deal. The gun came off the ironclad CSS Virginia, which was originally a wooden warship named the USS Merrimac. The Merrimac was captured by the Confederacy, converted into an ironclad, and renamed the Virginia. However, many people still knew it as the Merrimac. After the war, the damaged cannon that was removed from the Virginia was exhibited at the Washington Navy Yard . Then it moved to the Dahlgren Naval Proving Ground, established in King George County in 1918 as a tribute to the admiral. The gun is one of very few pieces to have survived the great ironclad. At the time, it was a terrifying weapon, with a range of almost 4,500 yards. But, according to the Navy, it's considered one of the safest guns ever made. Museum President and CEO Edwin Watson noted that the barrel shows signs of damage sustained during the March 8, 1862, battle off Hampton Roads between the CSS Virginia and the USS Cumberland and the USS Congress. Watson said the Virginia was attempting to break the Northern blockade of Richmond. As the Virginia approached the Cumberland to ram her, that ship's gunners inflicted the only serious damage ever done to the Virginia.
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