cannon

SOURCE: "How the Old Cannon was Broken," Fort Meade Leader, Feb. 10,1916

Editor Leader.

As my contribution this week to the history of old Fort Meade, I am going to tell about the old broken cannon lying in front of Miss Viola Perry's house.

In the early days of the garrison in Fort Meade, in the days when Capt. F. A. Hendry was in charge, there was a small cast-iron smooth-bore cannon which was used mainly for signaling purposes.

The gentle and genial captain was good to his men and he often allowed parties of them to wander away from the fort, but he always insisted that they return promptly at his signal. The signal was given by firing this old cannon.

The boys, according to Uncle Ed Hilliard, who was at the garrison at the time, would pour a bag of powder into the old gun, then wad a lot of moss on top of it and fire it. It made a terrific noise which could be heard probably ten miles away. On hearing it, the boys of the garrison who were away on leave, would scurry home in haste.

On one occasion, Dave Lanier and Pate Pierce [Pearce], in their zeal to make an extra loud noise, loaded the old gun nearly to the muzzle, putting a lot of dirt on the top of the powder, and fired the last shot ever fired in that cannon, for the gun burst with such violence that Lanier and Pierce [Pearce] narrowly escaped death.

The larger fragments of this old cast iron cannon now lie in the street between the homes of Miss Perry and W. E. Arthur. An old projectile, belonging possibly to this, but more probably to a field piece, was picked up near the site of the old fort about six years ago by Mr. Rivers. This shell, which appears to have been a shrapnel, is now in The Leader office....

E. J. Hilliard.