AUCTIONS POULIN'S SPRING PREMIER FIREARMS AUCTION, JUNE 7-10, 2024 RARE & UNIQUE CONFEDERATE 3" CONFEDERATE TREDEGAR

3026 RARE & UNIQUE CONFEDERATE 3" CONFEDERATE TREDEGAR

Category Firearms & Military
Auction Currency USD
Start Price 5,000.00 USD
Estimated at 10,000.00 - 20,000.00 USD
FOUNDRY CANNON EXCAVATED AT TREDEGAR OVER 60 YEARS AGO. The White Oak Civil War Museum & Research Center located near Fredericksburg, Virginia was home to tens of thousands of CW artifacts, mostly found by D.P. Newton. The most prized of all the massive amount of artifacts he had in his possession was this unique unfinished cannon barrel. The museum closed in 2019 after DP's passing. There is only one complete surviving cannon documented like this and it is at the Manassas National Battlefield Park, foundry # 1453. It was captured & brought to West Point with trophy plaque (#176). This cannon measures identically. The only exception is that the cascabel still has a 6" squared extension to attach to lathe for rifling, barrel was bored smooth at about 2.95" and vent was cut. Weight is about 900 pounds, bore is 63", total length is 76.5". The story of obtaining this cannon is related by Bonny Newton: "When D.P. got a phone call offering him this Confederate cannon barrel cast at the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia, the caller told him if he could move and load it he could have it. He was told that the owner, now deceased, worked on a crew which was digging up an old pipe near the Tredegar Iron Works property. It's assumed they were digging with a backhoe when they found a pile of 7 or so barrels and speculated had been buried in the ground in order to hide them from the approaching Yankees before they stormed Richmond. The 1960s workers loaded the barrels on a flatbed and delivered to each of worker who wanted one. Hearing the story, without hesitation, D.P. and a friend drove down below Richmond to an older home and searched for the barrel which they were told was put there as much as 50 years before. Sure enough they found the barrel deep in the woods, laying on top of the ground, covered in leaves and debris. They spent a whole day wrestling to move it from tree to tree with a come along. They were both a muddy mess by the time they got home. My precious husband was such a calm, quiet, introverted man, but I could tell he was delighted with his new found treasure. This is how D.P. came to have what he thought was the rarest and most prized of all Civil War artifacts he had ever had. And he knew rare relics since he had started metal detecting at 9 years old and died at 66, he had many years of digging, cleaning, preserving and protecting thousands of artifacts. Many people knew his reputation and they'd come to the museum to ask his opinion on what they had, either dug or purchased. My husband spent his life researching and reading official reports and diaries and Sanitary Commission records. He was considered a walking encyclopedia on the Civil War." The Virginia Museum of History & Culture was beneficiary of some of the personal artifacts and especially DP's hand drawn maps, their website relates: "Danny Patrick (D.P.) Newton (1953-2019) caught the Civil War bug as a child, accompanying his father Patrick on excursions through thickets and fields owned by family and friends in Stafford County, Virginia. For the next fifty-plus years, D.P. dedicated his heart and soul to building and sharing an unparalleled collection of artifacts left behind by 140,000 Federal troops during their encampment in Stafford County in the winter of 1862–63. A meticulous researcher, D.P. also thoughtfully documented his work by hand-drawing detailed maps with camp locations, the regiments present, and descriptions of items discovered during his outings. The corpus of D.P.,s collection—which grew to tens-of-thousands of items—includes ordnance, uniform buttons, eating utensils, bottles, canteens, footwear, tools, and personal effects like toothbrushes, razors, and customized identification tags. It's the latter—along with the photographs, letters, and diaries that D.P. collected over the years—that humanizes the grave toll the war took on so many during campaigns in and around Fredericksburg. In 1998, D.P. opened the White Oak Civil War Museum & Research Center in Falmouth, Virginia, to share his collection and knowledge with the public, a labor of love he embraced until his passing in 2019". The bulk of the DP Newton collection was gifted to Jon Hickox and is on permanent display at his "Bull Run Winery" adjacent to Manassas Battlefield in Fairfax County, Virginia. The collection is still preserved and loads of school children can visit it just like the original Stafford museum. Poulin appreciates Bonny Newton giving us a chance to find a new caretaker of this wonderful & unique Virginia relic of the largest ordnance manufacturer in the Confederacy. Even though Tredegar produced over 1000 cannons during the war, survival is tiny as so many were scrapped during war drives for metal. UNNATACHED ACCESSORIES: copies of pages from artillery text, history of Tredegar, copy of National Archives records of Tredegar, (JR Anderson Co.), over 800 pages. CONDITION: heavy iron patina, rust and flaking, one trunnion damaged, but would still mount on carriage for display. (02-22633/JS). $10,000-20,000.
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