What is a howitzer? Webster's Collegiate says; "A short, light, cannon, used to deliver shells with a curved trajectory, with shells of lower muzzle velocities than those from guns, at angles from 20 to 45 degrees." The same source describes a shell as, "A hollow projectile for cannon, containing an explosive bursting charge." Nineteenth century shells were fused. The fuse was trimmed off at range marks before loading, and was ignited by the main charge on firing. What is a Mountain Howitzer? Frémont describes it thus: "It was of the kind invented by the French for the mountain part if their war in Algiers; and the distance it had come with us proved how well it was adapted for its purpose. We left it, to the great sorrow of the whole party, who were grieved to part with a companion which had made the whole distance from St. Louis, and commanded respect for us on some critical occasions, and which might be needed for the same purpose again." Brevet Captain John C. Frémont, West Walker River, January 29, 1844.
"I counted the balls and there were 145 in all. The balls by rough measurement are 11/16 inch in diameter. The top of the can is 4 1/2" in diameter. The can itself is 3 3/4 inches. The Mormon Battalion in 1848 took across Carson Pass a four and a six pounder acquired from Sutter two months earlier. This cannister was not with them as it wouldn't fit. Probably it was lost by a different military group coming or going somewhere on the route." A few facts about Frémont's howitzer come from the Report and from the Preuss diary: There is no record in the Report of Frémont ever dismounting the "tube"--Lewis suggests that this was not part of the design of the French model. Packing it on mules would have been very useful, and would probably have meant that it would not have been left behind, or as soon as it was, anyway. It was rolled the whole trip as far as it got.
E. A
Lewis says that the U. S.
Army issued an instruction manual for mountain artillery in
1851. It was prepared in 1850 as an appendix to the 1845
manual of artillery instruction by Lt. Jesse Reno (city of
Reno named for him) who did the technical work. That the
manual shows how to remove the Cyrus Alger tube from the
carriage and mount it on a mule in difficult terrain on a
special pack saddle.
There are several accounts of demonstrations by 2nd Expedition gunner, Prussian Army veteran, Louis Zindel's skill: Theodore Talbot, June 15, 1843: Our cannonnier was very successful in his practice with the howitzer, striking a post 4 feet high at nearly a quarter of a mile with a bomb [shell]. Charles Preuss, August 10, 1843: Shooting buffalo with the howitzer is a cruel but amusing sport. Frémont, December 10, 1843: ...I directed the howitzer to be fired. It was the first time our guides [Walla Walla Indians] had seen it discharged; and the bursting of the shell at a distance,which was something like the second fire of the gun, amazed and bewildered them with delight. It inspired them with triumphant feelings, but on the camps [Klamath] at a distance, the effect was different, for the smokes in the lake and on the shore immediately disappeared. Expert Testimony:
Did Frémont alter his Report regarding the location where he left the howitzer (conspiracy theory)? Or did he leave it on the east side of the West Walker River in a deep hollow just north of Fales Hotspring as stated in The Report. If the dolphins in the Preuss drawing are artistic additions, and if it was indeed a US howitzer, is it not more likely that it was indeed found about 1860 by Sheldon or Pray or some other person, and that it was the one (or one of the ones) circulating about the Lake Tahoe and Virginia City areas called "Frémont's Cannon?"
The museum howitzer could then be the actual Frémont Cannon. They do not say positively that it is, because the provenance is incomplete. So, even if Frémont had a US howitzer, there is no absolute proof that it has been found. But, remember Ockham's Razor! and I know of a number of individuals and groups who keep up the hunt year after year, here is an email from a Nevada resident that I recieved on January 2, 2001: I have reason to beleive the cannon in Nevada Museum is not really the Freemont [sic.] cannon. I have lived in Nevada all my life. I worked with an Indian; he was the father-in-law of a friend. My friend was building a house in Fernly NV. His father-in-law was framing the house for him. We got talking about hunting. The gentleman told me a story about an Indian friend of his that he had gone hunting with in the past. The older gentleman told them around the campfire one night, that he had found the Frémont howitzer in a cave while he was employed by the B.L.M. He built fences for the B.L.M. I plan on talking to the B.L.M. in Carson City to find records of fence lines that they have built in the past. One big problem - the older gentleman has passed away. Have very little info. but will be fun to search anyway. Curt And here, E. A. Lewis records this 1936 interview with Harry Tom, "Chief White Wing", by Ella M. Cain in Bridgeport, Mono County, Ca.: It was the 1928 hunting season, I think. I was guiding some flatlanders, riding the low side of the hill trying to scare deer up to the hunters riding the ridge above me. About noon, I stopped to rest my horse and there it was -- back in a brushy area in a thick little grove of trees. I kind of shoved my way in to take a good look at it. One wheel was broken and the other almost buried. And, the wood was brittle and crumbly with age. This is, after all, what most people want to know. About one in five visitors come to this site following a cannon link! To take the narrowest view, on the East side of West Walker River, from his camp near the top, perhaps in the saddle, of Pk. 8422', near the route of the present Burcham Flat Road, Frémont says: January 28th, But, Frémont wasn't there, was he. To take the broadest view, the howitzer could have been abandoned anywhere in the 10 miles from where it was left on the 28th, on the flanks of Pk. 8422', to the ascension out of Deep Creek.
Question: why was this valuable piece of ordinance not
retrieved within months? Download original
US Army plans in high
resolution. A brief bibliography: Frémont, John Charles, Memoirs of My Life, Belford, Clark & Company, Chicago, 1887. Frémont, Brevet Captain J. C., Report of The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842, and to Oregon and North California in the Years 1843-'44, Printed by order of the Senate of the United States, Gales and Seaton, Washington. 1845. Gibbons, Lieutenant John, The Artillerist's Manual; Introduction for Field Artillery, Horse and Foot, New York, 1860. Hinkle, George and Bliss, Sierra Nevada Lakes, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc, Indianapolis-New York, 1949. Jackson, Donald, The Myth of the Frémont Howitzer, The Bulletin of the Missouri Historical Society Vol. XXII, No. 3, April, 1967. Jackson, Donald, and Spence, Mary Lee, The Expeditions of John Charles Frémont, Vol. 1, University of Illinoise Press, 1970. James, George Wharton, The Lake of the Sky - Lake Tahoe, George Wharton James, 1915. Knight, Edward H., Knight, American Mechanical Dictionary, J. B. Ford and Company, New York, 1874-1879. Lewis, Ernest Allen, The Frémont Cannon -- High Up and Far Back, The Arthur H. Clark Co, 1981. Preuss, Charles, Exploring With Frémont, Translated by Erwin G. and Elisabeth K., Gudde, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1958. Russell, Carl P., Frémont's Cannon, The California Historical Society, No. 36, December 1957. Talbot, Theodore, The Journals of Theodore Talbot, Metropolitan Press, 1931. Townley, John M., The Lost Frémont Cannon, Guidebook, The Jamison Station Press, Reno, 1984. United States Army, The Ordinance Manual, J. B. Lippincott, 1861.
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Carriage
parts
found?
They
have been tentatively identified (from the
photographs and lacking exact measurements) by
These
artifacts are the remains of the gun
carriage for the famous mountain
howitzer abandoned during the second
surveying expedition of John C.
Frémont in January 1844. The
artifacts were recovered by the
Frémont Howitzer Recovery
Team under the direction of the U.S.
Forest Service, Humboldt-Toiyabe
National Forest, Bridgeport Ranger
District.
St.
Louis Arsenal
A
model 1835 mountain howitzer tube dug up in a back
yard near the California-Nevada border!
Frémont's
mountain howitzer was a 12 pounder. There is a
mountain howitzer (tube only) in the Nevada State
Museum in Carson City (right). It was once thought to
be, and is still thought by some to be, the Frémont
Howitzer. The date is just right: it was cast of bronze in
1837 in South Boston by Cyrus Alger and Company and marked
as proofed by Lt Talcott. It is one of only two survivors of
the original 12 howitzers delivered. The cost new was $225.
This particular howitzer has had a very colorful past, from
when it surfaced in the mid-19th Century . It has been
called by several names, but was then said to be "The Lost
Frémont Cannon."
It
is interesting to compare this howitzer with Charles
Preuss's drawing of Frémont's howitzer. Preuss's
drawing very clearly shows dolphins (handles) cast
into the barrel, as on the reproduction of the Russian-made
"Sutter's 3 pounder" at left. The museum howitzer does not
have them.
Howitzers
can be fed a variety of fodder: shells; canister; and,
rarely, ball.
David
Peterson of San Jose, CA,
sends a photo of a canister round that he found at the
bottom of the Carson Canyon near Woodfords on the West Fork
of the Carson River. This might have been found and brought
there from those left behind on the Walker River by the 2nd
Expedition, but is more likely that it came from the 1848
exit of The Mormon Battalion -- they were right there with a
cannon of some sort. Knight tells us that , "...canisters
for 12 lb mountain howitzers are always filled with
musketballs...laid in tiers in a tin case having an iron top
and bottom...the interstices between the shot are filled in
with sawdust. " David adds the following:
1--On
leaving Ft. Wallawalla, Frémont records that after
leaving the wagons and instrument cart at that place, the
howitzer was the only remaining "wheeled vehicle."
Frémont seemed to consider, from the start, that
hauling wheeled vehicles (ie. the howitzer) over the
route was a demonstration of the feasibility of wagon
travel.
Near
Deschutes River Frémont says, "At such places, the
gun-carriage was unlimbered, and separately descended by
hand."
This
email was received
from Brian
O'Connor of the San
Diego Cannoneers. Brian also does volunteer work at the
San Pasqual Battlefield State Park, as part of their
cannon crew.
Major
Paul R. Rosewitz, Field
Artillery, U.S. Army, Military Education Quota Manager,
in St. Louis, MO sent these
communications.
Paul is shown mounted on
Smoke next to a
mountain howitzer. These communications, because of their
definitive nature, are posted here in their entirety.
Dayton,
Nevada.
