The Cannons That Came To Spiegel Grove

 For many years, I wondered what had become of the cannons that flanked the Spiegel Grove entrances featured in old postcards. Not long ago, Curator of Manuscripts Julie Mayle discovered when and why they disappeared. Her research appears in an article in the Hayes Presidential “Statesman,” The cannons were Rodman guns, named after their inventor Thomas Jackson Rodman.  At the time of the Civil War, they were the largest guns in the U.S. arsenal.

Preceding the White House gates, the cannon at the Harrison Gateway were the 15-inch style, while those at the McPherson-Thompson Gateway were 10-inch. Atop each gun was a 20-inch cannonball. Julie learned that it was Admiral Webb Hayes II, grandson of the president, who believed they should be donated to Sandusky County’s scrap drive in support of World War II.

Undated Spiegel Grove Post Card

                                                       

It took great effort to bring the 7-ton cannons down. The job was completed in November 1942 and the guns were transported by rail to a rolling mill in Mansfield. Eventually, more than $230 was raised and donated to the U.S.O.

Now my question was how did these giant Civil War cannons come to be at Spiegel Grove? There was little doubt that this was the work of Colonel Webb C. Hayes, Rutherford and Lucy’s second son and founder of the Hayes Presidential Library and Museums. The colonel acquired two for the Harrison Gateway in time for the dedication of the Harrison Trail.

But the two 10-inch Rodmans came later through the colonel’s contact with Major General Frederick Grant, the son of President Ulysses S. Grant. After a storied career in the military, General Grant became the Commander of the East, headquartered at Governor’s Island in New York. He wrote in 1911 that he considered the colonel’s desire to place the Civil War cannons at the McPherson-Thompson Gateway was a “worthy purpose.” No doubt he had known General James McPherson.  As a 10-year-old boy, he was with his father, General Ulysses S. Grant, during the Siege of Vicksburg. General McPherson had served on his father's staff.

General Frederick Grant ordered two Rodmans located at Fort Caswell in North Carolina be sent to Spiegel Grove. The Union forces had placed the guns there to defend Wilmington in early 1865 after the Confederates surrendered the fort. They arrived in Fremont, Ohio in November of 1911. According to a Fremnont “New-Messenger” article, it took a massive effort by the city engineer, superintendent of streets, and a number of men under direction of the colonel to erect the two cannons weighing 35,000 pounds. 

For more than 30 years, they marked the gateway honoring Civil War General James McPherson and Samuel Thompson who fought in both the War of 1812 and the War with Mexico.