{"id":4046,"date":"2015-01-22T12:31:49","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T17:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archives.nd.edu\/about\/news\/?p=4046"},"modified":"2015-01-22T12:31:49","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T17:31:49","slug":"main-quad-cannons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/main-quad-cannons\/","title":{"rendered":"Main Quad Cannons"},"content":{"rendered":" <\/a>
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On May 22, 1896, the United States Congress approved the Disposition of Condemned Cannon, Etc., which provided the Secretaries of War and of the Navy the authority “to loan, or give to soldiers’ monumental associations, posts of the Grand Army of the Republic, and municipal corporations, condemned ordnance, guns, and cannon balls which may not be needed in the service of either of said Departments” (Annual Reports of the War\u00a0Department<\/em><\/a>, 1903). \u00a0In December 1899, Notre Dame GAR Post 569 filed a petition with the Secretary of War to acquire two cannons for campus.<\/p>\n

\"Commencement
Commencement flag-raising ceremony on Main Quad with the two Civil War cannons, c1930. Hurley Hall is in the background.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the help of Indiana Representative Abraham Brick,\u00a0Notre Dame requested a ten-inch Columbiad cannon from Fort Winthrop in Massachusetts and a ten-inch seacoast mortar from Fort Morgan in Alabama. \u00a0After about six months of back and forth, the Fort Morgan mortar became unavailable. \u00a0It is unclear if\u00a0the deal fell through\u00a0because getting the mortar to Notre Dame would be too expensive or if they simply took too long figuring out the logistics. \u00a0Consequently, the request was changed to an eight-inch seacoast howitzer from Fort McHenry in Maryland.<\/p>\n

\"Statement<\/a>
Statement of Guns, Howitzers, and Mortars on Hand at the Various Forts. F.H. Wurzer in the House of Representatives sent this list on 04\/23\/1900 to Brother Paul for him to pick out two cannons for Notre Dame.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

General William Olmstead of Notre Dame GAR\u00a0Post 569 inquired about the history of the gun at Fort Winthrop. \u00a0Ordnance Sergeant Joseph R. Neaves responded that he didn’t think it had much of a history – it came to Fort Winthrop in the late 1850s or early 1860s and that it probably was never fired since it wasn’t mounted (UPEL 87\/05).<\/p>\n

The cannons arrived to Notre Dame sometime before September 22, 1900, when they are first mentioned in\u00a0Scholastic<\/em>. \u00a0The\u00a0article recounts how football manager\u00a0John Eggeman went looking for his\u00a0billy goat during a storm, and “[a]fter a long search, John discovered the goat trying to eat one of the cannons down near the post-office. \u00a0Of course this was a bluff on the part of the goat” [Scholastic<\/em>, 09\/22\/1900, page 59<\/a>].<\/p>\n

\"George
George T. Hanlon laying on a cannon on Main Quad, c1910s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The cannons were located next to the flag pole, which then was just west of Hurley Hall. \u00a0While they were a prominent part of the landscape, they didn’t garner much attention in the student publications. \u00a0Due to their location, they stood as sentinels\u00a0during\u00a0flag-raising ceremonies. \u00a0In later years,\u00a0it became tradition for the graduating head cheerleader to lead one last college yell from atop one of the cannons during the flag-raising ceremony at Commencement.<\/p>\n

\"Commencement<\/a>
Commencement – Graduating head cheerleader Al Perrine leads the traditional last yell from atop one of the cannons as the class flag is raised on Main Quad while clergy, faculty, and students are gathered around, 1941\/0601.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1942, Notre Dame donated the cannons to a scrap drive to support the war effort of World War II, thus\u00a0returning them back to the United States military and putting them back to work for a new war.<\/p>\n

\"Scholastic<\/a>
Scholastic issue October 16, 1942, page 11: Article featuring the Notre Dame donation of the Civil War cannons to the St. Joseph County scrap drive during World War II (WWII)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources:
\n<\/em>Scholastic
\n<\/a><\/em>UPEL 79\/03<\/a>
\n<\/a>UPEL 87\/04-12<\/a>
\n<\/a>GNDL 8\/01<\/a>
\nGNDS 9\/15<\/a>
\nGDIS 46\/03<\/a><\/p>\n

Annual Reports of the War Department<\/em>, 1903 (https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=NvAkAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false<\/a>)<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/a>

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On May 22, 1896, the United States Congress approved the Disposition of Condemned Cannon, Etc., which provided the Secretaries of War and of the Navy the authority “to loan, or give to soldiers’ monumental associations, posts of the Grand Army of the Republic, and municipal corporations, condemned ordnance, guns, and cannon balls which may not … Continue reading “Main Quad Cannons”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"author":4370,"featured_media":4050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20,54,78],"class_list":["post-4046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nd-history","tag-buildings-and-grounds","tag-military","tag-traditions"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 05:49:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}