The Kansas Museum of History in Topeka has on display a model 1835 12 pdr. Mountain Howitzer known as the “Abbott Howitzer.” Cast by Ames Co. founders, Chicopee, Mass., in 1855, it carries registry number 152 on the muzzle and the weight of 228 on the breech. Its Ames Foundry number, 273, is on the right rimbase.
The lack of U.S. on the barrel and the absence of inspector’s initials on the muzzle indicate it was not a government purchase.
The howitzer sits on a number 3 prairie carriage.
Following is an account from the archives of the Kansas State Historical Society on the role this little cannon played in the forming of Kansas as a state.
Kansas territory was created in 1854 under the “popular sovereignty” principle. Due to the struggle between free-state and pro-slavery interests from 1855 to the start of the Civil War it became known as “Bleeding Kansas.” Free-state settlers around Lawrence formed local militia companies in the summer of 1855 and set about procuring arms to defend Kansas from the Pro-Slavery Party. The head of one of these militias was Maj. James B. Abbott.
Abbott was a former New Englander and early settler of Lawrence who became a free-state leader.
“I went east to get arms, starting from Lawrence the latter part of July,” wrote Abbott. “I went to Chicago, Detroit and on to Massachusetts. I went to the ‘Emigrant Aid’ folks in Boston, and on to Amos A. Lawrence. Mr. Lawrence immediately gave the money to purchase 100 Sharp’s rifles.”
[The city of Lawrence, Kan., was named for Amos Lawrence, a wealthy businessman and philanthropist. He was treasurer of The New England Emigrant Aid Company, which encouraged and funded anti-slavery emigration to Kansas.]
Major Abbott then traveled to New York and met with Frederick Law Olmsted, referring to him as a “prompt and energetic friend of Kansas.” “It was he who suggested the purchase of the howitzer; reckoning as he did that for our use it would be as good as a hundred muskets or rifles.”
[Frederick Law Olmsted became famous for his 1861 anti-slavery book Journeys and Explorations into the Cotton Kingdom. He was secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commission during the Civil War and is remembered today as the landscape architect who designed New York’s Central Park, Chicago’s South Park and Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park.]
In a letter dated 1883, Olmsted wrote about the purchase of the howitzer: “Making inquiries as to what might be available, I visited the New York State Arsenal and there found a mountain howitzer which I ascertained did not belong to the state but to a private owner. Friends soon provided means for its purchase together with fifty rounds of canister and shell with time fuses; five hand grenades; fifty rockets and six swords.”
The entire outfit, including freight to Kansas City was $480.
Upon arrival in Kansas City, the howitzer was smuggled to Lawrence, a distance of about 30 miles, through pro-slavery lines in the bottom of a wagon concealed with dry goods.
The gun was surrendered to the Pro-Slavery Party at the sacking of Lawrence, May 21, 1856, and was recovered at the exchange of prisoners after the battle of Fort Titus, which occurred Aug. 16 of the same year. The howitzer remained in the possession of the Free State militia until the outbreak of the Civil War.
On May 13, 1861, Major Abbott delivered the gun to the Quartermaster, Southern Division, Kansas military. It’s exact whereabouts after that are sketchy, but the gun reportedly was with Lane’s Brigade, comprised of the Third and Fourth Kansas Infantry and Fifth Kansas Cavalry regiments, during its raid on the Missouri border towns in the fall of 1861.
When the Third and Fourth regiments were reorganized the howitzer probably saw service through the rest of the war in the First Kansas Battery.
After the war, the howitzer was returned to Lawrence and on Feb. 12, 1881, Major Abbott donated it to the Kansas State Historical Society. He was a director of the society for 12 years before his death in 1897 in De Soto.
If you are traveling on 1-70 west of Kansas City, please make a point to stop at the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka and visit this fascinating part of Kansas history.
I would like to thank the Kansas State Historical Society for their help in preparing this article.
About the Author: Bob Meistrell is a Kansas artillery buff and collector. He owns a tool and die shop where his latest “project” was the restoration of a M1878 Hotchkiss revolving cannon.