Historic cannons moved from First Army headquarters

By Mr. Robert Saxon (First Army)December 21, 2010

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1 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Workers from Firebrand, Inc., of Woodstock, Ga., remove a captured Confederate Civil War cannon from in front of First Army headquarters on Dec. 15. First Army is moving to Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., next year, so the cannons are being moved to Fort ... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Title
2 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Workers from Firebrand, Inc., of Woodstock, Ga., remove a captured Confederate Civil War cannon from in front of First Army headquarters on Dec. 15. First Army is moving to Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., next year, so the cannons are being moved to Fort ... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Title
3 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Workers from Firebrand, Inc., of Woodstock, Ga., remove a captured Confederate Civil War cannon from in front of First Army headquarters on Dec. 15. First Army is moving to Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., next year, so the cannons are being moved to Fort ... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT GILLEM, GA. - In an act representative of the move of First Army from Fort Gillem, Ga. to its future home at Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., two historic cannons were removed from their pedestals in front of the headquarters building last week.

The bronze, 12-pound Napoleon cannons were originally seized in the Battle of Atlanta on what is now the Georgia Tech campus. The cannons were placed at Fort McPherson, Ga. when that post opened in the 1870s, then transferred to Fort Gillem in the early 1950s.

The cannons are being moved to Fort Benning, Ga., where (according to Mr. Michael Criscillis, director of the National Infantry Museum) they will be part of a Civil War sesquicentennial anniversary display,

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