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USS Hartford Cannons

The first of two USS Hartford Cannons on the main quad. The second cannon can be seen in the far-right background. Photo credit: Amanda Matava

Trinity College President G. Keith Funston '32 acquired two cannons from the 1858 Union steamship USS Hartford for the Trinity campus in 1950.

History

When the Memorial Field House was dedicated on February 12, 1949, it commemorated 70 Trinity men who sacrificed their lives during World War II. The same year, President G. Keith Funston learned that two of the four USS Hartford cannons were in the City Park Department's storage yard. He asked City Manager Carleton Sharpe whether they could be loaned to the College for display as a Civil War memorial to Trinity men in the Union and Confederate forces.

On November 24, 1950, two 9,000 pound IX-inch Dahlgren broadside guns were placed facing east toward Broad Street, directly above the lower Long Walk, and behind the Brownell Statue. “It has been rumored that they will be a war memorial to those alumni who gave their lives in the fight to abolish slavery,” wrote the Tripod in December.

One cannon carriage bears a plaque in memory of Thomas Church Brownell's nephew, Henry Howard Brownell, Class of 1841, Honorary M.A. 1844, who served on Admiral Farragut's staff as personal secretary. The second cannon houses a plaque commemorating the 105 Trinity students who fought in the Civil War. 24 of these fought for the Confederacy and in all, 16 students died in the war.

At about 10 p.m. on September 11, 1951, the cannons were fired, disturbing the Hartford community with tremors and noise. When detectives arrived to investigate, students stated that they had done it “in honor of the resumption of classes, soon to take place.” A story later circulated that the students had filled the cannons with blasting caps, nuts, bolts, and silverware in an effort to dismantle the Memorial Field House. Richard A. Freytag wrote in 1955 that “the administration, feeling that although the cannon had once helped smash the Confederacy, they should not be used by the Trinity student body to help smash the campus, promptly plugged the cannon with cement.” ¹⁾

In 1994, the Navy League borrowed and refurbished the cannons to mount on authentically designed carriages for display in Groton, Connecticut to celebrate the second USS Hartford, an attack submarine. While the original carriages were made of white oak, the Navy League used red oak, and the carriages needed replacing by 2006. Under the direction of Mike Roraback, construction trades foreman with the Trinity buildings and grounds department, the carriages were rebuilt and improved using white oak as in the original carriages.

Since they were mounted in 1950, the cannons have remained in their original positions on the main quad.

One of the nests is named for the cannons.

The USS Hartford

USS Hartford at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, after 1887. Photo Credit: Wikipedia.

The USS Hartford was the first ship in the U.S. Navy to be named for the city of Hartford; she was an 1858 steam-powered sloop-of-war and the flagship of Admiral David G. Farragut during the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864. The USS Hartford also saw combat in the Battle of New Orleans (1862), and Vicksburg (1862-1863), and Siege of Port Hudson (1863).

The Hartford was decommissioned and recommissioned several times, and rebuilt in the late 1890s. In 1898, the city of Hartford acquired four of her cannons and positioned them at the four corners of the State Capitol Grounds. At some point, the cannons went into underground storage before two were acquired by Trinity College, though the Hartford's figurehead still remains at the State Capitol and the bell at the Old State House in Hartford.

In 1945, the Hartford was towed to the Norfolk Naval Yard where she was classified as a relic and allowed to deteriorate, and finally sank in November 1956.

The second USS Hartford (SSN-768), commissioned in 1994, is a submarine that is currently in service.

Plaques

The cannons have four plaques, one on each side of the cannon. The plaques on the cannon to the southern side of the Brownell statue read: (1)(a) THIS GUN formed part of the Main Battery of Admiral Farragut's Flagship Hartford during the Civil War. New Orleans * Port Hudson * Vicksburg * Mobile Bay. (1)(b) HENRY HOWARD BROWNELL Class of 1841 “Our Battle Laureate” served as secretary to Admiral Farragut during the Battle of Mobile Bay.

The plaques on the cannon to the northern side of the Brownell statue read: (2)(a) In memory of the Trinity men who fought for the principles in which they believed with the Union and Confederate forces in the Civil War and of those who gave “the last full measure of devotion.” (2)(b) THIS GUN formed part of the Main Battery of Admiral Farragut's Flagship Hartford during the Civil War. New Orleans * Port Hudson * Vicksburg * Mobile Bay.

“The last full measure of devotion” is a quotation from President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The phrase reads fully in the final (Bliss) manuscript version: “–that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion–….” Given the connection of the word “devotion” to loyalty to the cause of the Union implied by the placement of the phrase in Lincoln's address, the only honored dead referred to might have been just the dead Union men at Gettysburg, not both Union and Confederate war dead.

Controversy

The Trinity Student Government Association adopted a motion to remove the plaque which references Union and Confederate Alumni and “the principles in which they believed” in November 2021 and place it in the Watkinson Library College Archives. Sponsored by Liz Foster '22, the resolution reads: “it is morally unconscionable to honor the soldiers of the Confederacy as their mission in rebelling against the United States of America was to preserve slavery and white supremacy…the presence of these memorials is to perpetuate and honor the legacy of slavery and racial oppression.”

“To suggest the Confederacy fought for the right principles,” stated SGA President Jederick Estrella '22, “stands as an oxymoron to stances Trinity has historically taken in the past and even recently with their commitment to an accurate portrayal of Trinity's history in association with Slavery through the creation of the Primus Project.” In 2022, the College President announced a new, formal process for the renaming of buildings, spaces, and commemoratives. While the plaque remains on the cannon as of November 2023, it may be requested to be removed through this new process.

This was not the first time students spoke out about Confederate iconography. In 2017, Pi Kappa Alpha supported the removal of a Chapel pew end depicting a man holding a Confederate flag, which was installed by the fraternity in 1957. Nicknamed PIKE, the fraternity was founded almost exclusively by students who fought for the Confederacy.

The cannons have always faced east. The visual of cannons facing outward from campus has also become a subject for discussion. Student myths and legends have circulated about where or towards whom the cannons are truly aimed – whether it be Wesleyan, Amherst, Yale, or the City of Hartford itself. The Tripod author Edward Lawrence Jr. wrote in 1950 that the plaques which were to be placed on the cannons will designate “their significance to Broad Street residents as well as to future Trinity students,” implying that the local residents (then largely white) should have no difficulty understanding that the aim of the cannons was memorializing rather than militaristic.