3-inch Rifles
Civil War Veterans
Sure Fire
"The Yankee 3-inch rifle was a dead shot at any distance under a mile. They could hit the end of a flour barrel more often than miss, unless the gunner got rattled."
- A member of Lumsden's Confederate Battery, 1864
The three-inch ordnance rifle was the Union Army's cannon of choice during the Civil War. It was exceptionally accurate and reliable, capable of leveling infantry lines and destroying enemy guns up to a half-mile away. A skilled crew could fire three times a minute.
Pennsylvania Product
This kind of cannon was "born" here in the region. In 1854, John Griffen, Superintendent of Safe Harbor Iron Works in Lancaster County, patented the manufacturing process. Red-hot sheets of wrought iron were wrapped around a core, and then reheated. Once the cannon cooled, the core was bored and the barrel rifled.
The Guns of York
Congress awarded these four cannon to York in 1874. They originally stood guard in Penn Park, flanking the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial (shown in 1898). For protection against weather damage and vandalism, the cannon went into storage in 1975. They arrived at this site in 2007, on permanent loan from Capt. Edgar M. Ruhl Camp #33 Sons of Veterans of the Civil War.
Marker is on Glen Rock Road (State Road 616), on the right when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
