page_title: Stedman Machine Company
section_title: Civil War era
hierarchical_section_title: Stedman Machine Company / Civil War era
caption_attribution_description: English: Original and replica Stedman 6-pdr iron field gun
context_page_description: Stedman Machine Company is a manufacturer of crusher equipment in Aurora, Indiana, United States, that was founded by Nathan R. Stedman in 1834.
  Stedman owes its origin to the market that was created in the South many years ago for iron nuts and screws for use by planters and others in assembling their cotton and hay presses.
context_section_description: During the Civil War years, 1861 to 1865, the company's product line changed to support the war effort. Stedman was contracted to build twelve smoothbore cannon for the Union. Each of the resulting cannon were slated to be placed in the twelve Indiana counties along the Ohio River. The result was the production of six heavy 6-lb cannon and one carriage, the cost of which was $904.07. A test firing of Stedman guns was reported in March 1862, which caused a barrage of retaliation fire from the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. It is unknown if the remaining six cannon were ever made; however two of the original cannon are still known to exist today. The first is Cannon No. 5, which has been restored by South Bend Replicas, and resides on loan from Franklin County, Indiana, in the Indianapolis State Museum. The second Stedman Cannon, Gun No. 1, has found its way into private ownership and was last seen on public display during a Sesquicentennial celebration in Muncie, Indiana, where it was rumored to have been fired with a live shot, skipping the ball across the water of a reservoir in the area.  Hundreds of tons of machine tool castings were also furnished to manufacturers of machine tools in the Cincinnati area for the manufacture of munitions at a time when they were most needed.  After the war, the country began to recover; and the Stedman steam engine hit peak production.
caption: Original cannon #5 & replica
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