The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-07-29
PECULIAR ERROR ON 0LD CANNON Was Cap ured By Benedict
 Arnold in 1775 TWO PLATES DISAGREE Bears Two Marks, Second Stating It Was Captured at Yorktown in
 1775-Grant Discovers
 the Error
TWO PLATES DISAGREE
nx c. F. STEWART

Washington. July 2S.--(Speeial)-At the right hand of the god of war there stands at what has become the main en- trance to the war department trim lit tie cannon, miniature watch dog over the sacred archives within. It is a mere pigmy among the giant trophies of mighty guns that surround the build ing-but 1t has some small history of its own.
 It was the first cannon captured by the Americans from the British In the revou- tionary war, although it has not been so officially placed upon the records. It was captured by Gen. Benedict Arnold.
 It has, in the dozen years since it took it's present seat, been passed by more in number and importance, army and navy officials and other notables of high mark and distinction. than any gun in the United States. Certainly there is not Il man in the army or the navy whose name has ever reached the headlines of the press who has just passed this little gun.
 And yet In all this time passed by | crowds so great and so notable, that It, tie gun has borne, unnoticed by every single one of them, a marked error ot history that 1t Haunted boldly on large | nameplate-an error so very plain that ii should have been immediately detected | on the most casual inspection by the pass- ing schoolboy.
 The gun what is known as bronze six pounder, and was built in Holland in l747 for King George of England. as may be gathered from the inscription thereon. It Is a little under six feet long and Is about three and one half inches in calibre.
 Deeply cut along the barrel near the muzzle end is the following: Surrendered by the equalization of St. Johns, 1775 So far this nameless little gun presents nothing out of the ordinary or peculiar. But on a large metal plate sunk in the national shield, on which the gun is rest Ing, is the following conflicting state ment: Revolutionary trophy; surrend- cred at Yorktown, 1T75
 Thus the little instrument of warfare seems to have been captured twice and further it seems to have been cap tured at Yorktown six years prior to any fighting in that vicinity This error has remained there for 12 years unde- tected until a short time ago 1t was dis covered under the superntendency of Capt. U. S. Grant, III, whose keen eye. by nature, will allow no such glaring mis- take to stand while he is master of the house at the war department. It, there- fore, Is being corrected now.
 Beyond doubt" said Captain Grant, , "the gun was captired on some of the adventurous expeditions made by the early one of the cannons scattered through lower Canada during the French wars. It Is unquestonably of Dutch make and was. for those times. rather formidable gun, although being mere toy compared with our modern cannon.
 The gun was most certainly not cap- tured at Yorktown; 1t had been captured by us six years before, and if 1t was at that fight at all 1t was not firing at the Stars and Stripes, but it was busy bonn barding breastworks of the British or try ing to clip the gold buttons off General cornwalis magnificent uniforms"
 By looking over the records of the war department 1t will be found that this gun was found in heap of junk at the Ale gheny arsenal at Pittsburg, together with lot of other trophy guns and when the arsenal was dismantled these guns were sent to Washington for adornment purposes It was given a place about the grounds until the big Spanish war trophies began to come in, when 1t was placed at the northeast entrance of the building. which has since been the main entrance. Here IL IS now.
 But these records carry nothing of the guns early adventurous days A few days after Ethan Allen had captured Ti- conderoga, which had no real cannon, he and Benedict Arnold, then the most ad- venturous of the American patriots in the west, had a quarrel Arnold took a band of rifiemen, who adhered to him, and, go- Ing down Lake Champaign, invaded Can ada, and captured as his first triumph the town of St. Johns. He then proceeded against Montreal. and, although effecting no further serious damage, returned with the spoil he had taken .among which was the little gun at St. Johns, which. ac- cording to historical accounts, had done much to terrlfy the surprised Canadians So proud was Arnold of this first capture fro mthe British that he cut in large let ters upon the barrel the inscription which it now bears.
 There is small doubt but this cannon was put to use later In the American army for cannon in those days were hard to get, and in fact the most of the weap- ons the patriots had were taken by force from the snemy.
 Thus this little gun which has fought against the French, the American and then against the British. now occupies a place of peaceful prominence, where 1t can see the great and the near great pass and repass daily. A relic Of a great past