Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-09-30
At the Navy Yard.

| Down in the navy yard at the foot
of Sth street southeast the visitor to
| the nations capital will find relies of
! the naval battles. He will find brass
cannon captured by the Confederates
and recaptured by the Union forces,
shells with wings and without wings,
and even the old sternpost of the
Kearsarge whose name and victories
are immortalized in the American navy
with a battleship of steel. fighter of
| modern days and a great contrast to
! the wooden steamer of the early six
ties. In a dark corner of the naval
museum within the navy yard gates is
! the sternpost of this historic vessel,
bound together with wire netting, and
within it reposes the shell fired by the
rebel steamer Ala bama and which fail
ed to explode. The shell is there in
the sternpost just where the rebel gum
ners put it in the days of the civil war.
Countless Rifles and Shells.
In the museum are countless rifles
and shells of all descriptions showing
the crudenes of naval ordnance of the
i early days as compared to the big,
powerful guns which will fire out of
sight today, in the course of con-
struction only a few yards away And
WltHIu d lew Ieet are the modern tor
pedoes. just coming into their own, all
decorated now each with an American
flag. And in the museum is a rebel
i, torpedo of the early days, a crude at
fair that it is. Having the outward
appearance of canister. inside is an
iron ball The torpedo was primed
with cap. aim was taken, and then
the fire control man would tilt it back
| ward. Then it would be tilted forward
| and the iron ball would roll down the
inside. striking the cap and sending
! the torpedo on it's way. So different it
is from the modern torpedo now sent
on its way with compressed air, and
| carried to the target with intricate
machinery Of its own, and even pro-
pellers to keep it on its course
Civil War Trophies.
And the trophies of the civil war
days are countless. all located outside
in the vicinity of the commandments
| office, near the center of the yard. So
many Of them are they that part NJ
, the grounds have been set apart and
termed Trophy Park" located inst
pehlnd the commandments office and
near the waterfront.
Here one will find a seven-inch ria,
! taken from the rebel ram Atlanta nj
Fort Fisher in 1863 by Rear Admiral
Lee; nine-inch gun from the Merit
mac ma with with the muzzle shot away;
rebel ram At, a,me; h captured Gu from the
!hodgers, then on the U. S. monitor
Weehawken; 32-pounder, banded and
rified by the rebels, from the tug
| heazer, an s-pounder captured with
three others from the blockade runner
Princess Royal; 32-pounder from the
! Angio-rebel pirate Florida: a 30
pounder which was captured by the
rebels from aboard the Fanny, and
later recaptured at Elizabeth City from
the louisiana: a cast-iron rifle cap
tured by Rear Admiral Lee at Fort
Fisher, N; c.. August 20, 1868; an eight
men howltzer captured at Stone, s. c.,
December rs. 1863. by the U. S. S.
Pawnee .and Marblehead: a brass gun
| captured by Rear Admiral Lee in Sep
TENDER 1868; a gun left by the rebels
at Shipping Point on the Potomac
| river; 10O-pounder from the rebel
pirate Florida; a cast-iron gun captured
from rebel battery on the Potomac:
an army 32-pounder, captured at Fort
De Russy, May 4, 1858: eight cast-iron
rifles captured aboard the rebel ram
Tennessee by Rear Admiral Farragut's
fleet at Mobile bay. August 5, 1864;
another taken from the Albemarle.
All Kinds of Shells.
In the museum. besides the rifles and
carbines, many of them from the
arsenal at Harpers Ferry, used by John
Brown as his fort, there are numerous
shells of the early days Of the Union
There are also inside a steel gun,
bree6h- loader, invented by the rebel
Gen. Floyd; rebel shells with wings at
the base; a 30-pounder rebel shell fired
from battery on the Potomac river; a
solid shell from Charleston and nu-
merous other relics which the keeper
Jared Mundell, the Oldest drummer
boy. will gladly explain to the veterans
of which he Is one.
There are also inside the museum q