Mayfield Civil War Fort
Firepower
Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, commander of the troops defending Manassas, had been one of the pre-war U.S. Army's outstanding artillerists. Fearing an imminent Union attack, he worked feverishly to obtain cannons for the fortifications and experienced crews to man them. Most of the available guns were horse-drawn field pieces capable of firing canister (cases of small iron balls) or solid shot in weights of 10 or 20 pounds. The reproduction Model 1857 “Napoleon” cannon at right was typical of the artillery used at Manassas.
When Beauregard learned that Confederate forces had taken the U.S. Navy’s Gosport Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, he immediately requisitioned captured naval guns. The heavy weapons were transported to Manassas, first by boat and then by oxen with sailors from the newly created C.S. Navy. William “Choctaw” King, a U.S. Navy veteran who joined the Confederacy’s fledgling naval service, wrote:“I have been employed for four or five days in mounting part of the 24 thirty-two pounder guns (weighing from 4500 lb. to 5000 lb.) on the batteries being established here and did not go with my company yesterday to Centerville because I was detailed to continue in that service at this place for what length of time I cannot say.” A coded letter from William “Choctaw” King to his wife on June 26, 1861.
By late 1861, some of the Manassas Junction earthworks featured the distinctive “soda bottle” shapes of Dahlgren naval cannons. The defenses of Manassas were completed in less than three months. They consisted of 12 earthen forts served by a variety of powerful artillery pieces.
Marker can be reached from the intersection of Battery Heights Blvd and Quarry Road, on the right when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
