p. 180: "June 18th. Yesterday afternoon," wrote the author, "Company B was thrown into quite a flutter of excitement, by the announcement that it had been detailed for a secret expedition, and was under marching orders. We formed in line, as per regimental orders, with equipments and muskets, and left camp at two o'clock, p. M., accompanied by the officers of both regiments, with directions to observe the strictest silence on the march. What was going to happen ? Had old Stonewall Jackson again ventured within our lines, and were we to have the glory of 'surprising and capturing him ? Unhappily it proved not, though Stonewall did make a visit to Maryland a few months later, and his progress, and that of the entire rebel army, was arrested only at the terrific pass of Antietam, but sixty miles from camp. After Company B had been marched perhaps two miles, it was halted, and faced, as the boys say, 'eyes right and left,' before a peaceful and unpretending wooden mansion, and awaited an answer to the summons of Colonel Bliss at the front door. It (p.181) seems that intelligence had reached the colonel, through our own men out foraging, that a rebel cannon was concealed in the barn of a well-known southern sympathizer, and it was considered not improbable that he might turn it some dark night on our sleeping regiments at Camp Frieze. It looked like a very serious piece of business, the boys thought, after hearing the news, and visions of a thirty-two, if not a forty-two-pounder rose before us. The summons for its surrender, however, was met by an indignant refusal from the fair matron who answered the colonel's call, and from the proprietor himself, who now appeared from a neighboring field. He was making off, but was induced to return after a short chase by Adjutant Tobey. Soon a daughter appeared on the scene, fresh from school, and a true 'gray,' and no mistake. She loudly declared that they would never give it up. No, never ! The choice being now given them to surrender the gun, or take up a family march back to camp, to the tune of 'we won't go home till morning,' they concluded to produce it. And lo, what a disappointment! Instead of a mighty forty-two pounder, or Stonewall Jackson, we beheld a small field howitzer, about two feet long, such as is used in the field by infantry. It was rifled, and carried a ball, weighing a pound, about a mile. But such as it was, it was mounted on its carriage and trailed back to camp by Company B, who thus earned the honor of capturing the only rebel cannon taken by the Tenth Regiment Rhode Island Volunteers. It was receipted for by Captain Dyer, and in due time safely arrived in Providence. After many years, through the courtesy of his son, Adjt.-Gen. Elisha Dyer, it has been placed in the museum of the Rhode Island Historical Society."
Not a very "glorious" capture, but authentic! So, Bob, what kind of gun is it? Are these photos coming from Rhode Island or are they of some other surviving piece?
John