Selected
Article:
Old tool of war finds new love in the hearts of many
Making
replica cannons means a great hobby and a profit for Vicksburg
native
BY Julie Whitehead
DBJ Contributing Writer
Jeff Dickerson was already a successful businessman in Vicksburg
when he and a cousin began tinkering with cannons five years
ago. He’d moved Dickerson Tire from Rolling Fork to
Flora in 1985 and opened a Vicksburg location in 1993, selling
the Flora shop around 1998.
And it wasn’t necessarily a love for Civil War weaponry
that got him interested in how they were manufactured and
made - it was more the challenge of shaping the steel to
handcraft all the components necessary to make a replica
of the various types of cannon, from the standard 1841 six-pound
gun all the way up to the massive 12-pound Napoleon guns.
Dickerson noted that growing up on a farm was a good way
to pick up metalworking and welding skills, laughing that
they kept the farm equipment going with “haybailing
wire and welders!” But Dickerson puts those skills
to use in his cannon-forging hobby, creating the gun that
sits out in front of his shop as well as one for a restaurant
on a Civil War battlefield in Illinois.
Dickerson’s knowledge of Civil War cannons comes from
various reference works, such as the copy of James Hazlitt’s
“Weapons of the Civil War” his wife, Lynn, bought
him when he first got interested in the work. “It
gives the dimensions, and all the specs, and how they were
built during that era,” Dickerson said.
Dickerson learned quickly that the best contemporary material
to use was steel--it resists the elements better than cheaper
substitutes. “The ones in the parks are made out of
steel, and they just sit there for years and years with
very little maintenance,” Dickerson noted. He orders
the materials out of Monroe, Louisiana, starting with new
10-inch pipe. “I have to cut it, press it down, and
mold it, and then sew it back up.” Dickerson estimates
it takes him a week to make the barrel of the cannon and
another two weeks or so to make the carriage-bolts, wheels,
and all. “Every part on it is handmade,” Dickerson
said with pride.
Dickerson’s replicas may soon greet visitors on their
way to Vicksburg thanks to Mayor Laurence Leyens’
plans to capitalize on Vicksburg’s historic heritage
in a visual manner. “He came up with the idea of taking
and putting cannons on the exits to the town to really promote
tourism,” Dickerson said. Leyens confirmed to the
Vicksburg Post that he hopes to place cannons at various
Vicksburg welcome centers to attract tourists and honor
Vicksburg’s Civil War heritage.
One of Dickerson’s books talks about the three-inch
ordinance rifle made at the Reading Brothers Foundry at
Vicksburg. Only six of the bronze guns were made before
Vicksburg fell to the Union forces, and most of the records
of the business were lost. But what specs are available
are used by Dickerson to create replicas that run about
$1,800 for the barrel alone and $5,750 when carriages and
wheels are included.
Dickerson bid on the Vicksburg project, reasoning that the
guns didn’t have to fire to be used in the displays.
Only part of the five cannons has been constructed, according
to the city’s landscape architect Jeff Richardson.
“We’ve gotten permission from MDOT to put them
behind the welcome centers,” said Richardson, noting
that the first guns should go up at the Center between the
old Mississippi River bridge and the new one.
Dickerson’s gotten a lot of interest in his work since
his web site, vicksburgcannon.com, went online, mostly from
Civil War buffs intrigued by his prices. “I get a
lot of calls from the re-enactment people, but they want
some they can shoot for their re-enactments,” Dickerson
said. His don’t, being sealed up on the inside about
six inches into the barrel. “They could stick a firecracker
in it and set it off,” Dickerson said.
But Dickerson maintains that the cannons are more a hobby
to him than a business proposition, with the cost of the
materials and the time and care he puts into the work. “It’s
kind of like those ladies who make quilts--for all the time
they have in it, they need to get about $5,000 for it,”
Dickerson said. DBJ
