In this Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012 photo, a crew at the Fort Sumter National Monument in Charleston, S.C., mounts the 120-pound barrel of a mountain howitzer on its new carriage on the wall of a fort. The howitzer was returned to the wall this week after its old wooden carriage was replaced with a new $12,000 steel carriage that is a replica of the original. (AP Photo/Bruce Smith)
A mountain howitzer cast in 1863 was put back this week after six years. It had been removed after its original wooden carriage deteriorated from spending years in the elements.
The 120-pound howitzer was kept in the museum but now has a new protective coating and is mounted on a $12,000 steel carriage. Rick Dorrance is the fort's chief of resource management. He says Civil War sites nationwide are increasingly replacing wooden gun carriages with those of steel.
During the final months of the defense of Sumter, the wheeled howitzers were stored in bombproof areas in the daytime and rolled to the walls at night.
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