Battery F Ripley / Ripley Cannon

Battery F Ripley, also, Ripley Cannon. . , Battery F, 1st Ohio Light Artillery, was organized in Ripley by Major Daniel T. Cockerill. It was heavily engaged at the Battle of Stone River, Tennessee, January 1, 1863. Aiding in the repulse of repeated attacks “with great slaughter,” Major Cockerill being dangerously wounded. At the close of the day Battery F was the only battery that held its original position of the morning at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19, 1863. After fighting in the morning, in the afternoon it was thrown into a breach made by the enemy with orders “if possible to check him.” After a desperate fight with the assistance of two other batteries, “checked his further advance.” , The next day on the extreme left Battery F, from 9 o’clock until 2 p.m., was in the midst of continuous hard fighting at Kelly’s Field. The enemy endeavoring to turn the left flank, at one time battery F and its infantry support were fighting on three sides. Sergeant Jesse Bloom in command of one section of two guns says of these attacks: “the enemy charged straight up the hill at us yelling like mad men; first I gave them shell, then canister, then double-canister, fairly blasting them from the front of our guns. Our infantry support was three lines deep back of us; while the front line fired the two other lines loaded, thus keeping up a continuous deadly fire. My men were stripped to their waists, and fought their guns though at times the enemy were less than a hundred feet away and their ammunition was almost exhausted. Time and again the enemy returned to the attack determined to break through. But we held our line to the end.” , Ripley Cannon. The citizens of Ripley purchased at a cost of $1,000 this 3 inch rifled cannon with a caisson (ammunition chest) to protect the town during the Civil War. Morgan, Duke, Everett and other Southern raiders had sworn to burn this “...damned abolitionist hellhole to the ground...” with no quarter to its citizens. , In September, 1862, after the battle of Augusta, Kentucky, the rebels, under the command of General Basil Duke, were encamped with many prisoners at Brooksville, Kentucky. The Home Guard, men too old or too young for the front, crossed the river, marched all night in the rain, and, about daybreak, made a surprise attack. At the roar of the cannon, the rebels wheeled and fled. , In July 1863, when the Confederate General John Morgan was making his raid through Ohio, this cannon was placed behind a barricade across the Georgetown Pike at Cornick’s Run. The trees along the pike were notched so they could be thrown across the road quickly in case Morgan attempted to raid Ripley. Also, there were gun boats anchored in the river to prevent Morgan from crossing at this point. , After the war, the cannon was fired in salute to Generals Grant and Sherman when they visited Ripley in 1812. During the Ripley Centennial, it was fired by Jesse Bloom of Battery F. Restored in 1962, by the Ripley Women’s Club and the Sesqui-Centennial Committee. It was part of the sesqui-centennial celebration parade. American Legion Posts Nos. 367 and 705 mounted this cannon.