Breech loading Griffin Gun

[subdjoe]

I saw an ad on the bulletin board at the Post Office for a fund raiser at the American Legion Hall here.  At the bottom were the words "look for the cannon."  So naturally I had to go look at it.  I was expecting a 105 or maybe a Japanese 75mm pack howitzer.  Well, I saw the beautiful, smooth lines of a 3 Inch Ordnance Rifle.  But it was modified to be a breech loader.  I asked one guy, he said he thought it had been a deck gun on a merchant vessel in WWII.  He let me scrape a little of the paint off so I could read the number.  Can any of you point me to some place online where I can try to look up the history of this gun?  Or do any of you have a resource where you can look it up and let me know?  I'm kind of skeptical about the WWII version.  I could see WWI or Spanish American.  Any information on this modification would be much appreciated.

OH, and sorry, I forgot to bring my powder can for scale with me. 

Made by Phoenix, 1862, 819 pounds, No. 334.  Inspector TTSL (Theodore Thaddeus Sobieski Laidley). 

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[cannonmn]

A lot of ord. rifles were modified to make them into official Army salute guns.  The cast steel cone stand weighs about 1000 lbs. and was made for them.  The breech was a sliding wedge, with slow screw closure, Hotchkiss type.  The only thing you would be able to find out history-wise would be which Army post the piece was at when the conversion was done.  There were a few that did these such as Rock Island, and often that's recorded in the records in Nat. Archives.  No other history has been found on Army field cannons.  The "gun books" were discarded long ago, sadly not one preserved that I know of.

The salute gun version took a Navy 6-pounder blank cartridge, centerfire.  If you look inside the chamber is smaller than the bore to hold that particular cartridge.

[subdjoe]

Thanks for the information.  Looks like there isn't much to be found on it then.

[cannonmn]

There is a fairly short list of Army cannons which were mentioned by registry number and type, in various historical documents such as the "Official Reports..."  These lists were, as I recall, published in The Artilleryman long ago.  I don't know if they're available elsewhere.  There might have been 50 guns altogether, or some number like that, which have been identified to a particular unit and time.  I think there were a number of both Union and Confederate pieces on those lists.

[subdjoe]

http://books.google.com/books?id=twcQGSi1F7QC&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129&dq=3+inch+ordnance+rifle+modification&source=bl&ots=4BpuRCpAH_&sig=ywiAp0hLm5Mzx7qgqOAj1vTXwuM&hl=en&ei=EkOwSqJTkNY1zbuF8w0&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3#v=onepage&q=3%20inch%20ordnance%20rifle%20modification&f=false

If that doesnt open to page 129 try scrolling down to it.  A few pictures and a short description

[KABAR2]

 never mind

[subdjoe]

never mind

AAARRRGGGGGHHH!  What were you going to say, please?

I got this from Mr. Jim Bender, who seems to be the Keeper of the Registry for now:

Congratulations on adding the latest known surviving Civil War cannon to the Registry!
and
I checked the donation records and do not have any listed for Clearlake.
 
I don’t have any service history or donation records for this tube so I’m not much help there. 

So, I guess I talk with some of the members of the American Legion Post, see if any of them know more about it or at least when they got the gun.  Then on to newspapers and such to see if there is anything in the archives about where it came from.