Mexican War Midshipmen's Monument

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Mexican War Midshipmen's Monument
United States Naval Academy

Appletons' Shubrick, John Templar - Midshipmen's Monument.jpg

Center campus of the US Naval Academy
For the deaths of Midshipmen Shubrick, Clemson, Hynson, and Pillsbury
Unveiled 1848
Location Annapolis, MD
near the Naval Academy Chapel
Designed by Unknown

The Mexican War Midshipmen's Monument at the intersection of Stribling Walk and Chapel Walk, center campus of the US Naval Academy, is in memory of two passed midshipmen (H. A. Clemson, J. R. Hynson) who lost their lives when the brig Somers sank in 1846, one midshipman (J. W. Pillsbury) who drowned near 'Vera Cruz' in 1846, and another midshipman (T. B. Shubrick) who lost his life in the siege of Veracruz in 1847. [1]

Cornelius Stribling United States Navy Rear Admiral

Cornelius Kinchiloe Stribling was a rear admiral in the United States Navy who served during the War of 1812, the Second Barbary War, the Mexican–American War, and the American Civil War.

United States Naval Academy The U.S. Navys federal service academy

The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy adjacent to Annapolis, Maryland. Established on 10 October 1845, under Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, it is the second oldest of the United States' five service academies, and educates officers for commissioning primarily into the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. The 338-acre (137 ha) campus is located on the former grounds of Fort Severn at the confluence of the Severn River and Chesapeake Bay in Anne Arundel County, 33 miles (53 km) east of Washington, D.C. and 26 miles (42 km) southeast of Baltimore. The entire campus is a National Historic Landmark and home to many historic sites, buildings, and monuments. It replaced Philadelphia Naval Asylum, in Philadelphia, that served as the first United States Naval Academy from 1838 to 1845 when the Naval Academy formed in Annapolis.

Henry A. Clemson was an officer in the United States Navy in the early 19th century.

Contents

The monument is made of marble and measures 218 by 78 by 78 inches (5.5 m × 2.0 m × 2.0 m). Often shortened to the Mexican Monument, it is also known as the Clemson Monument, and is by an unknown designer. [upper-alpha 1] It was an 1848 gift by the Academy's Brigade of Midshipmen. [1]

Description

"A marble obelisk with a bronze wreath on each side is mounted on top of a square marble base adorned with four marble cannon tubes positioned vertically at each corner. Surrounding the base are four cannons, one pointed from each corner." [1]

The surrounding horizontal cannons are Spanish 12-pounder smooth-bore bronze guns captured in 1847 by the US Navy from the Mexicans in California. [2]

12-pounder long gun

The 12-pounder long gun was an intermediary calibre piece of artillery mounted on warships of the Age of sail. They were used as main guns on the most typical frigates of the early 18th century, on the second deck of fourth-rate ships of the line, and on the upper decks or castles of 80-gun and 120-gun ships of the line. Naval 12-pounders were similar to 12-pound Army guns in the Gribeauval system: the canon lourd de 12 Gribeauval, used as a siege weapon, and the canon de 12 Gribeauval, which was considered a heavy field artillery piece.

Smoothbore

A smoothbore weapon is one that has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars. The majority of shotguns are smoothbores and the term can be synonymous.

Bronze metal alloy

Bronze is a 80+% copper alloy and 90+% copper&tin alloy with often the addition of other metals, such as aluminium, manganese, nickel or zinc, and sometimes non-metals or metalloids such as arsenic, phosphorus or silicon. These additions produce a range of alloys that may be harder than copper alone, or have other useful properties, such as stiffness, ductility, or machinability.

Inscriptions

One name is on each side of the obelisk: CLEMSON·SHUBRICK·PILLSBURY·HYNSON. Each name is surmounted by a leaf wreath.

On the monument's base, below Clemson: [1] [2]

To passed Midshipmen
H. A. CLEMSON.
and
J. R. HYNSON.
lost with U.S. Brig. Somers
off Vera Cruz
Dec. 8th, 1846
This monument is Erected
by
passed and other Midshipmen
of the U.S. Navy
as a tribute of respect
1848

On the monument's base, below Pillsbury: [1] [2]

To Midshipmen
J. W. PILLBURY.
and
T. B. SHUBRICK.
the former drowned off Vera Cruz
July 24th, 1846
the latter killed at the Naval Battery
near Vera Cruz
March 25th, 1847
while in charge of their duties
This monument is Erected
by
passed and other Midshipmen
as a tribute of respect
1848

On the monument's base's sides below Hynson and Shubrick are stylized fouled anchors. [2]

Notes

  1. ↑ The Smithsonian American Art Museum attributes the monument to John W. Stephenson. Stephenson, a modern sculptor, is shown as born in 1929, some eighty one years after the monument was unveiled. [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Mexican War Midshipmen's Monument". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Mexican War Midshipmen's Monument at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland". dcMemorials.com. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
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