Reserve a hotel or lodging in Vermont at Discount Web RatesVermont at odds with Civil War re-enactors
MONTPELIER, VT, United States (UPI) — A group of Civil War re-enactors is fighting the state of Vermont in an attempt to hold onto a bronze cannon that the state owns, but they use.
The cannon, cast in 1863, was used by a Vermont artillery unit during the Civil War, The New York Times reported Sunday.
The re-enactors say their claim to the cannon lies in the fact that they repair and fire it around the state and country on a regular basis.
State officials doubt the cannon is safe and say it should be on display in the Vermont Veterans Militia Museum and Library.
‘It’s enormously painful,’ said James Dassatti, of the Second Battery Vermont Light Artillery re-enactment unit, which has used the cannon since the 1970s. ‘Not only is it painful that we could potentially lose it, but it’s painful the way it’s been put upon us. For many of us the last 30 years of our lives have been intertwined with the cannon.’
The cannon has sat at the Watervliet Arsenal in Watervliet, N.Y., since the dispute arose in January and will remain there until the issue is resolved, the newspaper said.
