Hi,
 
I'm a staff archaeologist in New York State's historic site system.  This
summer, we excavated a portion of a former gun shed site at Sackets Harbor
Battlefield State Historic Site.  The property lies on Black River Bay (Lake
Ontario), just west of Watertown, NY.  The shed was erected in 1864 to
shelter a number of Dahlgren guns sent there in anticipation of their need
should hostilities with Canada erupt as a consequence of the Civil War.  The
shed and guns were removed from the site ca. 1912.  The building appears in
late 19th-/early 20th-century photographs.  One of these photographs is an
interior view showing the unmounted Dahlgrens lined up side-by-side, their
pivot posts (my term) obliquely oriented to achieve a closer fit.  This
photograph reveals the interior framing of the shed as well as wooden
flooring running lengthwise through the building.  The ends of the Dahlgren
barrels nearly touched the south wall of the shed, while an unobstructed
pathway ran along the backs of the guns.  Scaling from the photographs
suggests the shed was around 60' in length.  The 12'-long Dahlgren and the
pathway makes the building about 15' wide.  The shed had horizontal wooden
siding with some gaps and a peaked roof.  One photograph of the exterior
shows a door in one end of the shed.  This door is not large, more like the
standard front door of a house than a garage door.  Not all sides of the
shed are revealed in the photographs, so a larger door, and perhaps windows,
may have existed.  The interior photograph may have been taken with a flash,
judging from the quality of reflected light.
 
A trench excavation, along a path to be taken by a handicapped access ramp,
easily spanned the estimated width of the shed (15') at the locus where it
is known to have stood.  No evidence of a coursed masonry foundation was
encountered.  Rather, two parallel rows of small piled stones did appear on
an horizon judged to be that of the gun shed (about 6" below the present
surface).  Large, machine-cut nails, judged to be from the gun shed,
occupied this same horizon.  Wire nails were also found on this horizon.
Flat and rounded stones composed the stone rows.  They averaged hand-sized
for the flat ones and fist-sized for the rounded ones.  The piles were no
more than two stones thick, and individual stones rested at different
angles.  These paralleling stone rows were rather broad, 24+ inches across.
The rows did align with the length of the shed, and they did lie such that a
15'-wide shed would have roughly centered on the two rows.  A third,
paralleling row of stones of similar composition and size to the other two
appeared between them.
 
Does anyone on the list have experience with known gun sheds or their sites?
Are such insubstantial foundation remains typical?  Given that these
buildings were intended for the temporary storage of guns, was a minimum of
effort expended in their construction?  Could the stone rows, sills and
flooring been prepared, the Dahlgrens set in place, and the rest of the shed
erected around the guns?  Does anyone know of Civil War era guidance on the
construction of such sheds?  Any help with these questions would be greatly
appreciated.  Replies can be sent to me directly via e-mail or posted to the
list.  Thanks in advance for your help.
 
Chuck Florance
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