CSS Alabama Cannon

From the entrance to Old Ways, New Days, visitors can get an upclose glimpse of Confederate Naval history in a 700 square foot gallery with a particularly heavy centerpiece: one of the original eight cannons from Civil War commerce raider ship CSS ALABAMA.

Having been captained by Mobile's Admiral Raphael Semmes, the Alabama sank in about 200 feet of water off of Cherbourg, France, after an engagement with the Union's USS Kearsage in 1864. The deck gun is approximately 10 feet long and weighs 5,000 pounds (2.5 tons).