View of Fort Sumter from Fort Moultrie © Matt Drobnik
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As any home improvement store salesperson will tell you, a fresh coat of paint makes a world of difference. Apparently that also holds true for historic cannons as well.
The cannons at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina did not receive a garish makeover or a slapdash spray of dayglo Rust-O-Leum. In fact they’ve been painstakingly conserved and restored by experts. Layers upon layers of paint were removed, and then the guns were treated with a preservative coat of epoxy before being repainted to prevent the metal from deteriorating.
These 17 cannons officially started the Civil War in America when they fired upon the federal fort at nearby Fort Sumter. Weighing up to 15,000 pounds each, heavy-duty machinery was required to reinstate the cannons in place when they were returned to public view on June 10th as part of the collection of historic artillery at the Fort Sumter National Monument.
Check out more about this in Gadling