The Double-Barreled Cannon of Athens

In front of the City Hall of Athens, in Georgia, United States, stands an unusual cannon from the American Civil War. It’s a double-barreled cannon, but unlike other multiple-barrel cannons of the past, the double-barreled cannon of Athens was designed to fire two solid cannonballs connected together by a length of iron chain. The two barrels pointed slightly away from each other, so that when they are fired together the cannonballs would spread to the full length of the chain and mow down enemy soldiers like a scythe cutting wheat on a field, or so was the idea. Photo credit: J. Stephen Conn/Flickr The bizarre weapon was invented in 1862 by a man named John Gilleland, who was a dentist, a local house builder and a private in a home guard company. Gilleland thought that a weapon of such deadly power would serve the defenses of his community, and the needs of the Confederate Army, very well. A few interested citizens pooled their money together and the gun was forged at Athens Steam Company. Cast in one piece, the gun featured side-by-side bores, each a little over 3 inches in diameter and splayed slightly outward so the shots would diverge and stretch the chain taut. Each barrel has its own touch hole so it can be fired independent of the other and a common touch hole in the center is designed to fire both barrels simultaneously. Upon completion, Gilleland took his new cannon north of Athens to a field near Newton Bridge for a test firing. It didn’t go as intended. According to reports, when Gilleland touched the cannon off the first time, the two barrels did not fire simultaneously which caused the balls to swirl around erratically across the field plowing up about an acre of ground, destroying a cornfield, and mowing down saplings, before the chain broke sending the two balls in two different directions.