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(From a Warren daily publication describing the Independence Day celebration that year.)
The Military deserve much credit for their martial appearance and soldierly deportment. We notice with peculiar pleasure the company of Federal Blues, under command of Capt. E. Luther, in complete and elegant uniform and can but hope the laudable spirit evinced in this patriotic corps, will meet the reward it justly merits, by an augmentation of their members, which will leave them without a rival in the state.
East Bay Newspaper
Federal Blues piece together Warren history
By Michele K. Corcoran
WARREN - After nearly 9 years collecting dust in the Warren Police Department's evidence room and 13 years at the bottom of Roger Williams Park pond, two 1761 bronze cannon barrels, belonging to the town, will be displayed in the Federal Blues museum on Baker Street during the Warren Holiday Festival this weekend.
The decision to allow the historic militia group, which has already spent considerable time and money on the project, to display the cannon barrels and to continue the work, came last week during a special town council meeting when it was determined that the town still owns the cannons.
If not a checkered past, the history of the cannons is a tale with as many twists and turns as a gripping whodunit.
The cannons that once stood guard in front of Town Hall were awarded to the town in 1935, and placed on the Town Hall lawn in 1959, where they stood, for residents and visitors to see, for 20 years.
But the large wooden wheels on the cannons' carriages were rotting, so in 1979 the cannons were taken to the Warren Transfer Station on Birchswamp Road for storage until the wheels could be repaired or replaced.
But in April, 1981, a transfer station employee told Warren police that the station had been burglarized and the cannons, which weigh roughly 700-pounds, were gone.
How the barrels came to be nearly destroyed and dumped 16-miles away in Roger Williams Park pond remains a mystery to this day. In 1994, park officials drained the pond for maintenance and found the cannons, sawed into pieces, resting in sludge at the bottom.
Nearing its 10-year anniversary, the larceny case remains open, although without any evidence, Warren Police have all but suspended their investigation.
But to Captain Edgar Hebert, of Warren's Federal Blues, the cannon barrels are an important part of Warren's military history, and the recovery effort completes the Federal Blues' restoration of the cannons' other parts, including the limbers, which connect the axle to the wheels as part of the carriage.
But to discover the cannon's rightful owners - the town, the Federal Blues, or the American Legion - required tracing their history back 242 years, from when they were cast in France, delivered to the British, surrendered to the Continental Army, awarded to Rhode Island, stolen by a militia group twice, and eventually given to the town by the State's General Assembly in 1935.
Quite a task, even for the most avid historian, but Mr. Hebert and the Federal Blues were already working to recover the historic treasure.
Already on the hunt for the other pieces, the historic militia group located the components of the carriages at Wujcik's barn in Warren - a week before it burnt down - and in the yard of a town resident about a decade ago. The Federal Blues paid the property owner $1,000 for the pieces he had collected as lawn ornaments.
Without the cannon barrels, the final piece in the puzzle, the Federal Blues asked that the Newport Artillery store one of the limbers, which they have for the past four years. The Newport Artillery has been using the limber to tote one of its cannons and have also put time and money into improving the limber.
"It looks better now than it did when we lent it to them," said Mr. Hebert. In October, Mr. hebert called them and let them know that Warren will be reclaiming its limber soon.
A few years after they found the limbers, the Federal Blues spent $4,000 on six, new, large wooden wheels for the two carriages. Then they waited for the barrels which have been cut into four pieces each.
Although the cannons are unable to be fully restored without melting and recasting the bronze, Mr. Hebert thought the Federal Blues has the last pieces, or rather, the last eight pieces, to their puzzle.
And thankfully, the barrel pieces are not damaged one bit from the water.
"They are like gold," said Mr. Hebert, "Back then, [1761], the barrels were not worth much, but today, they are invaluable."
He envisions laying all the pieces together next to a synopsis of the cannons' 242-year history. And then further down the road, the Federal Blues want to purchase two more cannon barrels that are fireable so that on certain occasions, such as the Fourth of July, the Federal Blues can haul out the cannons and use them.
"It would be wonderful," said Mr. Hebert.
"We saved a piece of Warren's history, and who better than a historical militia group incorporated in 1798 to display the cannons," said Mr. Hebert, speaking of the Federal Blues, formed from the Warren Marines, a militia group that served on teh USS Nathaniel Green until the formation of the U.S. Navy. Today, about 65 men and women, with an interest in the military or historical preservation, volunteer for the Federal Blues.