Campus Landmarks - Cannon and Bell

The cannon itself is not as much as a mark of history as the ground beside it. The grass-covered pit in front of the Academic Complex and surrounded by concrete was one of the original rifle pits used by the Federal Army in the third and last battle of Jackson during the Civil War. Millsaps College obtained the cannon with the help of Dr. Sullivan who secured it from Senator John Sharpe Williams. The cannon was originally used by a Federal Division in New York during the Civil War.

The bell resided at several different places before it came to its present resting place. It was brought to Millsaps College in 1916 by Dr. A. F. Watkins (past president of Millsaps College) from the charred ruins of the First Methodist Church in Lake Charles, Louisiana. At Millsaps, the bell hung in Buie Gym to ring out athletic victories until the gym burned in 1933. From 1933 to 1947, it remained beside Murrah Hall in a wooden scaffold up to the time two MC raiders felled the support. At last, on May 13, 1946, the bell was placed in its present position of honor beside the library.

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