This replica of a Parrott gun (named after its inventor Robert Parker Parrott) stands near the gazebo on the waterfront in Cold Spring, NY. Nowadays Cold Spring is a picturesque Hudson River town with antique stores, nice restaurants etc., but once upon a time the town was dominated by the West Point Foundry, which made munitions for the Union during the Civil War. One of the most famous (or maybe infamous) items made at the foundry was the Parrott gun. Its rifled barrel made it quite accurate, but unfortunately the metal with which it was made was also quite brittle and tended to shatter easily (not a good thing if you were one of the people firing it).

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