Cast at the Mount Aetna Forge near Hagerstown, Maryland, Frederick’s Revolutionary War Cannon by 1783 was stationed at the Frederick barracks where 1,500 or so Hessian prisoners were confined during the Revolutionary War.  The cannon was an iron fortification gun about eight and a half feet long and fired eighteen-pound shot.

On April 22, 1783, this historic cannon announced to Frederick the end of the American Revolution after the war’s official ending on April 11.  In succeeding years, the gun fired salutes on Independence Day and perhaps other celebratory occasions, and in 1831 greeted the arrival of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to Frederick, the nation’s first rail line.  

On Monday, November 25, 1844, in celebration of the recent presidential election, the cannon was heavily charged and then rammed with clay to figuratively blow away President James K. Polk’s opponent, Henry Clay.  When it failed to fire, gunner Upton Duvall became curious and approached the cannon which, with him and its carriage, was blown to pieces, the largest remnant being the front two-thirds of the barrel, all that is known to remain today.  It was fortunate that no one else was hurt.  The demise of the old cannon was big news at the time in Frederick.

This only known surviving portion later stood watch as a bollard at the corner of Bentz and Fourth Streets in Frederick from some time not later than 1891 until 1951 when, at the request of the superintendent of the Maryland School for the Deaf, it was brought back to the School’s Hessian Barracks. Today, this veteran signals the important role played by the old Frederick barracks in the American experience. 

The remaining portion of the cannon barrel, about four and a half feet long, sat barely remembered by the public for more than a half century beneath a porch of the Hessian Barracks. In 2006, Michael M. Stup, Manager Emeritus of Frederick, Maryland’s Weinberg Center for the Arts, conceived the idea of permanently memorializing the cannon with an attractive mount, plaque and publicity, and gathered a group of local citizens to assist in the effort.  This group included Mr. Stup, Historical Society of Frederick County Executive Director Mark Hudson, Ronald Sisk of the Maryland School for the Deaf, School, Frederick Cannon curator Carl Robin and businessman Peter Michael.

Plans and drawings for the monument were contributed by Richard Washburn of the CMW Group, the plaque was contributed at cost by nearby Mount Olivet cemetery, the granite cradles by Lough Memorials and the cannon web site by Michael Strategic Analysis.

The cannon memorial was dedicated by this group, the Maryland School for the Deaf and the citizens of Frederick on April 22, 2007, the 224th anniversary of the old cannon's announcement of the end of the Revolutionary War.

The following has been modified from a description provided by the Maryland Historical Trust.

The Hessian Barracks is an L-shaped two-story stone structure with gallery porches. A gable roof covers the structure, including the porches. This structure remains of two original L-shaped buildings which, between the two, enclosed a yard. The reputedly older building was demolished about 1870 to supply materials to erect the Maryland School for the Deaf’s brick building which overshadows the remaining Barracks. The longer (north) exterior wall of the existing building and the short (east) exterior wall (the short, base, of the L) are pierced by occasional small, double-hung sash windows. The interior walls along the galleries are regularly pierced on both floors by sturdy doors with six deeply beveled panels and with double-hung windows that show some early glass panes. Pegged frames with heavy cyma reversa mold surround each window opening. Most of the wood trim throughout the structure appears to be early. The doorways on each floor open into a series of plain rectangular rooms. On neither level is there an interior passageway. The inter-room door of each room leads directly into the next room in line. The interior common walls between rooms are fitted with back-to-back fireplaces with the stack of each couple rising to just above the ridge pole appearing as a series of wide squat chimneys. There are two interior plain narrow wooden staircases between the two story levels. Two exterior plain wooden staircases rise from the lower to the upper galleries.

The construction date of the Hessian Barracks is not certain. However, two Frederick, Maryland historians, J. Thomas Scharf in 1882 and Lucy Leigh Bowie in 1939, maintained that the Hessian Barracks were built during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). In his history of the institution, William D. Cooke, first principal of the Maryland School for the Deaf, now located on the Barracks grounds, was unable to date the Barracks exactly. He did state, "It is known, however, that they were built during the reign of George II and that they were occupied by General Braddock and his troops on their route to Fort Dusquene" during the French and Indian War. 

The State of Maryland contracted to build a barrack in Frederick in the summer of 1777 but this structure was not completed by 1781. A letter dated January 30, 1781 from a British officer held as a prisoner of war to Maryland Governor Thomas Sim Lee reveals the condition of the then-incomplete Barracks being at that time used as a prison. French prisoners of war captured during the undeclared sea war with France in 1799 and British soldiers taken prisoner in the War of 1812 also occupied the Barracks.

In the nineteenth century, the Barracks served several state and community needs as a state armory and a silk worm production factory, and the Barracks yard served as the Agricultural Fairgrounds from 1853 to 1860. After the Battle of Antietam in 1862, the Barracks building served as a hospital for the wounded of both Union and Confederacy.  Every available space in Frederick from hotels to high schools and the Barracks was taken up for the estimated 4,000 wounded hospitalized there.

In 1867, the State of Maryland chose the Barracks grounds for the location of a new state-supported school, the Maryland Institution for the Deaf and Dumb as it was then called.  Before the construction of the first building in 1871, the school met in the Barracks. The Industrial Department of the Maryland Institution for the Deaf and Dumb continued to use the Barracks for a few years after the construction of the school building in 1871. At some later time, the school's board of directors authorized demolition of the western of the two original Barracks buildings.

The remaining Hessian Barracks building today is in very good condition for its age and receives caring attention from the Maryland School for the Deaf.  Today, the Barracks building is used as a museum and warehouse for a fair-sized collection of artifacts and antiques.  The Hessian Barracks building is listed on the National Historic Register.

In the midst of a town steeped in history is the Maryland School for the Deaf with a historic campus to match and a tradition that spans more than a century. In the fall of 1868, nearly a century after the Baby Waker Cannon found its home on Frederick’s Cannon Hill, so did the Maryland School for the Deaf when thirty-four students arrived. Some walked, some came by carriage, some on horseback. Their accommodations were the two stark abandoned stone Hessian Barracks that had housed captured Hessian German soldiers during the Revolutionary War.

Quickly though, the number of students and teaching staff increased and by the fall of 1875, a new building was added to accommodate the growth.

The Frederick Campus of the Maryland School for the Deaf was renovated between 1965 and 1975 after the Maryland General Assembly allocated funds to meet the need for increased services.  With fountains, walkways lined with trees, modern facilities and an abundance of open space, the campus today stands in contrast to the one first encountered by students.  The Maryland School for the Deaf also operates a newer campus at Columbia, Maryland.

The Maryland School for the Deaf recognizes that all students have a right to learn and grow in an academically challenging and nurturing environment which brings out the best in the student. The School’s goal is for its students to receive top-quality education while having opportunities to participate fully in drama, sports and other activities.  Today’s language-enriched environment at the Maryland School for the Deaf is the catalyst for developing academic and social skills as students are immersed in educational, developmental and extra-curricular activities.  Deaf and hard of hearing students thrive in a visual world where staff members provide not only instruction but meaningful interaction.