This is the old Hot Shot Furnace at Fort Morgan, Alabama which was used to heat cannon balls red hot for the purpose of sinking the enemy's ships before the day of high explosives. It repulsed an attack by British warships in 1814, sinking the Flagship 'Hermes'. It was installed under James Madison's administration by a French General Simon Bernard, who had experience with hot shot furnaces under Napoleon. It rests in the middle of the little original Fort built by the Spanish in the middle of the 16th century with ten old gun mounts still intact. The oldest Fort in America.
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