Photo by Bill Bozic. Used with permission.

During the Mexican War the former Spanish fortress of El Castillo de San Marcos was known as Fort Marion. Today the fortress is a popular national park in Saint Augustine and place where Spanish cannons captured from the Mexican Army by the American Army during the Mexican War are on display even though the main emphasis of this National Park Service sie is clearly the Spanish colonial period.

Photo by Bill Bozic. Used with permission.

This cannon is on the gun deck pointed southward toward the city of Saint Augustine, Florida. On the barrel is the message that the gun was surrendered at Vera Cruz on March 29, 1847. Although the exact location in Vera Cruz is left to the imagination, cannons like this gun were in place at El Castillo de San Juan de Ulua which the Spanish built when Mexico, like Florida, was a Spanish colonial possession. El Castillo de San Marcos in Saint Augustine is likewise similar to the Castillo in Vera Cruz.

Photo by Bill Bozic. Used with permission.

Photo by Bill Bozic. Used with permission.

This cannon captured at Molino del Rey lies on the parade ground of El Castillo de San Marcos. Notice the barrel is inscribed in Spanish from the colonial era and with the capture information in English.

Photo by Bill Bozic. Used with permission.