In the fall of 1864, Lieutenant Colonel Charles McDermit anxiously awaited the arrival of three mountain howitzers, but Fort Churchill instead received three-inch Army ordnance rifles. These rifled cannons offered improved accuracy and range, yet their large size and unwieldiness made them ill-suited for desert warfare. Just weeks after arriving, the cannons were distributed to volunteer military units along the Comstock. In 1883, the Army declared one of the three cannons unserviceable and disposed of it. The other two later moved repeatedly between Carson City and Reno until August 1977, when the Nevada Division of State Parks acquired them and, with assistance from the Nevada Army National Guard, returned them to Fort Churchill.