Two 6-pounder bronze field guns, both Model 1841 pieces, had distinct origins before sharing a Civil War history. One, cast by Ames N.P. Ames Co. of Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1847 and weighing 886, had been used by General Winfield Scott in the Mexican American War of 1846-1848. The other, cast by Alger A. and Co. of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857, bore registration number 149 and weighed 863. Stored together in a federal arsenal, they were stolen by Confederate sympathizers in March 1861 at the beginning of the American Civil War. Confederate forces under Colonel George A. Potterfield used them on June 3, 1861, at the Battle of Philippi, Virginia, now West Virginia, known as the first land battle or first inland battle of the Civil War. Union forces under General George B. McClellan recaptured them in September 1861 during the Battle of Cheat Mountain, fought September 12-15, 1861, in Pocahontas and Randolph County, Virginia, now West Virginia. The guns then remained in Union service for the rest of the war, which ended in 1865. In 1909, the Grand Army of the Republic James Shields Post 57 of Wellington, Kansas, requested the loan of a cannon from the War Department in Washington D.C. for a memorial, and these two bronze field guns were delivered to Wellington in July 1915. From 1915 to 1961 they stood in Prairie Lawn Cemetery at the north and south ends of the GAR Memorial Circle, and afterward they were placed on either side of the entrance to City Hall on this site.