The Brooke cannon was designed by Captain John M. Brooke of the C.S. Navy and manufactured in Selma, Alabama. Experts North and South credited it as the most powerful cannon used in the War for Southern Independence, with a range of up to 2200 yards. Its identifying number, S-96, on the cascabel shows that it was the 96th gun made at the Confederate Arsenal in Selma. On the right-hand trunnion are the initials of Catesby ap. R. Jones, and the left-hand trunnion gives its weight, about 15,200 pounds. It was delivered to the Mobile defenses on December 21, 1864, and S-96 was used for defense at Oven Bluff on the Tombigbee River. Another Brooke cannon, S-95, remains at Choctaw Bluff on the Alabama River; it is a 7-inch gun cast on August 8, 1864, and shipped on January 6, 1865, to the Mobile defenses.