A group of Civil War enthusiasts plan to spruce up the two cannons from the 1860s believed to have been outside an eastern Indiana courthouse for at least a century.

The two- to three-ton cannons at the Union County Courthouse in Liberty were made in 1865. Dennis Rigsby of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War says fewer than 500 of the 8-inch Rodman guns were ever made.

Rigsby heads a chapter of the Civil War group based in nearby Centerville. The chapter plans to research the history of the cannons along with cleaning and painting them.

County librarian Karen Coffey tells the Palladium-Item of Richmond that a 1905 drawing of the courthouse shows the cannons on the lawn, but how and when they were obtained is unclear.