POINT CLEAR, Ala. — The shot heard ‘round the Eastern Shore on Saturday, March 15, will signal the beginning of a new tradition at the Grand Hotel Marriott Resort, Golf Club and Spa.

A replica of an 1862 Tredegar Iron Works bronze cannon commissioned around four months ago by Dr. David Bronner, CEO of Retirement Systems of Alabama (corporate parent of hotel owner PCH Hotels & Resorts), will be fired at 4 p.m. It is part of a ceremony that will be repeated 365 days a year.

David Clark, general manager of the Point Clear hotel, said the procession preceding the initial firing will begin by the fireplace in the main lobby at 3:45. It will include a drummer from Fairhope High School, a flag bearer, a brief historical reenactment and remarks by Bronner. A Cannon Ball cocktail will be served afterward.

The firepower that the Grand’s bronze, smooth barrel replica is based upon was itself modeled after an 1841 cannon used by Union forces at the time the South seceded from the United States, according to Clark. The Tredegar version made in Richmond, Va. was built under the direction of foundry proprietor, Joseph Reid Anderson.

The cannon arrived around two weeks ago, and is part of the new Cannon Park, located beside the croquet lawn, near the Grand Dining Room and the Chef’s Herb Garden, on the hotel’s west side.

Like the vintage piece, the Grand cannon (cast for the resort by Steen Cannons) is capable of shooting a 6-pound projectile around 1,523 yards at 5 degrees elevation, using 1.25 pounds of black powder. Clark noted highly trained hotel engineers will forgo the live round for the daily sounding, however.

“It’s quite the cannon,” he said. “It’s beautiful. We feel it’s very fitting in our history.”

Clark said the Grand Hotel has a proud legacy of patriotic support that began just a few years after the original structure was built by F.H. Chamberlain in 1847.

The hotel was transformed into a base hospital during the Civil War, and was guarded by a garrison of the 21st Alabama Infantry. Most of the men sent there for treatment were soldiers from Missouri who were injured during the Battle of Vicksburg in 1863.

More than 300 Confederate soldiers died while in the hospital, and were buried in Confederate Rest, a cemetery on the hotel grounds near the Lakewood Golf Club.

The soldiers were buried in mass graves, shoulder to shoulder. Their burial records were kept in the hotel until they were lost in an 1869 fire.

Then during World War II, the Grand Hotel was the scene of Operation Ivory Soap. Then-owner Strat White-Spunner gave his permission to the U.S. Army Air Corps to use the hotel as its Maritime Training School. None of the soldiers wore combat boots in the hotel in order to protect the hardwood floors.

Clark said signaling, basic seamanship, marine and aquatic training for the Army officers and men of the aircraft repair and maintenance units were held there beginning on July 10, 1944.

The officers and enlisted men lived at the hotel in Navy style. All personnel referred to the floors as decks, kept time by a ship’s bell and indulged in the use of tobacco only when the smoking lamp was lit, according to information provided by the hotel. The courses also included special calisthenics, marching, drill, navigation, ship identification, cargo handling, ship orientation, sail making and amphibious operations. Two men from each ship were also trained to be underwater divers.

The 5,000 men and their ships later went to war, taking part in landings in the Philippines, Guam, Tinian, Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

The new cannon will be fired each day to honor the members of today’s military, as well as to remember those who passed through the hotel over the years. Clark said Mike Hutchinson is serving as the hotel’s primary military historian.

“Dr. Bronner saw this as something unique and different,” Clark said. “It’s certainly an addition to our history. We had a lot to do with the Confederacy and the Civil War, as well as World War II.”

He added, “It’s primarily for our hotel guests as an activity. I’m sure some of the public will attend (March 15). We try to capture our history, preserve it and celebrate it. It’s a grand salute for the people who protect our country, and it’s another neat new tradition.”