Hi everyone. First of all, thank you for running this forum and helping those of us out with questions about our past.

My question is as the title suggests, were cannons owned and operated by individuals or townships at the onset of the American Civil War? If so, how long did that last? I believe I read an article before saying this was the case, but I've been unable to find anything in the past 10 minutes of Googling and getting side tracked.

Also, assuming that cannons were owned by civilians in one form or another through the Civil War and I'm allowed to have additional queries, did railroad or oil companies own and operate artillery or heavy machine guns? Private merchant vessels? How far into the recent past did ownership of team-based weaponry exist in American civilian or corporate hands?

Thank you very much for your time.