The reign of Emperor Tewodros (1855-1868) was a turning point in Ethiopian history, for it! witnessed the first major attempt at reunification. The disunity of the first half of the nineteenth century gave way in the second to major attempts at reunification whose pioneer was Emperor Tewodros II.

Tewodros, a visionary imbued with an almost messianic faith in his destiny sought to unify, reform and modernize the country. He conducted expeditions to some Northern and Central regions of the country and succeeded in bringing much of the realm temporarily! under his control. He was anxious to build up an efficient fighting force. Hence, not being satisfied with what he had captured in his early! battles or what possibly be smuggled past the Turks at Massawa, he ordered a group of protestant missionary craftsmen and other artisans to cast cannons and mortars for him. As such, he established his gun foundry and workshops in 1967 at Gafat near Debre Tabor. There he put all foreigners who entered the country and who had any suitable skills to work for him with the result that he finally had an artillery force of some 35-40 pieces.

Among these the work of the big cannon “SEVASTOPOL” weighing around 7 tons! had been going on for some time. The day of its! completion arrived, and Tewodros and his workmen anxiously awaited the result of their labors. The Europeans, to their great dismay saw that they had failed. Tewodros not in the least put out, told them not to lose hope, but to try again. He examined everything connected with the smelting and soon perceived that the failure was due to the presence of some water around the mould. Correcting the fault on the second attempt, the cannon could be completed.

At the battle of Selamgie, when the emperor’s soldiers left the hill, a few guns had been left, and one was the huge cannon Sevastopol, which had never been fired and too heavy to be moved in the face of an advancing enemy. Between 500 and 600 people were needed to haul it on its wooden carriage with leather ropes up the steep slopes, while others were required to risk the limbs by crawling up behind the carriage and putting stones behind the wheels to stop its slipping back. In all, several thousand men were involved in the operation.