Item Number: A00983
Item Title: Really Nice Iron Side Loader 12 Pounder (Price Reduced!)
Price: $320
Shipping: Not included
Provenance: CS
Type: Cannon Ball Side Loader
Size: 12 Pounder (4.62 Inch Caliber)
Sabot: Wood Cup (Missing)
Fuse: CS Copper Time Fuse Adapter
Book:
Dickey and George (1993 Edition) Page 32 B
Melton and Pawl (Paperback Editon) Page 34 A-17
Location Recovered: Hopewell, VA
Description:For those who may not know, a "Side Loader" is the name used to describe the process used to convert the cannon ball into a case shot. When the war started nearly all explosive shells used lead balls when made in a case shot configuration. As the lead supplies started to become less plentiful the South moved toward using iron balls for case shot. Since the iron case filled cannon ball couldn't be drilled through the fuse hole to make the powder chamber an alternate way had to be devised. They came up with inserting a rod thought he fuse hole to maintain a powder cavity and then filling the remaining void through a secondary side hole with the case shot and matrix. When filled the side hole was filled with either a lead, iron or brass plug. Then the rod was removed and the void filled with powder. The lead side plug is the most common, then iron and then brass.
This particular side loader is a well above average example. The back side has some pitting but is nice and solid and still looks pretty good. The view that has the side plug is very smooth with only a couple spots of ground action. The casting sprue is clearly visible on the bottom. The side plug is very clean with crisp spanner holes and a clear hole edge that it is screwed into. It would certainly be displayed with the side plug in view and it looks excellent. The fuse is very clean and crisp with a nice dark patina. The shell was disarmed through the fuse so there is no visible drill hole in the iron.
Shell is inert, cleaned and coated.