Item Number: A01319

Item Title: Beautiful, battlefield fired 2.75in Whitworth bolt

Price: $1300

Shipping: Not included

Provenance: CS

Type: Whitworth

Size: 2.75

Sabot:

Fuse:

Book:

Location Recovered: Unknown

Description:This is a spectacular example of a fired Whitworth bolt. As a distinctive design and a highly accurate projectile, they are very desirable.

I have two battlefield fired ones already in my personal collection, otherwise I'd keep this one. For a long time I did not have one in my collection because the distinctive Bannerman's surplus ones didn't do much for me (they are authentic, just not battlefield used)/

Jack Melton wrote a brief writeup for the identification of an "authentic" Whitworth bolt at the bottom of the 2.75in Whitworth bolt page on his civivlwarartillery.com website

As with the ones Jack mentions, this one has scarring from firing and scraping on contact, faint lathe marks on the side, and a pronounced mark on the bottom where the casting vent was removed. It does not have a visible lathe dimple on the nose (which Jack notes not all do).

99% of the Whitworth bolts on the market bear the telltale signs of being Bannerman's surplus ones. They have salt and pepper pitting from years of weather exposure and many have a black, tar like coating on portions of them that may be a protective coat or residue from the fire on Bannerman's island.

Nearly all of these were made in England. Both sides had them, but the Confederacy had a few more and certainly used them more. One of the Federal Whitworth batteries at least was kept in Washington, DC to protect the Capitol.