Item Number: A01642

Item Title: Very good 3 Inch Schenkl from High Bridge

Price: $425

Shipping: Not included

Provenance: US

Type: Schenkl

Size: 3 Inch Caliber

Sabot: Paper Mâché

Fuse: Schenkl Combination Late War Version

Book:
Dickey and George (1993 Edition) Page 299
Melton and Pawl (Paperback Editon) Page 76 A-12

Location Recovered: High Bridge, VA Cache

Description:High Bridge, Virginia is located along the railroad just west of Petersburg on the way to Appomattox. It is just east of Farmville. This place is well known for the caches of shells found there in the 1960's. Various types of cannon balls, Reads, Brouns, Hotchkiss and Schenkls were found there. The most distinctive rounds found were the lead coated Clay rifle shells.

This unfired round is one of the Schenkl shells found in a cache of US shells. And it is one of the better examples. I purchased a decent size collection of shells all from a digger that found them in High Bridge which had this and a few other Schenkls. I'm adding one to my collection as they are so neat.

It is the style of Schenkl using the combination fuse with the distinctive knob on the end. This combination is the later war style with a brass spring clip on the side of the fuse rather than the brass clip across the top like the first model had. This fuse is in super condition and they are rarely this good in a dug shell. Most dug Schenkl combination shells are missing the brass clip and the soft white metal is very often quite corroded. This fuse is very crisp. You can read the "10 SEC" and "PAT JULY 15 1862" patent date embossed on the top. Also all the numbers are clear around the edge. I haven't done any cleaning on the fuse and someone with a toothpick could make it look a little cleaner.

The iron is pretty good. Unfortunately the young guys who found the cache just let them sit outside unprotected. As a result this one has a couple pits on the side that sat on the ground and peppering on the topside where other shells sat against it. But it displays well.

The weight indicates it is a case shot shell as most combination fused shells are.

Shell is inert, cleaned and coated.