Read Shell

[24thMichigan]

Recently acquired this and would appreciate any information on it.  It matches the shell on page 291 in the book by Mr. Dickey and Mr. George.  The only info I can find is on that page.  Obvious crude manufacture as the fuse hole and the sabot are misaligned by manufacture, not damage.  There is faint writing in apparent grease pencil on the bottom...."Atlanta."  Thanks for any input.

[emike123]

I have seen several of those over the years but never a fired one so am not sure they were ever used.  I have always considered it to be something of "a nail looking for a hammer" and am not sure it would work effectively in a captured 4in Dahlgren due to the very dissimilar sabot and flange arrangement of the US shell for that gun.

[24thMichigan]

Thanks Mike.  The one in the D&G book is fused.  It also makes mention of a U.S. Navy 20-Pounder Bronze Rifle and a theory of a possible 4" CS Re-rifled 3.8" James gun.  Says that the few known recoveries were from the Richmond-Petersburg siege lines.  This one came from a Atlanta estate sale and was marked "Atlanta" on the base.  Interesting but a mystery that might never be solved.

[24thMichigan]

Received the new Confederate Rifled Projectiles book yesterday and was pleased to find this shell listed in there in shell and case shot versions.  Also information on a gun accounted for that would fire it.  Interesting.

[Jack Bell]

I have one in my collection. It has a long CS time fuze plug and is unfired.  It was reportedly from Bentonville, NC.

[24thMichigan]

Thank you for your input Jack.  Does your shell appear similar to the one I have and the one in the D&G book?  I notice similarities between the two that appear to be mold irregularities.

[24thMichigan]

I did a little searching and am guessing that this is the gun that would or could have fired this Read Shell, perhaps it is even the one mentioned in John Biemeck's latest book under the 4-inch Read description?

[24thMichigan]

Also, I found a fuse that fit the shell perfectly!

[emike123]

I spoke to Howard Alligood at the Richmond show and he said the Confederacy had one cannon that fired this projectile and it was at Malvern Hill.  There is one shown in the McKee and Mason book on page 111.  It is definitely fired as a section of the back is blown out.

[scottfromgeorgia]

Dang, you folks are good.

[24thMichigan]

Thanks Mike!  That made my day!

[Woodenhead]

Forgive the late reply, but I have been away from the site for a long time.
In the course of researching for the never-ending Thunderbolts, I think I have pretty well pinned down the story of this 4 inch shell. Allow me to share. Among Major Caleb Huse's many cannon purchases in England was a battery of at least four 4 inch steel Rifles made in early 1862 by Fawcett, Preston & Company. These guns were frequently misidentified by the Rebels as 18 pounder Blakely Rifles because the same Liverpool company made those better known guns - although none were of the 4 inch caliber. While all bore the "Fawcett, Preston & Co." maker's name, "Blakely Patent" was absent from these 4 inch guns. Evidently, this battery ran the blockade during late 1863 and arrived safely at the Richmond Arsenal. Classified as siege guns because of their size, on January 4, 1864, two of those misnamed "4 inch Blakely Rifle guns" accompanied by "two iron carriage for same" were sent to Gen. Maury in Alabama for the defense of Mobile. The remaining two were parked in the Arsenal's storage yard. One was sent to Fort Branch in North Carolina along with their limited supply of English-made ammunition. In 1972, it was lifted from the bottom of the Roanoke River and is shown in Beimeck's book. The one remaining gun was held as part of the artillery reserve and a supply of 4 inch projectiles ordered locally from A. J. Rahm who was then a primary source of 10, 20 and 30 pounder Read-Parrots for the Confederate Army. Rahm's January 1864 production record included 173 "4 in. Fawcett Shells," followed by an additional 115 in February. Many guns from the artillery reserve were rushed to the Peninsula when the Union made a surprise landing and advanced toward Richmond in August 1864. The Battle of Fussell's Mill followed and that's when examples of Rahm's 4 inch shells were fired into Malvern Hill. I have seen six or seven examples.

So, 24th Michigan (if you are still out there), you have a 4 inch smooth Read made by Rahm's Eagle Machine Works during Jan-Feb, 1864. All were well made with sturdy wrought iron sabots that do not appear to have been swedged or otherwise pre-rifled. All have an obvious circular mold seam half way up the ogive (slope of nose). Fuze holes on the couple I've seen without the fuze were bored off-center, like yours. The two I now show in Thunderbolts have the identical lathe dimple as yours. If that's not enough proof, I am told (by Jack M., I believe) that one is known with maker's initials "AR" stamped on the bearing surface. Your 4 inch Read is the only non-dug example I'm aware of. I love it!

Enclosed are pics of a 4 incher dug on the Peninsula.
Woodenhead   

[scottfromgeorgia]

Very interesting information. Is Thunderbolts the Lee's Thunderbolts that Pete George and others have bee working on, or is it another project?

[Woodenhead]

There is more to the story of the 4 inch Fawcett Guns. A hand-written report "Number & Position of Guns at Charleston Harbor" dated Aug. 29, 1863, lists a "4 inch Blakely" at Battery Marshall. This might have been the steel Rifle later sent to Fort Branch, NC, and recovered in 1972. A second 4 inch Gun was captured near Fort Fisher in August 1863 and also survives today at the Wash. Navy Yard. This raises the possibility that six guns were imported as the shipment of two to Mobile was recorded on a Richmond Arsenal invoice and we have physical proof of at least one 4 inch Rifle active in the defense of Richmond.

Thanks to vouchers preserved in the Citizens File, we know with certainty that A. J. Rahm made "4 in. Fawcett shells" in the latter location during early 1864. Records show a couple of hundred additional "18 pound Blakely Shells" (i.e., "Fawcett Shells") were cast by the Augusta Arsenal beginning in Jan. 1864 - the same time Rahm initiated production. They are very rare. A few have been excavated in the Bermuda Hundred area east of Richmond. I show two below. Those were either fired by the same gun from the Artillery Reserve responsible for launching Rahm's smooth Reads, pictured above, or a second 4 inch gun - perhaps one that was temporarily employed in Virginia when the Army of North Carolina and Southern Virginia occupied that stretch of the front lines in 1864.

Note about the pics - these two 4 inch shells were cast from the same Augusta mold pattern a month or two apart. Both were threaded for copper fuze plugs and had pronounced lathe keys with one broken-off. Obviously, one had been finished to a greater degree. That should be the later example following extensive tests by Augusta during winter 1863-64 and published results that emphasized the need to machine the copper sabots of rifled field projectiles as thin as possible. The first shell has the same lathe dimple and flat iron bottom but obscured by rust.

[24thMichigan]

Wow!  Incredibly detailed information.  The bottom of my shell was marked very faintly "Atlanta" in what appears to be yellow grease pencil.  Unfortunately it came from a general antique collector out of an Atlanta area estate, not a CW collector, so I have no other information on it.  It is one of my favorite shells in my collection.  Thank you very much for the history lesson.