Thanks. I like these bolts and the matching shells because they are true Read projectiles. Dr. Read had the mold patterns and sabot stamping dies made to his specifications while visiting Quinby & Robinson in Memphis during Dec 1861 and Jan 1862. He was there as a civilian agent of the Ordnance Bureau's Mobile office ordering cannon carriages and associated items. There are multiple invoices showing he had Quinby make the patterns and a side note says they are to be taken elsewhere to produce his shells. Other correspondence shows he personally arranged production in Mississippi and Alabama. Beginning in February 1862, they were made in 3 inch, 3.3 inch and 3.67 inch calibers. With their pronounced base knobs forcing the propellant charge laterally into the interior of the high-band bearing surface, driving it hard into the rifling grooves, they were the best Read shells ever made! And yet, it seems pretty obvious his work was completely ignored by Richmond where they mass-produced the horrible Mullane shells, instead. When Richmond finally recognized the value of the copper cup sabots in August 1862, they once again ignored Read's carefully crafted design and instead copied Parrott's cone-shaped version with a base-chipping top and far more limited bearing surface designed to be driven forward into the rifling grooves. A true Read like yours had a rolled copper sabot formed in a die. Many of the Virginia Reads used rigid cast copper cups. Evidently, there was no central brain trust at the Richmond Arsenal paying attention to such mundane matters that were of critical importance to the soldier on the front line. When you read the letters of Cmd. John Brooke, he has nothing but distain for the Army ordnance officers associated with the Arsenal. Brooke completely separated the design and production of CS Navy projectiles. Dr. Read suffered the indignity of being at the Montgomery Arsenal to set up their workmen with his patented patterns when drawings arrived from Richmond of the new regulation projectile for field artillery - the copper disc Tennessee shell. It is no wonder he disappeared from the CS radar screen after that, hopefully enjoying a well deserved retirement in Tuscaloosa.
So Rommack, pardon the overkill discussion, but I feel a little tingle somewhere personal whenever I see one of Dr. Read's own. There is no question in my mind that ammunition boxes filled with these superior projectiles in 1863 on those two bloody ridges - Seminary and Missionary - would have turned the thing around. Today, we'd be pulling down a different set of statues.
Note on the photos: the back view among the previous 3 pics had no lathe dimple. The off-center hole is a air bubble. The 3 inch bolt, sent now, was dug in VA with no lathe dimple. That indicates they were made no later than the spring of 1862. Note the jar-lid shape of the missing sabot. These projectiles from several Deep South foundries remained in storage in early 1863 to be sent to Port Hudson and Virginia because the Army of Tennessee's artillery was ordered to obtain their projectiles from the Georgia arsenals. The final full color base view shows a typical 3-inch Read shell fired during the May 1864 Wilderness. Like so many VA Reads, the sabot is cast brass milled down to thin out the bearing surface. Like so much of their field ammunition, there is hardly a trace of rifling in the sabot. What a screw-up.
