7.5-in Blakely Gun and shells

[Pete George]

  I'm about as certain as I can be that it has 12-groove rifling.  Twelve grroves can be made to correspond to the numbers on a clock's face. On that sabot, count the groove at 3:15 and you'll see another groove at exactly 4:15, exactly 5:15, and so on, up to exactly 9:15 and then the sabot is broken off. The exact correspondence of the grooves to clock-number position means it must be 12-groove rifling.

  Id anybody can't follow what I described above... here's another way. Draw a straight line from the 3:15 groove across the central bolt to the other side of the sabot. You'll see the straight line hits the 9:15 groove. There are five grooves showing around the bottom of the sabot/clockface in between 3:15 and 9:15. That would mean there are five more past 9:15 going around the top of the clock to the one we already counted at 3:15... giving us a total of 12.

Regards,
Pete

[CarlS]

Hello.  Thought I'd revive this thread on the 7.5 Inch Blakely guns and add a neat relic.  I recently picked up a very cool sabot that fits the Tennessee (Mullane) projectile.  It is in perfect condition.  It was found in Vicksburg and has a nice green patina and no bends at all.  Pete was correct in that the count on the rifling is 12.  But interestingly the rifling is comprised of hook-slant with a fine groove cut where each plane meets. The sabot rifling is super crisp and the protrusions that fit the grooves are quite sharp.  Now we need to see who might have found a complete shell that used this sabot.  The one Jamesshell shared earlier and this one are the only two items from this gun that I've encountered.

The research as I recall it is that this British gun went to New Orleans and before it fell.  It was then brought up to Vicksburg to blockade the river on the west side of town.  On May 22, 1863 while being fired a shell blew up in the muzzle area causing the gun to have to be shortened by about 24 inches.  Later was moved east to the area of the Railroad Redoubt to guard that area probably because the short barrel did not allow it it be accurate enough to target ships. For images, go to Jack Melton's Civil War Artillery site:
      http://civilwarartillery.com/cannon/default.htm
and scroll to the bottom where Jack gives an overview of the Widow Blakely and has a picture along with a link to more images.

[gflower]

And this Boys is why I Love This Site! Gary

[CarlS]

I forgot to mention that the shortened gun that fired these two sabots (attached to a shell) still exists and is sitting in a battery in Vicksburg overlooking the Mississippi River.  I hope to take the sabot back one day and fit it into the bore and get a picture.

Anyone ever hear of a shell being found that was fired by the Widow Blakely?