case shot balls

[speedenforcer]

Next question. in the case shot how rare are the ones filled with Williams cleaner bullets as opposed to the round balls?
did they fill the 6 pounders with anything other than round balls. I may be wrong but wasn't the 6 pounders being phase out by the Feds. The Confederates using anything and everything.

[Woodenhead]

I believe the 6 pounders filled with Williams cleaners or battlefield scrap lead are far more rare than those with round balls. Of course, only the Confederates did it late in the war.

The North had already turned away from the 6 pounder as a primary field gun when the war started. They contracted the inventor James to rifle many of their old bronze 6 pounders to handle his 3.8 inch projectiles. I don't know how many smoothbores were left to deploy in 1861 but I don't think any were at Manassas. Most of those that saw action were in the west.

For the South, the 6 pounder cannon were favored by the main armies (along with the 12 pdr. Howitzer), east and west, during 1861-62. They were pretty good at striking nearby enemy infantry and blasting canister to stop an assault. However, they showed their great weakness on the open fields of Antietam in September 1862 when they tried to engage the massed Federal artillery under the watchful gaze of Robert E. Lee. At 2,000 yards, the U.S. 10 and 20 pounder Parrotts smashed one Rebel battery after another while the obsolete 6 pounder shells fell short. During the first 6 months of 1863, most CS batteries (east and western theaters) turned their bronze 6 pounders into Tredegar and other foundries to be recast into superior 12 pdr. Napoleons. At Gettysburg in July 1863, only one 6 pdr. gun was on the firing line. They played no role in the early 1864 Overland Campaign but made a limited come-back when the armies settled into a siege that summer. The CS Army of North Carolina and Southern Virginia was called upon to defend the lines around Bermuda Hundred and Petersburg. They still had 6 pdrs. among their batteries. Also, the state of Virginia retained a sizable quantity of 6 pounders and others were sent to the front from the Richmond Arsenal's artillery reserve.
W.H.

Enclosed are two views of a standard CS 6 pdr Bormann ball dug by author/expert Pete George on the June 1862 Gaines Mill battlefield during the 1980s.

[speedenforcer]

good info, thanks.

[CarlS]

Hello,

Finding 12-lbers filled with anything but round balls are pretty uncommon.  Of all the 12-lbers I've seen cut in half a small number of them have anything other than round shot.  There is a place (a barn I think?) somewhere up in northern Virginia that had a pile of 12-lbers with the wright fuse (most badly deteriorated) in them that when cut in half many were filled with bullets for case shot.  Mike and some others with better recollection than I can correct me and provide details.  But other than those in that cache you don't see them often but they do turn up.

I know you asked about 6-lbers and as I don't recall ever even seeing one and given the rarity of the 12-lbers I'd think they were quite rare.

Just my $0.02 worth.   

[Bryan]

I bought one of the cut 12 pdrs Carl was talking about with the Wright fuse from the Horse Soldier a few years ago.  it had William cleaner bullets in it

[speedenforcer]

I bought a 1/2 Bormann from the horse soldier this June while in Gettysburg it had Williams cleaner bullets.

[Pete George]

  Speedenforcer, no offense, but what you bought from the Horse Soldier is almost certainly one of the Wright-fuzed 12-pounder case-shots they've been selling.  On those, the fuzehole area is so badly corroded out, it can resemble a Bormann fuzehole, but it isn't.  Unless, of course, yours shows part of a Bormann fuze.  Does it?

Regards,
pete

[emike123]

I have found a few of these in late war shells.

Here is an 8" ball from Spanish Fort:

[emike123]

It had a Bormann fuse as does the one on the right below, also from Spanish Fort.  The one on the left is one of those Wright fused ones.

And this one is on the commercial part of our sight, also late war:

http://www.bulletandshell.com/Items/item.php?id=F00180

[noonanda]

There was a beautiful example of a Case shot filled with Williams Cleaners at the Richmond relic show this past weekend on the Table next to Mr. George, my buddy snapped this picture

[CarlS]

Noonanda,

Was that a 6-lber?  Looks a bit smaller than a 12-lber to me anyway.  Really nice example.

[speedenforcer]

yes you are probably right Pete it is a wright. I'm learning.

[noonanda]

yes you are probably right Pete it is a wright. I'm learning.

no that was a 12Lber IIRC, I didnt pick it up because  "you break it you bought it" and that was more than I had in my wallet at the time

[Woodenhead]

Long ago, before we "The People" decided to stop the oceans from rising, I was kneeling on the floor of Chuck Jones basement artillery museum in Arlington, VA, photographing shells and fuzes for his book and other future projects. Chuck lifted a copper sabot 20 pounder Read-Parrott from Gettysburg's Culp's Hill, pictured below, off one of his display shelves and showed Pete G. and myself the contents arranged on a display case. He said after he had purchased it, he noticed something was loose inside. Instead of the expected case shot balls, Chuck was surprised and pleased to find fired bullets and scrap lead. I believe it is the earliest documented example of the replacement of round case-shot balls with bullets and misc. lead.

I am usually suspicious of such variant and "too good to be true"  finds having watched some of our most respected dealers re-thread shells for perfect fuzes and replace the missing sabots from Mullanes. With no fuze plug in the 20 pounder, anyone could have added the contents to increase its value. That goes for the "Gettysburg" attribution, as well. Then, while researching for my 2008 Gettysburg Battlefield Relics & Souvenirs, I stumbled across the following account of Albertus McCreary in his 1909 Gettysburg: A Boy's Experiences of the Battle. He recalled: "The large shells were full of bullets, and we found many of them that had not exploded; we would unscrew the cap-end, and, if we were careful, fill the shell with water before we undertook to extract the bullets." That's about all the proof I need. Lattimer's batteries on Benner's Hill included a few 20 pounder Parrotts.

Since then I have seen and photo'ed several identical 20 pounders from the same time period. All have the same smooth body shape with a long oblong nose and no lathe key. Nearly flat "wafer" iron base knobs with the same tiny lathe dimples. The sabots are thick cast copper with no pre-rifling. The final (color) photo show below is a base view of an identical 20 pounder dug at Brandy Station by Steve Hall. Note the five pairs of crude chisel cuts to create weak spots to help them take the rifling grooves. I have read soldiers' accounts of doing this in the field to improve their performance. I am presenting these shells as possibly the first to use scrap for case-shot material. I also think I know who made these which I will delve into in a future posting.

Woodenhead