incendiary round.

[scottfromgeorgia]

Thank you guys for the spell check. Yes it was a FIELD find. Guess my eye sight is the second thing to go with age! Yes that invite is still open. Just give me a shout when you want to come by. 904-255-1354 is the office number. Gary

No, but I probably have the records somewhere. It was a late war shell.

[Jack Bell]

About 15-16 years ago, I had a badly corroded incendiary shell unloaded mainly to save the fuze, with the contents saved. (See page 58 of my book on CW Heavy Explosive Ordnance).  The liquid inside smelled very much like turpentine, although there was also a smell of black powder in it, probably from the fuze and bursting charge.

[speedenforcer]

Jack, Your book is next on the list.

[emike123]

For what it is worth in Chuck Jones' fuse book on page 107 is an incndiary Parrott shell fired across the James River from Dutch Gap.  It has a very rare Tice concussion fuse as well as Mac Mason's writing on it.

[speedenforcer]

yes got that book. ill re read it when I get off work. how hard is it to find a good example of a tice?

[emike123]

The hardest part is probably paying for one.  A nice Tice fuse alone is probably in the mid teens $ wise and a good shell with a Tice fuse in it is still higher.

[redbob]

Isn't the Tice fuse the one that is so dangerous and unstable?

[speedenforcer]

somewhat for my understanding.

[divedigger]

yep, it was dangerous to the gunners back then too which is why it is seldom encountered. It's use was discontinued pretty quickly

[Pete George]

Emike123 wrote:
> For what it is worth in Chuck Jones' fuse book on page 107 is an incndiary Parrott shell fired across the James River from Dutch Gap.  It has a very rare Tice concussion fuse as well as Mac Mason's writing on it.

  Mike, part of the Jones book's history of that Tice-Fuzed Parrott Incendiary shell is incorrect. I'm sure about it, because that shell was part of Mac Mason's artillery shell collection when I bought it from Mac several years before he passed away.  Mac dug that shell himself, and he (deservedly) proudly told me how he found it. He read a report in the US Navy Official Records about a yankee gunboat firing three experimental Tice-fused Parrott Incendiary shells at a house above the James River's banks below Richmond.  The report said two exploded, consuming the house, and the third was a dud. Mac did the necessary research to locate the house site and by golly he found the one-out-of-three which was a dud.  He had the shell's top sawed off to show the shell's interior and bottom of the Tice fuze.

  Mac Mason passed away about 30 years ago, and my memory is now shredded enough that I can't remember the yankee ship's name... but the shell was NOT "fired (by yankee Army artillery) across the James River from Dutch Gap."  Notice that the Jones book's photo shows Mac painted a USN anchor on the shell's side. Somebody here can reply do a Navy Official Records keyword-search for "Tice" and find the report with the ship's name and other details.

  I had to speak up, lest that's shell's amazing dig-history be lost. 

Regards,
Pete

[speedenforcer]

Wow now that is an awesome relic. Now not to talk bad of Mr. Mason, but that was no ordinary shell. I don't think I would have sawed into that very historical shell.

[Woodenhead]

I always thought the Confederates fought in a most civilized manner. Despite their desperation and ultimate defeat, they treated the enemy prisoners as well as possible and there are no mass graves of their black population. Indeed, the only wartime mass grave of the black population I am aware of is in New York City where the ancestors of today's "snow flakes" slaughtered them to demonstrate their opposition to the draft. But I digress.

While browsing the tens of thousands of CS documents available on fold3.com, I find the naughty Rebel ordnance boys came up with a "suffocating shell." It was developed in Nashville at the same time Forts Henry and Donelson were being captured by Gen. Grant. An appropriately named "Professor Vile" was responsible and presented his concept to Col. Gorgas, the Chief of Ordnance in Richmond. Gorgas ordered five samples to be sent to Richmond. They were produced in February 1862 by Nashville's Ellis & Moore, one of the primary western theater suppliers of artillery projectiles until the city fell a short time later. The invoice is pictured below reading: "5 Suffocating Shells fitted up for Prof. Vile forwarded to Col. Gorgas." They were large mortar balls obviously intended to hinder the North's powerful river fleet. The last document pictured below is a letter to Capt. Moses Wright, commander of the Nashville Arsenal, soon to gain fame as commander of the Atlanta Arsenal. "I will be much obliged if you will let the bearer have an order for me to take ___ mortar shells to the Penitentuary and fill them immediately in order to send away to Richmond by request of Col. Gorgas... I am going to fill them with explosives, etc., leaving out the poison..." I don't even want to know what the penitentuary was doing with "Suffocating Gas" on the premises.

Woodenhead