The reason for manufacturing a Sideloader case-shot:
When the Confederacy's supply of lead got so short that iron case-shot balls had to be substitued for lead ones, the usual method of creating a powder cavity inside the mass of case-shot balls wouldn't work. In lead ball case-shot shells, you simply drill down through the fuzehole with a large auger-bit, boring out a "well" for the bursting-charge powder down through the mass of balls. But you cannot drill through a mass of iron balls. The bit won't bite into the small iron spheres, and just breaks the iron balls loose from the matrix, or the bit jams.
So, some bright fellow in the Confederate Ordnance Department came up with the idea of casting case-shot shells with two holes... the usual fuzehole, plus a side-loading hole. Both of those holes are threaded. You put the end of a thick iron bar down through the fuzehole to the bottom of the empty shell. Turn the shell on its side, with the sideloading hole uppermost. Drop the case-shot balls into the shell until it is full. Pour a molten matrix (asphalt, sulphur, or (in the case of some Confederate manufacturers) pine-resin (pinesap). Let the matrix cool and harden. Screw a closure-plug into the sideloading hole. Pull the iron bar out of the fuzehole, and there's your powder-cavity.
I should mention, for lead sideplugs, you'd simply twist the end of a cylindrical lead rod into the threaded sideloader hole, and the soft lead rod would "self-thread" itself into the hole. Cut the lead rod off flush with the shell's surface, tap it flat, and you're done.
For many decades, it was believed that no Bormann-fuzed Sideloader Case-Shot were made. But then around the late-1990s (if I recall correctly), either our own Colonel John Biemeck or one of his close buddies in the Army of Northern Viginia Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team dug an intact Bormann-fuzed 12-pounder Sideloader and part of another one, somewhere near the Wilderness, if I recall correctly. I suspect it was most likely from the 1863 Chancellorsville battle overlap of that area, rather than a summer-1864 firing.
As I said, that was a 12-pounder. I've never seen nor heard of a 6-pounder BORMANN-FUZED Sideloader Case-Shot. Some "converted" 6-pdr. Bormanns exist, of course, having the copper CS Bormann-Replacement timefuze plug in them, not their original CS solder-alloy (not zinc) Bormann fuze.
Alwion, if at all possible, please provide us several well-focused closeup photos of the fuze in the 6-pdr. Bormann Sideloader you are reporting. I know of some subtle ID-clues to look for which tell whether a Bormann fuze is US-made or CS-made, even when the time-index markings are obliterated. Also if possible, please provide us with that shell's super-precisely measured weight. (Please use a digital Postal Shipping scale... that is very important.)
Regards,
Pete
