Are powder bags attached to rifled Projectiles?

[thehay95]

To All Interested;
     I dislike bringing up old and worn out topics but I just noticed this paragraph in Ordnance Memorandum #21:

" The projectiles are attached by straps of tin to a wooden sabot, to
which is also fastened the cartridge-bag containing the charge for the 12-
pounder and the mountain-howitzer, making together, a round of fixed
ammunition. In rifle-guns, the cartridge is not attached to the projectile."

For the Record,
hay

[Woodenhead]

This is a complicated matter. For the most part, spherical ammunition was fixed by North and South during the war. Rifled field ammunition was not supposed to be fixed. But there are many exceptions in the CS records as seen in the first invoice below where the Greensboro Depot in North Carolina is sending "198 shell for 3 inch Rifle gun fixed" to the Richmond Arsenal during January 1863. Note the also list "180 Burton charges." Of special interest to me after publishing several belt buckle books is the bottom line "337 Belt Plates tin." Oh yeah!

Basically, the prewar U.S, Ordnance Dept. wanted their rifled field caliber ammo "fixed." That would be the 3.80 inch James and the common 3 inch Dyers. You can see the groove at the bottom of the 'birdcage,' and the early 3 inch Dyers had crossed tin straps affixed to the bottom. Virginia's ordnance officers visited many of the U.S. arsenals in late 1860 and studied their products. When VA began arming itself for the coming troubles in Jan. 1861, they designed fixed rifle ammo for their growing accumulation of small rifled guns. As seen in the June 1861 list of state issues, below, even their 10 pdr. Parrott ammo was "fixed." When the CS Ordnance Dept. relocated to Richmond in mid-June 1861, the rifled field ammo was no longer fixed. This change can be visualized in the two pages from Lee's Thunderbolts, below, showing an earlier state-made 3 inch Burton shell (sorry, it not a long Archer. Burton and Tredegar's establishment had become blood enemies.) The second one, presumably made a month or two later, had its tie-ring groove filled in for use with a separate linen cartridge bag.
I hope this answers your question. I can show many more example and pertinent invoices.

Woodenhead

[Woodenhead]

The Confederate shell, below, has about the most obvious tie-ring feature seen on any wartime Rebel  shell. Most likely, it was never used for that purpose. The reason is that it was designed by Robert Archer for the state of Virginia's ordnance department in early 1861, not long after the VS state congress allocated money in January for Tredegar to "ream and rifle" around 50 of its old iron 4 pounder cannon. They would have to purchase a projectile and Archer had the mold pattern fabricated (usually white pine) which included the afore mentioned tie-ring groove. For the first 6 1/2 months of the year, all VA field artillery projectiles were "fixed."
Then, around mid-June 1861 Col. Gorgas and the CS Ordnance Bureau relocated from Montgomery to Richmond. One of their first important actions was to take full responsibility for all ordnance production. At this time, not a single state 4 pounder had been rifled. Tredegar's limited workforce was busy with other projects. At the urging of Gen. Pendleton and other artillery officers, Tredegar finally began rifling the state guns and making around 5,500 of these squat projectiles in September. As replacement guns were manufactured or captured, the old iron cannon and these projectiles were returned to Virginia's control. When used by Army of Northern Virginia gunners, separate cartridge bags were employed as stated in the opening posting. When the state of Virginia resumed control of the gun, I believe they continued to use separate linen bags, but I can't state it as a fact.

The two invoices below show additional examples of the South using "fixed" ammo. For every one of these, there are literally hundreds of invoices where the cartridge bags were not fixed!

Woodenhead

[Woodenhead]

I've reactivated this posting because I found a pertinent shell for sale on Ian Workman's American Civil War Relics web site. It is pictured in color on the first page below. It is an Augusta Arsenal 3 inch Read shell with remnants of the string affixing a powder bag onto the shell. As far as I can tell, only Augusta did this. Also, it had a star cavity or "ridged" interior. Augusta was the brain center for artillery improvements in the South. They developed this high-band sabot after much testing and field trials. They also developed the excellent Girardey percussion fuze desperately needed by Rebel artillerymen. The success of this 3 inch design probably explains why so few of the new Broun design were produced in the Deep South. Their work was largely ignored by the Richmond authorities.

Please read and absorb the second item pictured below. This letter by Col. Raines covers a lot of ground. Raines was the real expert on all matters pertaining to CS field artillery projectiles. Richmond's Col. Broun was a dunce who took credit for a number of Augusta's developments like making shorter projectiles.

The third item below is an invoice for shipment of Augusta shells from the Dalton Depot to the Army of Tenn. at Tullahoma, Tenn. Dating from March 1863, the long list of "fixed" projectiles all came from Augusta. At that time, they were putting a different sabot on their 3 inch Rifle shells. Only Augusta made 2.5 inch and 3.3 inch Rifle shells at that time. All fixed.

The last item below confirms that all Rifle ammunition from Augusta will be fixed.

I find this interesting and hope you do as well.

Woodenhead