Stiles/Akin
Sergeant Major
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2016
- Location
- Atlanta, Georgia
Confederate Incendiary Bullets!
In the course of the siege of Vicksburg, Union troops were inching their entrenchments ever closer to the C.S. fortifications in one area by working behind a rail car piled high with cotton bales for protection. One of the Confederate regiments that faced this unique method of entrenching activity was the 3rd Louisiana. Lt. Washburn, of the 3rd LA, having no access to any artillery to put a stop to the Union advancement, devised a clever method... of destroying the Union cotton bale protection. Lt. Washburn took their Enfield ammunition, removed the wood base plugs, and filled the base cavities with cotton well soaked in turpentine. When fired from a musket the cotton packed in the bases of the bullets ignited and was still burning when they embedded themselves in the offending cotton bales. The cotton bales piled on the rail car then ignited and turned the whole thing into a ball of flame, which burned everything right down to the axles! Lt. Washburn's clever fabrication of incendiary bullets stopped the Union's advance on that sector of the Confederate lines. Hats off to Lt. Washburn, 3rd LA, CSA for his invention!
This reference is from "Sharpshooters" by Gary Yee, and cited the source as being from "Vicksburg: 47 Days of Siege", by A.A. Hoehling. The incident was also recorded in a dairy on the Union side by Pvt. Jenkin Jones, of the 6th Wisconsin Battery, who said he thought the Confederates had used some kind of rockets to ignite the cotton bales. Other period reports said the bullets looked like fireflys!
From Mark Pollard Facebook