Caltrops

[Barrycdog]

CALTROPS -- ANTI-TRANSPORTATION WEAPON

Last Raid at Cabin Creek's writer-producer found a small box containing three larger devices of caltrops while rummaging through a Virginia Beach, Virginia antiques store in 2005.

Found inside the small box were three caltrops with a note which read that these "jacks" were picked up in the middle of the road by my grandmother in 1865 and she kept them and played with them.

Photo courtesy: War Between The States Collectors Page on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/WarBetweenTheStatesCollectorsPage?ref_type=bookmarkbookmark

 

[MRB1863]

Thanks for bringing this! What an ingenious device! Wonder if they were considered "high-tech" back in the day.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Thanks for bringing this! What an ingenious device! Wonder if they were considered "high-tech" back in the day.

I believe caltrops date back to the Roman Empire or earlier.

 

[Chattahooch33]

Poor horses. Ouch.

 

[AndyHall]

Hideous things.

Yes, @7th is correct -- these things are very, very old.

 

[John Hartwell]

Hideous, yes, and, like land mines, "equal opportunity" weapons. You'd better remember where you put them! I wonder how many farm animals (or farmers, for that matter) fell victim to them long after the war ended.

 

[IcarusPhoenix]

The earliest documented use of caltrops was by Alexander the Great's forces at Arbela in 331 BC. The Chinese actually made exploding ones (the first landmines), and there are still uses for caltrops, primarily against tires.

 

[AndyHall]

I realize it's a little silly to get worked up over caltrops and horses when fellow humans get mutilated in all sorts of awful ways, but people are funny like that when it comes to animals.

 

[bankerpapaw]

The small ones wouldn't do infantry much good either.

 

[Billy1977]

Great thread Barrycdog! I didn't know it existed until after I created a thread of my own called "Caltrop identification" where I was hoping that someone can help me identify which side used the caltrops in the photos I posted. That thread is located here

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/caltrop-identification.131583/

and I was wondering if since you certainly know more about caltrops than I do (it would be hard to know less than I do about them!) maybe if you have a moment could you visit my Caltrop identification thread and perhaps shed some light on which caltrops are Union and which are Confederate? I am totally a layman when it comes to that. To me they all look like jacks. Many thanks in advance for any help you can give me on that.