skb8721
Corporal
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2014
Today while walking down a sidewalk in Franklin, La., in front of the Church of the Assumption, I spotted the below artifact in a patch of dirt next to the sidewalk: it appears to be a .50 caliber case shot ball. (At home I measured the ball with calipers. It looks kinda flat in the photo, but it's not; it's spherical.)
This is quite possible, because as Civil War historian Donald S. Frazier writes in his book Thunder across the Swamp: The Fight for the Lower Mississippi (2011): "As the Federals came into range, firing again rippled through the streets and houses of Franklin. . . . Nim's two 3-inch ordnance rifles began booming in cadence, blindly spinning shells among the houses of town suspected of sheltering Rebel riflemen" (p. 539).
And as the California Historical Artillery Society's website notes, "The 3-inch Ordnance Rifle usually fired Hotchkiss or Schenkl patented shells or case shot." Which seems to be what I found -- case shot.
This is quite possible, because as Civil War historian Donald S. Frazier writes in his book Thunder across the Swamp: The Fight for the Lower Mississippi (2011): "As the Federals came into range, firing again rippled through the streets and houses of Franklin. . . . Nim's two 3-inch ordnance rifles began booming in cadence, blindly spinning shells among the houses of town suspected of sheltering Rebel riflemen" (p. 539).
And as the California Historical Artillery Society's website notes, "The 3-inch Ordnance Rifle usually fired Hotchkiss or Schenkl patented shells or case shot." Which seems to be what I found -- case shot.
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