Collection as a whole now

Duane Pringle

Sergeant
Joined
Feb 14, 2016
Location
Joplin Missouri
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Spent alot of 2016 collecting civil war artillery projectiles and I am hooked for life now. I had found several bullets and canister rounds around a couple of battle fields over my life time and have always loved the civil war. I enjoy reading and researching civil war history in Missouri.
 
Cool collection. I know so little about artillery, forgive me for a stupid question...

In the bottom photo, the piece second closest to us that has the replacement handles--are those "handles" just for supporting the artifact as it's on display? Told you I was ignorant. :smile: Regardless, I'm curious how that piece works, and especially the one two places down from it, as they look like giant minie balls. Was either one used in a rifled artillery piece?
 
Not much on Missouri projectiles. But were any Bormann fused, spherical projectiles used much in your neck of the woods? It seems in your bottom picture, the spherical projectile to the right was manufactured to contain a Bormann fuse but is missing it. I guess all the ones in the top photo were initially for wood plug adapters or copper ball fuse adapters?
 
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Cool collection. I know so little about artillery, forgive me for a stupid question...

In the bottom photo, the piece second closest to us that has the replacement handles--are those "handles" just for supporting the artifact as it's on display? Told you I was ignorant. :smile: Regardless, I'm curious how that piece works, and especially the one two places down from it, as they look like giant minie balls. Was either one used in a rifled artillery piece?
That is just a display holder and it is a parrot shell for rifled cannons.
 
Not much on Missouri projectiles. But were any Bormann fused, spherical projectiles used much in your neck of the woods? It seems in your bottom picture, the spherical projectile to the right was manufactured to contain a Bormann fuse but is missing it. I guess all the ones in the top photo were initially for wood plug adapters or copper ball fuse adapters?
Yes bormann fused cannon balls were used in Missouri both styles were.
 
Cool collection. I know so little about artillery, forgive me for a stupid question...

In the bottom photo, the piece second closest to us that has the replacement handles--are those "handles" just for supporting the artifact as it's on display? Told you I was ignorant. :smile: Regardless, I'm curious how that piece works, and especially the one two places down from it, as they look like giant minie balls. Was either one used in a rifled artillery piece?
I am by no means a exspert but have always been interested in civil war artillery I am amazed on the different styles both sides used and some times you can not really tell witch side produced it especially sepherical solid shot. I have a 12lb solid shot with no seam that is in excellent condition. I found out that it's Confederate I thought for sure it was union.
 
I am by no means a exspert but have always been interested in civil war artillery I am amazed on the different styles both sides used and some times you can not really tell witch side produced it especially sepherical solid shot. I have a 12lb solid shot with no seam that is in excellent condition. I found out that it's Confederate I thought for sure it was union.
The other rifled artillery shell I have in display is a 3 inch Hotchkiss the only thing missing is the lead sabot that was around the center holding cup on.
 
Thanks for posting Great Collection.
 
Cool collection. I know so little about artillery, forgive me for a stupid question...

In the bottom photo, the piece second closest to us that has the replacement handles--are those "handles" just for supporting the artifact as it's on display? Told you I was ignorant. :smile: Regardless, I'm curious how that piece works, and especially the one two places down from it, as they look like giant minie balls. Was either one used in a rifled artillery piece?

I know you didn't ask me but I thought I'd provide a little background info anyway.

Any time you see a bullet-shaped projectile it was used in a rifled gun. The Parrott projectile had a cup-like ring of brass, cooper, lead, or wrought iron at the base that expanded when fired to catch the rifling (similar to Minie bullets). I believe such can be seen in the above photo. As has been mentioned, the Hotchkiss shell used a lead sabot to catch the rifling which mostly fell away once the round left the tube (which is why it was bad practice to fire rifled guns over the heads of friendly troops).

Rifled shells could use either timed or percussion fuses (or even combination fuses) whereas spherical shells used only times fuses. Also, rifled projectiles were loaded separately from the powder charge whereas spherical rounds were attached to their powder bags. This made loading rifled guns a bit slower than smoothbores.

Hope that's a little help.
 
I know you didn't ask me but I thought I'd provide a little background info anyway.

Any time you see a bullet-shaped projectile it was used in a rifled gun. The Parrott projectile had a cup-like ring of brass, cooper, lead, or wrought iron at the base that expanded when fired to catch the rifling (similar to Minie bullets). I believe such can be seen in the above photo. As has been mentioned, the Hotchkiss shell used a lead sabot to catch the rifling which mostly fell away once the round left the tube (which is why it was bad practice to fire rifled guns over the heads of friendly troops).

Rifled shells could use either timed or percussion fuses (or even combination fuses) whereas spherical shells used only times fuses. Also, rifled projectiles were loaded separately from the powder charge whereas spherical rounds were attached to their powder bags. This made loading rifled guns a bit slower than smoothbores.

Hope that's a little help.

Hey John,

Could you help me understand the different type fuse holes we see in Duane Pringle's spherical shells? One looks as if it had once been manufactured to receive the Bormann, the other spherical shells on his mantle looks to have been wood fuse adapters or copper ball adapters. Just want to figure this out. Sorry for. The stupid question. Thanks in advance!
 
Hey John,

Could you help me understand the different type fuse holes we see in Duane Pringle's spherical shells? One looks as if it had once been manufactured to receive the Bormann, the other spherical shells on his mantle looks to have been wood fuse adapters or copper ball adapters. Just want to figure this out. Sorry for. The stupid question. Thanks in advance!

Well, I'm not an expert regarding such things but I can say that there were shells that were fitted for wood fuse holders for use with paper fuses (probably the most common in the war) and, later, those that were fitted for Bormann - or other - timed fuses. Now then, in Confederate service the Bormann-type fuses were often quite defective so shells that were manufactured to accept such were often re-drilled so as to accept an adaptor so that they could fire paper fuses (which were more dependable). Thus, there's original paper fuse shells, Bormann fuse shells, and converted Bormann shells for use with paper fuses.

How to distinguish one fuse hole from another is beyond me I'm afraid although I do have some references that show examples and I think there's at least one YouTube video that does. Even seeing those it's still not something I'd be able to identify. So, sorry not to really answer your question. I only knows what I knows !
 
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