Flat headed Bolts as Shor or Shell

[kevikens]

I am reading the journal of British Colonel Freemantle and he writes of his visit to Charleston at about the time the USN was employing iron clads to attach Fort Sumter. According to the Confederate officer he was speaking to the Confederates had great success firing what are called "flat headed bolts" from their smooth bore guns. Can someone familiar with artillery describe these shells or shot, their design and composition? Did any warships carry this ammunition or was it used only in coastal forts? Thanks.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

I think I've only seen these mentioned in conjunction with solid shot, not as shells... they look pretty funky, sort of like giant thimbles.

But I'm confused as to the "success" in firing them from "smooth bore" guns, as these were normally projectiles for rifles. A smoothbore would have fired a roundshot instead, since there'd have been no spin-stabilization to keep an enlongated bolt from tumbling...

 

[redbob]

I agree, the bolts (cast iron solid projectiles designed to batter/smash instead of exploding) were just as described as being mainly flat on their tops (supposedly so that they would hit flat and not skid off) and that they were fired from rifled guns only. I say this because the heavy flat top bolts that I have seen all have rifling marks on their sabots from being fired from rifled guns. They were used both on ships and coastal fortifications and remember that Fremantle was an Infantry officer and not an artilleryman so that he may have been mistaken about what type gun fired what projectile. If you want to see what they look like, go to www.civilwarartillery.com , click on the heavy projectiles tab and then on the rifled tab. Look especially for the Brooke and Tennessee Sabot shells/bolts.

 

[kevikens]

I wondered about that which is why I cited the exact statement that the Confederate officer made to Freemantle. Perhaps neither the officer or Freemantle were versed enough in the technology of artillery to get it right. do you know if these shot were solid iron or did they have a steel component in them?

 

[redbob]

I wondered about that which is why I cited the exact statement that the Confederate officer made to Freemantle. Perhaps neither the officer or Freemantle were versed enough in the technology of artillery to get it right. do you know if these shot were solid iron or did they have a steel component in them?

Cast or wrought iron, steel really had not been developed enough (especially in the South) to be used in shells or cannon. For example,the only cannon that I know of that were made of steel were four Singer- Nimick guns (clones of a 3" Ordinance rifle)-one of which is at Gettysburg and another at Chickamauga.

 

[kevikens]

I read some more of Freemantle's tour of Sumter and the harbor. His guide was a captain Feildon, a fellow Brit who had served in the 42nd Highlanders. He is the one who made the first smoothbore remark. Freemantle might have detected a possible error from his guide because a page later he refers to the Brook guns using the flat head bolt shot. Colonel Rhett, described by Freemantle as the commanding officer of Sumter makes the statement that "they should have dosed them with flathead bolts out of the smoothbore guns which could travel accurately enough for 500 or 600 yards". Beauregard is quoted as saying that "solid flat-headed rifled seven inch bolts penetrated the armor of the monitors out to 1200 yards". Perhaps these bolt were used in both kinds of guns. If you have Freemantle's journal the discussion of these bolts takes place around page 147 in the 1954 first edition copy edited by Walter Lord.

 

[redbob]

I read some more of Freemantle's tour of Sumter and the harbor. His guide was a captain Feildon, a fellow Brit who had served in the 42nd Highlanders. He is the one who made the first smoothbore remark. Freemantle might have detected a possible error from his guide because a page later he refers to the Brook guns using the flat head bolt shot. Colonel Rhett, described by Freemantle as the commanding officer of Sumter makes the statement that "they should have dosed them with flathead bolts out of the smoothbore guns which could travel accurately enough for 500 or 600 yards". Beauregard is quoted as saying that "solid flat-headed rifled seven inch bolts penetrated the armor of the monitors out to 1200 yards". Perhaps these bolt were used in both kinds of guns. If you have Freemantle's journal the discussion of these bolts takes place around page 147 in the 1954 first edition copy edited by Walter Lord.

This is a new one on me, I'll have to check Freemantle's book; I've never seen or heard of rifled projectiles being fired from smoothbore guns. Thanks for the brain exercise, it helps to clean the cobwebs out.

 

[redbob]

This is a new one on me, I'll have to check Freemantle's book; I've never seen or heard of rifled projectiles being fired from smoothbore guns. Thanks for the brain exercise, it helps to clean the cobwebs out.

In the original 1863 edition, Colonel Freemantle states: (referring to Colonel Rhett) the latter told me, that if the ironclads had come any closer than they did, he should have dosed them with flat-headed bolts out of the smooth-bore guns, which, he thinks, could travel accurately enough for 500 or 600 yards.

 

[kevikens]

For what it is worth I have fired minie balls from smoothbore barrels, .58's reamed out post war smoothbore conversions, and .69 minie balls from smooth bore muskets. They obviously come out of the barrels, wobbling and perhaps tumbling as they sometimes key holed the target.