Rounds

[MikeyB]

Another quick question for the learned experts.
Were most naval shells fired going to be solid shot?
In ship to ship, would you ever using exploding shot, or was it all about maximum hull penetration? And would you ever fire cannister, unless you were about to board? (And I'm guessing this wasn't a very common occurrence?) Could naval guns even fire cannister?

When besieging forts and installations, was it again mostly solid shot? I would imagine most of the time troops would be under cover, so again you would want maximum penetration?

And I assume those old pirate movies where they dump buckets of nails and chains and scrap metal is an anachronism by the time of the Civil War?

-mike

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

It pretty much came down to how "hard" the target was expected to be. A shell is of a lot less effect against an ironclad than against a wooden vessel or a formation of troops, for instance.

I don't believe canister was a standard naval round-- grape was certainly used. As for the nails and scrap metal, who would want to risk damaging their guns like that?

ETA: Though "non-standard" projectiles were occasionally used. There's one incident where "Dirty Bill" Porter's Essex supposedly fired a canister round of glass marbles at Arkansas, although the accuracy of that story has been questioned.

 

[redbob]

I've read accounts of personnel inside of ironclads hearing explosive rounds shatter against the armor and then I've read accounts of personnel being knocked down by them being too close to the armor when a solid shot hit them. I'll agree with Mark about the choice of ordnance had to do with the target. As far as anti personnel rounds, Naval vessels had canister (this particular one including spikes in addition to the balls), grape shot and quilted grape shot (shot arranged around a center post, enclosed in a bag and wrapped in rope). Photos by Jack Melton www.civilwarartillery.com

 

[redbob]

As for your question about fortifications, it had to do mostly with what they were constructed of. Brick fortifications such as Fort Sumpter were susceptible to impact damage from solid shot whereas fortifications built of earth and sand such as Fort McAllister were more difficult to damage as the earth and sand absorbed the impact/detonation of rounds. In this case your best bet was to attempt to disable the armament instead of damaging the structure. Damage at Fort Pusaski from rifled guns firing James' 7" solid bolts.