Solid Shot, the modern day perspective.

[Rhea Cole]

A section of National Park 1841 model six pounders firing from the position of the Chicago Board of Trade Battery December 31, 1862.

In some of the discussions I have participated in lately, there has been some questions about the effectiveness of solid shot. Nobody questions the horrific effect of a naval gun firing a 24 pound ball at pistol range. The shower of razor sharp wooden splinters was horrific. Many of us have fired solid shot at targets. In the good old days of the last century, at Stones River National Battlefield, we fired live from an original Napoleon 12 pounder six times a day all summer long. Thank goodness, adult supervision intervened before we found out just what a 12 pound ball would do to a visitor. During the first Iraq war, the U.S. Air Force dropped blivettes (SP?) i.e., solid 500 pound laser guided bombs on targets to prevent collateral damage. None of these examples give us an example of what a Civil War smoothbore cannon ball would do if fired on a real target; on December 7, 2011, the Myth Buster's found out.

They fired a six inch cannon at a berm on a weapons range in California. Apparently, whoever the gunner was did not know their business. The ball passed over the berm & into a residential area. The ball whacked through a block wall, skipped off a hillside before bounding 700 yards into a neighborhood. It was 4:15 in the afternoon, the streets were busy with children returning home from school. The errant projectile landed in the font lawn of a house & bounced through the front door. In a truth is stranger than fiction moment, the ball skipped up the stairs. A couple & child blissfully slept through the ball pocking through one wall & out the other. The were awakened by a cloud of choking plaster dust. The ball exited the stucco exterior of the bedroom, leaving a perfectly round hole. Continuing its improbable trajectory, it crossed a six lane highway without hitting anything before it knocked tiles off the roof of a house. All good things must come to an end, the errant cannonball came to a halt after it slammed through the windshield & smashed the dashboard of a Toyota Sienna minivan.

"Crazy, Crazy, Crazy, Crazy." Sheriff Sgt. J.D. Nelson said, "You wouldn't think it was possible."

Jasper Gill, the van owner who had arrived 10 minutes earlier with his son from school, "It's shocking... anything could have happened."

In our discussion thread on this forum, there have been questions as to how lethal a solid shot would have been to infantry formed up for an attack. It was doctrine for artillery to fire on such a target from the flanks, ideally at 45 degree angles. Take a finger & run it directly across the knuckles of your other hand. Now, run four fingers across your fingers at 45 degrees one way & back the other. The murderous effect from battery fire of solid shot aimed to graze & bound low across the ground would be brutal in the extreme. Adolph Metzner did not have to watch cable TV to find out what the effect of a solid cannonball was.

Adolph Metzner made this drawing of the effect of what is likely a solid shot on Confederate infantry at Stones River Battlefield. Confederate infantry manned a line behind a split rail fence 800 yards from the Chicago Board of Trade Battery's position. The broken & missing rails coupled with the mangled bodies clearly show the effects of a direct hit. Solid shot were known to wound as many as 12 men. This drawing leaves little doubt that is true. Knowing that Metzner had to stand there & carefully study every detail of this scene makes it more compelling, somehow. If you visit Stone River N.B., you can walk the fence line where this likely occurred.

Chicago Board of Trade Battery image made by the author. The Adolph Metzner drawing is from The Public Domain Review, Collections.

 

[7thWisconsin]

I remember watching the gun being fired at Stones River! You can see the projectile while in flight. I still remember the first time 10 year old me saw that drawing. Didn't want to touch the page it was on. Gave me nightmares.

 

[Rhea Cole]

I remember watching the gun being fired at Stones River! You can see the projectile while in flight. I still remember the first time 10 year old me saw that drawing. Didn't want to touch the page it was on. Gave me nightmares.

You are so right, it was really something watching the round arc out toward the TVA towers & pock! We actually managed to hit the tower a few times. When TVA removed the towers, they cut out the dented angle iron & they are in the park museum archive.

 

[UCVRelics]

The Confederate Veterans magazine has a least 3 to 5 accounts of the devastation of a cannon every month, most ended in death but there are a few that are amusing.

 

[Rhea Cole]

The Confederate Veterans magazine has a least 3 to 5 accounts of the devastation of a cannon every month, most ended in death but there are a few that are amusing.
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At Stones River Col. Gereche was struck in the head by a 12 pound shell. Rosecrans had his blood & brains splattered all over him. A Sargent leapt off his horse & disarmed the shell.

 

[Belfoured]

One thing that gets missed about solid shot is its "indirect" effect. Striking rocks, logs, trees, and other solid objects could result in lethal fragments/splinters being spewed around. There is ample evidence of this in ship to ship fights in the War of 1812/Napoleonic wars when 24 lb shot striking wood sprayed deadly/maiming splinters.

 

[Story]

This gets good around the 1.45 mark.

 

[Belfoured]

This gets good around the 1.45 mark.

And a nice illustration of using a (modified) pendulum hausse

 

[Tom Hughes]

I've always heard that by the time the civil war began, the 6 pounder was considered obsolete in light of the 12 pounder Napoleon.
6 pounders, although seemingly common, were actually rare to see in a fight.

 

[MikeyB]

This gets good around the 1.45 mark.

Did a lot of Civil War cannons fire by lighting a fuse as shown in the video? I thought it was all done by lanyard?

 

[MikeyB]

At Stones River Col. Gereche was struck in the head by a 12 pound shell. Rosecrans had his blood & brains splattered all over him. A Sargent leapt off his horse & disarmed the shell.

Do exploding shot shells looks like something out of an old cartoon - a black round ball with a fuse that gets shorter and shorter and shorter?

 

[alan polk]

Do exploding shot shells looks like something out of an old cartoon - a black round ball with a fuse that gets shorter and shorter and shorter?

Quite a few of them did, but not all.

 

[Rhea Cole]

To the above, no & no. An innovation of the Civil War era was the friction primer. Think of a .22 blank with a wire running through the bottom. The tube contains fine black powder. A bees wax plug fills the open end. The wire has what amounts to a kitchen match on it. When the gunner calls fire, the number four man bends the knee & a lanyard hooked to the wire tightens & springs back. The wire is pulled through the top of the primer & a jet of flame goes down into the breech, booom!

The exploding spherical case, shell & rifle bolts had two types of fuses. One was a timed fire. The flame of the charge lit the fuse. The fuse would burn for 2 seconds for 800 yards & explode. Contact fuses were used on the bullet shaped bolts fired from rifled cannon. It worked like it sounds.

This evening I will write a post that will, via photos, show the firing of a cannon in detail. The Utube video is in no way an example of how Civil War Cannon were loaded & fired.

Note:
Due to the poor quality of Confederate friction primers, five primers were packed for each round in an ammunition chest. At the Battle of Stones River, Water's Alabama had fuses of such poor quality that they stayed up all night making quill primers. i.e., small tubes of powder that were placed into the vent hole. The glowing end of a coil of slow match wrapped around a stick called linstock touched the fuse & booom! It was only in such extreme circumstances that Civil War field guns were fired with quill primers.

 

[Belfoured]

To the above, no & no. An inovation of the Civil War era was the friction primer. Think of a .22 blank with a wire running through the bottom. The tube contains fine black powder. A bees wax plug fills the open end. The wire has what amounts to a kitchen match on it. When the gunner calls fire, the number four man bends the knee & a lanyard hooked to the wire tightens & springs back. The wire is pulled through the top of the primer & a jet of flame goes down into the breech, booom!

The exploding spherical case, shell & rifle bolts had two types of fuses. One was a timed fire. The flame of the charge lit the fuse. The fuse would burn for 2 seconds for 800 yards & explode. Contact fuses were used on the bullet shaped bolts fired from rifled cannon. It worked like it sounds.

This evening I will write a post that will, via photos, show the firing of a cannon in detail. The Utube video is in no way an example of how Civil War Cannon were loaded & fired.

Note:
Due to the poor quality of Confederate friction primers, five primers were packed for each round in an ammunition chest. At the Battle of Stones River, Water's Alabama had fuses of such poor quality that they stayed up all night making quill primers. i.e., small tubes of powder that were placed into the vent hole. The glowing end of a coil of slow match wrapped around a stick called linstock touched the fuse & booom! It was only in such extreme circumstances that Civil War field guns were fired with quill primers.

Looking forward to the photos. You are correct regarding the video's failure to use a friction primer - but it is a nice showing of the modified p.h., which rarely gets any video "publicity". To add a subtext to yours, the "timed" fuze could either be "paper" or "mechanical" (e.g., Bormann), but the same general principle applied - unlike the percussion/contact fuzes for the rifled projectiles . One interesting theory that keeps floating around is that a lot of the ANV "overshooting" during the July 3 barrage at Gettysburg (which wreaked havoc on the Union "rear areas" but not so much on the front line) was due to a change in the paper fuze supplier as a result of an arsenal fire that Spring. Supposedly the new paper had a different burn rate, unbeknownst to the CSA gunners. I have yet to see confirmation of that.

 

[Rhea Cole]

Looking forward to the photos. You are correct regarding the video's failure to use a friction primer - but it is a nice showing of the modified p.h., which rarely gets any video "publicity". To add a subtext to yours, the "timed" fuze could either be "paper" or "mechanical" (e.g., Bormann), but the same general principle applied - unlike the percussion/contact fuzes for the rifled projectiles . One interesting theory that keeps floating around is that a lot of the ANV "overshooting" during the July 3 barrage at Gettysburg (which wreaked havoc on the Union "rear areas" but not so much on the front line) was due to a change in the paper fuze supplier as a result of an arsenal fire that Spring. Supposedly the new paper had a different burn rate, unbeknownst to the CSA gunners. I have yet to see confirmation of that.

I actually know the answer to that question. Before leaving Virginia, the A.o.N.V. artillery had been resupplied with powder from the Augusta Arsenal. One one of the few world class industrial complexes in the South, Augusta produced a superior powder. Unbeknownst to Porter Alexander & his gunners, the Augusta powder would throw a ball considerably further than the inferior powder they had been accustomed to. As a result, Lee's great artillery barrage shot the heck out of hospitals & support troops behind their real target.

Confederate friction primers were pathetic, ditto the fuses. Union ammunition chests were packed with 1.5 primers per round. Confederate boxes had an astounding five per round. As Her Hitler discovered, slaves make pathetic munitions workers.

You can now put the fuse theory to rest, even though they were probably pathetic.

 

[Rhea Cole]

Looking forward to the photos. You are correct regarding the video's failure to use a friction primer - but it is a nice showing of the modified p.h., which rarely gets any video "publicity". To add a subtext to yours, the "timed" fuze could either be "paper" or "mechanical" (e.g., Bormann), but the same general principle applied - unlike the percussion/contact fuzes for the rifled projectiles . One interesting theory that keeps floating around is that a lot of the ANV "overshooting" during the July 3 barrage at Gettysburg (which wreaked havoc on the Union "rear areas" but not so much on the front line) was due to a change in the paper fuze supplier as a result of an arsenal fire that Spring. Supposedly the new paper had a different burn rate, unbeknownst to the CSA gunners. I have yet to see confirmation of that.

Take a look at Red Leg Eye Candy that I posted. It was pure serindipity, but the images are extraordinary.

 

[Lubliner]

Returning back to December 12, 1860, the testing of rifled cannon had taken place and is mentioned in Series 3, Volume 1, page 12. At that time W. J. Hardee was Lt.-Col, First Cavalry and wrote John B. Floyd, the Secretary of War, stating;

"General Semmes, agent to purchase arms for the State of Georgia...desires to know what kind of projectile you would recommend for rifled cannon; also the weight of the field gun and size of the bore. We know that many experiments have been made under your orders and direction, and if any satisfactory results have been arrived at we should be pleased to get them....".

Two days later Floyd replies (page 14);

"...I have to state the results of trials of rifled cannon and projectiles...indicate a superiority of James' projectiles for such cannon. The regulation field 6-pounder, with rifled bore (weight 884 pounds), caries a James projectile of about 13 pounds; but you can have a field gun made to carry a 6-pound James projectile and not to weigh over 700 pounds."

The modifications and testings of course, continued through the Civil War.
Lubliner.

 

[Seduzal]

Thanks for sharing this awesome article and photos. Enjoyed it.

 

[Carronade]

I've always heard that by the time the civil war began, the 6 pounder was considered obsolete in light of the 12 pounder Napoleon.
6 pounders, although seemingly common, were actually rare to see in a fight.

I've read that 6-pounders were sometimes melted down to make 12pdrs. Probably true of other older weapons also.

 

[Belfoured]

I actually know the answer to that question. Before leaving Virginia, the A.o.N.V. artillery had been resupplied with powder from the Augusta Arsenal. One one of the few world class industrial complexes in the South, Augusta produced a superior powder. Unbeknownst to Porter Alexander & his gunners, the Augusta powder would throw a ball considerably further than the inferior powder they had been accustomed to. As a result, Lee's great artillery barrage shot the heck out of hospitals & support troops behind their real target.

Confederate friction primers were pathetic, ditto the fuses. Union ammunition chests were packed with 1.5 primers per round. Confederate boxes had an astounding five per round. As Her Hitler discovered, slaves make pathetic munitions workers.

You can now put the fuse theory to rest, even though they were probably pathetic.

Thanks. I'll bury that one right next to the theory I've seen that the A of the P gunners benefited from using powder that had been graphited - even though the Dupont patent at the time was only for blasting powder and the graphiting process was not adapted to gun powder until well after the War.