Sub-terra torpedos

[major bill]

It is my understanding that most Confederate land mines or "land" torpedoes were of three types.
1) a shell type using a thin tin box
2) a 10 gallon powder keg style
3) a 15 inch naval shell style

It would seem like a 15 inch naval shell would make a fairly large explosion.

 

[Noonanda]

Per the tables a 15" shell weighed roughly 330Lbs. Cant find the weight of the powder charge but likely it would still be less destructive than some of the modern artillery shells used in Iraq and Afghanistan as IED's. The South African 155 was feared especially.

 

[Carronade]

It seems unlikely that the Confederates would have actual 15" naval shells. That caliber was not in service when they took over various navy yards and arsenals. "Shell style" is probably a better description of the torpedos they could produce.

 

[Noonanda]

I read about the confederates emplacing these "land mines" during the peninsula campaign in 1862, It is discussed in "To the gates of Richmond" by Sears. Seems the union thought them barbaric and had the confederate soldiers walk up the roads and disarm them IIRC

 

[JOHN42768]

I'll buy the thin tin box filled with explosive, but can't fathom anything larger for an anti personnel mine. Last time I checked there were no Humvee's back then to blow up. Granted there were trains. I believe the purpose of the mine was two fold, first to inflict physical damage, but more so to do strike fear into the minds of the enemy

 

[UCVRelics]

Here is the account from the Battle of Blakley and a mine that was recovered there.
The Confederacy's Brig. Gen. St. John R. Liddell commanded the roughly 3,500 men at Blakeley at the time of the battle, a portion of whom had made their way there after the fall of Spanish Fort. Included in Liddell's command were two brigades under the direction of Brig. Gen. Francis M. Cockrell and composed primarily of veteran Missouri and Mississippi troops as well as two regiments of "Alabama Brigade" reserves, primarily teenage conscripts, under Brig. Gen. Bryan Thomas. Cockrell's men occupied the Confederate center and left, while Thomas's men gathered on the right. Liddell's men had cleared trees and brush in front of the main line up to a distance of 800 yards to create clear fields of fire and had erected two lines of "abates" (tangles of fallen trees with branches pointed toward the enemy), sharpened stakes, and even telegraph wire strung between stumps to impede the attackers. They also dug a series of rifle pits, in which teams of skirmishers were deployed, a short distance in advance of these obstructions. Controversially, Liddell's men had also buried dozens of land mines, a recent invention at the time called "subterra shells," in the ground in their front. Nearby on islands in the Blakeley River were two large batteries, named Huger and Tracy, which formed an integral part of the overall Confederate line.

Some of the Union casualties occurred after the battle, as the mine-ridden battlefield continued to claim victims until captured prisoners were forced to point out their locations. Allegations that some Confederates were shot even after they surrendered to USCT troops surfaced almost immediately after the battle and the truth of what happened in its chaotic last moments continues to be the subject of research and speculation today. Available evidence indicates some Union soldiers indeed may have fired on Confederates who had surrendered, but there was no large-scale massacre.

 

[redbob]

By the accounts that I have read, the 32#er was the shell of choice for the landmines and boards would be laid over the percussion fuses to increase their lethality by increasing the area that would cause a detonation when stepped on.

 

[J. D. Stevens]

One use of subterranean torpedoes during the siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana.

 

[Tut11]

Great thread! Here are a few images my research on Confederate mines and torpedoes which I have found.

 

[1st/3rdMoCav]

They were indeed used heavily at Blakeley. After the assault was over and the Confederate pows were rounded up they were sent out in squads to locate and mark their locations.

 

[1st/3rdMoCav]

Also, the floating type were rounded up after the war and dumped out in the Gulf of Mexico. Mercury fuses, still live I'd imagine.

 

[Copperhead-mi]

Correspondence from General Lee to Mosby (my bold):

NEAR UPPERVILLE, November 6, 1864.
General R. E. LEE,
Commanding Army of Northern Virginia:

GENERAL: The enemy is engaged in removing the rails from the Manassas road for the purpose of reconstructing the Winchester and Potomac. The latter is already completed to Charlestown, though it is considered doubtful whether they will proceed farther. On the 4th instant Merritt's division of Cavalry passed through Charlestown toward Harper's Ferry. Indications are that the larger portion of Sheridan's army will be transferred to Grant's. I returned from the Valley last night and send out to-day twenty-eight cavalrymen captured there. I shall send over another detachment to-day. From the time of their occupation to the abandonment of the Manassas road my command killed and captured about 600 of the enemy, about an equal number of horses, 10 wagons, &c.; my total loss did not exceed 25. I hope you will not believe the accounts published in the Northern papers and copied in ours of my robbery of the passengers on the railroad train I captured. So far from that, I strictly enjoined my officers and men that nothing of the kind would be permitted. That a great many of the passengers lost their baggage is true, because the proximity of a considerable force of the enemy allowed us no time to save it, but I explained to the passengers that persons traveling on a military road subjected themselves to the incidents of war. I have sent out a party to plant the torpedoes you sent me.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JNO. S. MOSBY,
Lieutenant-Colonel.
O.R, Series 1, Volume 43 (Part II), pg. 918

And correspondence from General Sherman in regards to guerrillas use of landmines:


In the Field, Big Shanty, June 23,1864.
Major General J. B. STEEDMAN,
Commanding District of the Etowah, Chattanooga:

GENERAL: As the question may arise, and you have a right to the support of my authority, I now decide that the use of the torpedo is justifiable in war in advance of an army, so as to make his advance up a river or over a road more dangerous and difficult. But after the adversary has gained the country by fair warlike means, then the case entirely changes. The use of torpedoes in blowing up our cars and the road after they are in our possession, is simply malicious. It cannot alter the great problem, but simply make trouble. Now, if torpedoes are found in the possession of an enemy to our rear, you may cause them to be put on the ground and tested by wagon-loads of prisoners, or, if need be, citizens implicated in their use. In like manner, if a torpedo is suspected on any part of the road, order the point to be tested by a car-load of prisoners, or citizens implicated, drawn by a long rope. Of course an enemy cannot complain of his own traps.
I am, &c.,
W. T. SHERMAN,
Major-General, Commanding.
O.R. Series I, Vol. 38, (part IV), pg. 579