DaveBrt
1st Lieutenant
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2010
- Location
- Charlotte, NC
From the Athens, Ga. Southern Watchman of July 6, 1864
"The Last Invention Out
A Yankee revelator bailing "just from Richmond," furnishes the New York World with an elaborate description of the defences of Richmond, which he describes as the most stupendous, perfect and formidable that the military art and negro labor could make them. But after dwelling at length upon every device of the Virginians for shedding Yankee blood, he winds up with this account of a conspiracy against their stomachs:
Before leaving the defences of Richmond, I must mention a new and novel invention by Capt. Holden, of the rebel army. It is nothing more nor less than a stink ball, designed to be fired into the works of besiegers to stink them out. About the middle of April I was one of several civilians, who upon invitation, accompanied a party of officers to Atlee's Station, on the Central Railroad, ten miles from Richmond, to witness some experiments with this ball. The ball is an iron shell containing combustible and destructive material, as well as odoriferous matter, and in appearance is similar to the stink ball in use many years ago. It is designed to be thrown by mortars, but in the tests on the occasion referred to, the fuse was lighted and the shells allowed to fulminate where they were placed. The stench which followed the explosion was the most fetid and villainous that ever assailed the olfactories of man. Coleridge said that he counted in Cologne seventy-seven
"Well defined and several stinks."
But if he had been at Atlee's Station on the day of the experiments alluded to he would have recognized them all, and seventy-seven thousand more. The concentrated stink of all the skunks, polecats, ******s, pitch sulphur, rasped horses and horses' hoofs, burnt in fire, assafoetida, ferris and bug weed in the world, could not equal the smell emitted by these balls. But not only is the smell itself intolerable, but it provokes sneezing and coughing, and produces nausea, rendering it impossible for men to do duty within reach of it. A single ball will impregnate the atmosphere for fifty yards round, and the fetid compound, entering everything it touches, emits the stench for a long time. The opinion of all who witnessed the experiment was that the ball was a fair offset to Greek fire, and Gen. Winder and several others of rank who were present, expressed the belief that it would prove more effective for driving off besiegers than anything ever invented. Be this as it may, if Richmond is ever threatened by siege, the sneezers, as the inventor facetiously calls his balls, will form a prominent feature in the defensive operations."
Does anyone have any references for this shell being used in combat?
"The Last Invention Out
A Yankee revelator bailing "just from Richmond," furnishes the New York World with an elaborate description of the defences of Richmond, which he describes as the most stupendous, perfect and formidable that the military art and negro labor could make them. But after dwelling at length upon every device of the Virginians for shedding Yankee blood, he winds up with this account of a conspiracy against their stomachs:
Before leaving the defences of Richmond, I must mention a new and novel invention by Capt. Holden, of the rebel army. It is nothing more nor less than a stink ball, designed to be fired into the works of besiegers to stink them out. About the middle of April I was one of several civilians, who upon invitation, accompanied a party of officers to Atlee's Station, on the Central Railroad, ten miles from Richmond, to witness some experiments with this ball. The ball is an iron shell containing combustible and destructive material, as well as odoriferous matter, and in appearance is similar to the stink ball in use many years ago. It is designed to be thrown by mortars, but in the tests on the occasion referred to, the fuse was lighted and the shells allowed to fulminate where they were placed. The stench which followed the explosion was the most fetid and villainous that ever assailed the olfactories of man. Coleridge said that he counted in Cologne seventy-seven
"Well defined and several stinks."
But if he had been at Atlee's Station on the day of the experiments alluded to he would have recognized them all, and seventy-seven thousand more. The concentrated stink of all the skunks, polecats, ******s, pitch sulphur, rasped horses and horses' hoofs, burnt in fire, assafoetida, ferris and bug weed in the world, could not equal the smell emitted by these balls. But not only is the smell itself intolerable, but it provokes sneezing and coughing, and produces nausea, rendering it impossible for men to do duty within reach of it. A single ball will impregnate the atmosphere for fifty yards round, and the fetid compound, entering everything it touches, emits the stench for a long time. The opinion of all who witnessed the experiment was that the ball was a fair offset to Greek fire, and Gen. Winder and several others of rank who were present, expressed the belief that it would prove more effective for driving off besiegers than anything ever invented. Be this as it may, if Richmond is ever threatened by siege, the sneezers, as the inventor facetiously calls his balls, will form a prominent feature in the defensive operations."
Does anyone have any references for this shell being used in combat?
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