Artillery Fuse- Cannonballguy?

[Fullstock]

I found this Civil War artillery fuse today, can someone ID what it is? Thanks!

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

Congratulations, your guess is correct, it is a civil war artillery shell fuze-plug. The specific pecific version you found is called a Confederate Timefuze Adapter-plug for use in Field Artillery calibers of cannonballs. Most of the Confederate fuzeplugs were made of copper or "high copper content brass" because the zinc needed for creating brass was scarce in the wartime South.

The specific version you found was most often used in CS 12-Pounder (4.62"-caliber) explosive cannonballs... but it has also been found in smaller (6-Pounder) and larger (24-Pounder) cannonballs.

Another version which looks identical to yours except for having a longer body was made to be used in cylindrical shells for Rifled cannons... which have longer range, and therefore need a longer fuze than the cannonballs used by smoothbore cannons. So, your "short" version came out of an exploded cannonball. But there is an exception to that rule... in the Atlanta Campaign (mid-1864), desperate Confederate artillerymen who aupply of the long-range version had to use some of your short version in a cylindrical shell... specifically, a CS 2.9"-caliber Read-Blakely sabot shell (previously called an Atlanta Arsenal Type 1 shell). I know about that exception-to-the-rule because I dug a few of those when I hunted the Altanta Capaign battlesites back in the latter-1970s. When I disarmed those CS Read-Blakely sabot shells, I discovered they had the short CS fuzeplug in them... which was NOT supposed to be used in cylindrical shells.

Both your version and the longer version first show up on battlefields in very-early 1863, and were used to the end of the war. The photo below shows your CS artillery timefuze adapter-plug in a sawed-in-half CS 12-Pounder "Sideloader" Case-Shot shell.

 

[Fullstock]

Congratulations, your guess is correct, it is a civil war artillery shell fuze-plug. The specific pecific version you found is called a Confederate Timefuze Adapter-plug for use in Field Artillery calibers of cannonballs. Most of the Confederate fuzeplugs were made of copper or "high copper content brass" because the zinc needed for creating brass was scarce in the wartime South.

The specific version you found was most often used in CS 12-Pounder (4.62"-caliber) explosive cannonballs... but it has also been found in smaller (6-Pounder) and larger (24-Pounder) cannonballs.

Another version which looks identical to yours except for having a longer body was made to be used in cylindrical shells for Rifled cannons... which have longer range, and therefore need a longer fuze than the cannonballs used by smoothbore cannons. So, your "short" version came out of an exploded cannonball. But there is an exception to that rule... in the Atlanta Campaign (mid-1864), desperate Confederate artillerymen who aupply of the long-range version had to use some of your short version in a cylindrical shell... specifically, a CS 2.9"-caliber Read-Blakely sabot shell (previously called an Atlanta Arsenal Type 1 shell). I know about that exception-to-the-rule because I dug a few of those when I hunted the Altanta Capaign battlesites back in the latter-1970s. When I disarmed those CS Read-Blakely sabot shells, I discovered they had the short CS fuzeplug in them... which was NOT supposed to be used in cylindrical shells.

Both your version and the longer version first show up on battlefields in very-early 1863, and were used to the end of the war. The photo below shows your CS artillery timefuze adapter-plug in a sawed-in-half CS 12-Pounder "Sideloader" Case-Shot shell.

Thank You, I appreciate the information!

 

[A2coins]

Amazing info Well done great piece