CW cannonball fragment!

[gtoast99]

Hey ya'll! I have a quick question that maybe some of you can help out with. I was digging at a site near the Battle of Bentonville, NC. This particular field had the Union coming out of the treeline and taking some Confederate fire. Sure enough we found several fired and struck Confederate bullets in the area. Around the same place I found this big hunk of iron, and didn't think much of it until my friend pointed out that it was rounded, and he thought it might be a cannonball or shell fragment. The big problem I see with that is that it has a pronounced curve on one side, but appears much more flat on the other. So I'm really up in the air about this being a fragment or not. It'd be cool if it was, since it would be a first for me.

Anyways, I've attached a picture showing the fragment but also the video I made of the whole day. You can see it much more clearly in the video, and if you don't want to watch the whole thing, it's near the end so you can skip to it.

Thanks for looking, and in advance for any replies, it's certainly got me curious.

[youtube=425,350]Cv3CIvn29z8[/youtube]

 

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[gtoast99]

Re: CW cannonball fragment?

I happened across this image of a CS Polygonal Cavity shell for a 12 pounder. I know if it IS a shell fragment that it would be CS, as it was found in line with the CS fired bullets where the Union advanced towards their position. These do seem to be spherical outside and more or less flat on the inside. Apparently they were designed that way to fragment better for maximum effect. I've posted one image, but also some links to a few other examples of this shell.

What do you think??

http://americancivilwarrelics.com/Z163.htm
http://relicman.com/artillery/AAartilleryAAA.htm
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Civil-War-R...664?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2314cbcfb8
http://www.bulletandshell.com/Items/misc/item.php?id=00005

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Re: CW cannonball fragment?

It does seem to be approximately the correct size and shape to be a frag from a civil war Polygonal Cavity spherical shell. The yankees never manufactured any Polygonal Cavity cannonballs, so your shell-frag is definitely Confederate.

I should mention that the earliest use of Polygonal Cavity explosive cannonballs in civil war battles was during the summer of 1863, at Deep South states like Louisianna. The location and year of the battle is important for us relic-diggers in determining whether a cannonball fragment is a Polygonal Cavity frag, or not. For example, none are known to have been used at Gettysburg.

The Polygonal Cavity cannonball was the most common type used by the Confederate army during the Atlanta Campaign (summer 1864), and the Carolinas Campaign (1865). In Virginia, Robert E. Lee's army used some (but not "many") in 1864-65.

 

[gtoast99]

Re: CW cannonball fragment?

The Polygonal Cavity cannonball was the most common type used by the Confederate army during the Atlanta Campaign (summer 1864), and the Carolinas Campaign (1865). In Virginia, Robert E. Lee's army used some (but not "many") in 1864-65.

Awesome information!! Yep, this was found near the Battle of Bentonville, NC March 1865. Thanks so much!! You got that user name for a reason haha

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Gtoast99 wrote:
> Awesome information!

Because you seem to very much like learning the "detailed" information about your find, here's some more details.

All through Artillery history prior to the American Civil War, every explosive cannonball had a round cavity inside it for the bursting-charge gunpowder. The problem with that design is that they would often burst into as few as three or four very large fragments, instead of the dozen or more which was desired, for injuring the maximum number of enemy troops. So, in late-1862, a very smart Confederate artillery shell designer named Capt. John W. Mallet invented the world's first "internally segmented" explosive cannonballs. They are more-or-less like a World War 2 "pineapple" hand-grenade, except the segmentation is on the inside instead of the outside. The Polygonal Cavity cannonball's internal shape caused it to very reliably burst into 12 equal-sized fragments -- which eliminated the problem of bursting into too-few fragments. Also, it had the virtue of being much simpler for the Confederates to manufacture than the other existing versions of Antipersonnel shells.

Shortly after the war's end, US artillery General Henry L. Abbot praised the design of CS Capt. Mallet's polygonal-cavity cannonball, and recommended adopting it into US artillery service. But that was never done.

There were four versions of Mallet's polygonal-cavity cannonballs.

The earliest, manufactured in very-late 1862, would burst into fragments shaped like triangles and squares.

The next version, manufactured in very-early 1863, burst into pentagonal (5-sided) fragments. That's what you found. It is the "most common" type. It continued to be manufactured and used until the end of the war in 1865.

Sometime around very-early 1864, the third version was produced. It burst into diamond-shaped fragments. It too was used until the very end of the war.

A fourth type made its first appearance in mid-1864. Its fragments are trapezoid-shaped. The trapezoid type seems to have been used only by Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

Because you already posted a photo of the Pentagonal-frag type, I'll post a photo showing the Trapezoid-frag cavity, and the Diamond-frag cavity ...along with a photo of the typical "round" cavity found in the great majority of explosive cannonballs.

 

[gtoast99]

Because you seem to very much like learning the "detailed" information about your find, here's some more details.

That's why I love this hobby! It's as much about learning as finding, one without the other is just incomplete imho. Thank you very much for typing up that detailed explanation, I really appreciate it. It's great to have an ID on it, it will be cleaned up and displayed proudly.