Mystery Artillery Frag

JoshW

Full Member
Oct 1, 2018
156
456
Valley Forge, PA
Detector(s) used
Garret AT Pro
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
This is one for any artillery experts (ie. Cannonball Guy). I have this piece of iron found with a bunch of CW shell fragments in the Shenandoah Valley. At first glance I thought it was a shell frag but I can't determine which type of shell, dispute searching the notable CW Artillery reference books. Here are some observations.

1) The outside consists of two flat surfaces that meet at about a 130 degree angle. You can see from the pictures that one side is thinner than the other.

2) The inside is rounded and is shaped just like a powder chamber. I included a shot comparing the curvature of the inside to the nose of a 3inch Parrott shell. You can see by looking at the edges of this piece that the curvature, while really close, is a wider arch than the Parrott. I also included a shot of this frag face down side by side with a 3 inch Read frag.

3) One thought was that this might be a Whitworth frag, but I am not convinced of that. I don't have one to compare the 130 angle to.

Thanks in advance for looking and your responses.

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JoshW wrote:
> One thought was that this might be a Whitworth frag, but I am not convinced of that.

It's okay to be convinced now. Your artillery shell fragment is definitely from a 2.75"-caliber Whitworth shell. The yankees never used any Whitworth explosive shells, so yours is certainly CS-used. There were only two Whitworth cannons in Lee's army, so if you do some diligent research on the battle you found that frag at, you should be able to discover which specific battery fired it. I recall that Hurt's Alabama Battery (nicknamed the Hardaway Artillery) had the two Whitworths at Gettysburg. So, if your battlesite dates to the Summer of 1863, that's who fired the shell your frag is from.
 

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Thank you for the quick response. That is exciting for sure to have it confirmed.
 

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