Item Number: F00119

Item Title: Confederate landmine fragment

Price: $195

Shipping: Not included

Provenance: CS

Type: Landmine

Size: 10in spherical shell

Sabot:

Fuse: Raines landmine fuse (not included)

Book:

Location Recovered: Fort Blakely, AL

Description:Fragment of a landmine fuse recovered in front of the breastworks at the North end of the line where USCT assaulted the works. This is from a 10in ball and the explosion must have been devastating to the assault force. Those guys were very brave, and I am sure the survivors got some payback when the Confederate defenses collapsed a minute later on April 9, 1865. Sadly, at the very same time of this waste, The Army of Northern Virginia was surrendering out East at Appomattox Court House, but of course the leaders around Fort Blakely had no way of knowing that.

This is a nice chunk of the ball and it has a great section of fuse hole. The fuse hole is unique to these landmines as it is the same diameter and thread pitch as a Bormann fuse, but has no shelf that held the underplug. As most of our customers and forum members know, last Summer we acquired a very, very large collection from this area all dug by the same individual over six decades so the provenance on this piece is airtight. The fuse shown in the picture is for display purposes only, but also came from that large group so is the exact type used in these shells and shows why it was superfluous for the threads to extend all the way to the bottom of the thick wall of the fuse hole.

This is one of the rarest and coolest pieces we have had the privilege of offering here.