Relicrunner wrote:
> As mentioned above, the seller said they came from the Mobile Bay area...
Thanks for the dig-location info. I'm long-accustomed to text being only above a photo in an internet-forum post, not below a photo. The software at this forum must be different from other forums I post in.
> Does any records or documentation exist that supports that [Mobile AL dig-location]? Your book mentions several recovered along the East Coast.
I've not seen any records or documentation of use of Cochran projectiles elsewhere than the East Coast. That being said, we know that in the last few months of the war, the yankee navy was deliberately using up its stocks of "obsolete" projectiles. (It's one of the things Fort Fisher is famous for, at least among Artillery collectors.) The "East Coast" recovery-sites for Coochran projectiles are all very early-war. The US navy's bombardments of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely took place in 1865, so it "makes sense" that the leftover Cochran projectiles got used there.
> Would fragments of this shell be unique enough to be recognized as being Cochran frags?
Only the base's frags. Of the six body variations of Navy-model Cochran shells, two have smooth sides and four have bourrelets. Frags from the smooth ones are too "generic," and frags from the bourreleted ones would probably be mistaken for Confederate shells. So, only a Cochran's base frags would be distinctive enough to ID with certainty.
Regards,
Pete
