John, I forgive you for not remembering. I was the quiet bearded guy taking pictures for Chuck. You probably realize I published his book. I don't think we exchanged more than hello and goodbye.
As to your questions - one of the most terrible blows the South suffered when the Army of Tennessee was driven into North Georgia in late November 1863 was the loss of the large Ducktown copper mine, the Confederates' only reliable supplier of raw copper. During the early months of 1864, Col. Broun dispatched teams to buy or seize the turpentine and apple jack stills in North and South Carolina. Quite a bit was brought back to Richmond but not enough to justify the continuation of the copper plugs. And yes, the gunners definitely approved of the McEvoy igniters. Numerous invoices detailing the distribution of rifled field projectiles to ANV batteries during the first half of 1864 reported equal numbers of igniters issued with a matching quantities of shells. Sadly, after June 1864, a giant black hole has swallowed just about all the paperwork involving the production and issue of projectiles.
Tredegar's day-by-day production records of cannon, implements, carriages, shells, etc., are available from two sources. Their Sales Book can be seen at the VA State Library and most of their monthly vouchers can be readily accessed at home by viewing the Citizens File available on the Fold3 web site. They back each other up. I have enclosed an example of each. The first with page 118 at the top is from their Sales Book for one week in August 1861 while the second is a February 1862 payment voucher from the Citizens File. They are a little sparse on descriptive detail but there is enough to present a fairly complete picture of their wartime production of guns, shells, and everything else.
Look at page 118's Sales Book entry "6 Boxes = 150 James Rifle shot." These are CS versions of the 3.8 inch James projectile to use with the 9 James Rifles captures a few weeks earlier at Manassas. Only U.S. James shells were captured with the guns. Later entries show Tredegar made about 450 of these whose design is unknown. They were positively sent to the field, however, I know of no surviving examples. Farther down on page 118 is the entry "1 Box - 12 Parrott shell (Manassas)." (Note cost $7.50 per shell - standard 10 pounder Parrotts were then $1.50 each.) These were the first 4.2 inch Parrotts made by Tredegar for the big 30 pounder "Long Tom" captured at Cub Run Bridge. There is a note in the Ironwork's Letter Book asking for two of the rounds to be delivered to Tredegar to make copies. These shells had Parrott's patented cast-on copper sabot on a flared base with a single deep groove. I believe this was the beginning of the manufacture of large "Tredegar Pattern" CS shells with similar copper band or lead sabots that predominated until the Tennessee sabot was introduced at the start of 1862.
The long payment voucher covers Tredegar's projectile production during the first half of Feb. 1862. This is an important one because it records the last of the 3 inch Archers (all were made by Tredegar). You see "479 - 6 pdr. Rifle shell" and "391 - 6 pdr. Rifle shot." One dollar a piece had been their standard price since they made the first in early 1861. Of course, they called them "6 pounder" because the first 3 inch Rifles were bored from a standard M-1841 6 pounder gun block. Days later, Tredegar manufactured the first "263 - 3 inch Rifle shells with copper saucers at $1.75 each." From this time forward Tredegar drops the "6 pounder" designation in favor of "3 inch". This was the start of the mass-production of the 3 inch Tennessee shells while Tredegar's Archer production halted. Note the entry "40 - 4 pdr. Rifle shells" at one dollar each. These were the 3.35 inch Archers intended for the "reamed & rifled" Virginia state guns. An earlier entry worth considering is "222 - 4.62 inch shell with Fuzes." You know the fuzes were Archer's new safety-pin percussion fuze because the same shells in the following entry "without Fuzes" (i.e., wooden fuze plugs) cost exactly one dollar less and that was the current price of Archer's patented fuzes which were then made only by Tredegar. Also, these have to be long shells intended for the heavy "Rifle Siege Guns" rather than for a rifled 12 pounder gun whose projectiles were made for $2.50 each. All of this and so much more is documented in their day-by-day production records.
These sources have offered a priceless treasure trove of projectile information. I trust the above answers your questions.
WH
