The James Projectile and sabot;

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

To All,
Since the James was the the last trilogy of unaswered 'stuff'  I will kick this one off by stating that I know of only two James with the "dome" on its base, one owned by the Atlantic Historical Society (formerly belonging to Tom Dickey) and the second in the West Point Museum.  None have been dug and to my tired brain, is not a sufficient quanity to consider an operatikonal feature.  The one Tom Dickey had would not even stay inside the base lip of the shell "bird cage".  No other evidence known.
Best Regards,
John
next!

[Dave the plumber]

 I personally have never seen a base cup offered for sale or in a junk box at a show.....

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Dave,
I only know of two of these base cups (domes).   One in the Atlanta Historical Society (Tom Dickey's) the other at the West Point Museum (according to John Biemick).
With only two known specimens of this thing and noe dug, it is apparent that it was not operational. Jack Melton reported that in the Dickey specimen the cup or dome would not stay in place with a possible missing piece.
with only two known it is hardly worth discussion since there appears to be no reference of its use.
Regards,
John

[speedenforcer]

ok i am lost now, are there any pictures available for this projectile?

[pipedreamer65]

with only two known it is hardly worth discussion since there appears to be no reference of its use.
Regards,
John

So why is it being discussed?

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Sir,
  The James came up in a previous discussionn of what Civil War projectiles were 'fixed ammunition" or not.  So I started a separate post on it to separate it from the Tennessee Sabot and the Schenkl projectiles to keep down confusion in the discussion of three projectiles in one post.
     After talking with Jack Melton Jr., noted author and historian of ACW munitions,  he stated that when he photographed the the one in the Atlanta Historical Society (formerly belonging to author and collector Tom Dickey) that if its base cup was not held in position that it would fall off and appearing not to be part of the shell.  Some have thought that the so called "cup" was part of a system to tie on a powder bag.  Tom Dickey thought it to be some sort of blast pressure reducer to lower the blast pressure and thushelp  retain the composition sabot.  You will  have to wait for Jack's new book to be published in order to see a quality photo of it..  Below is the shell, minus the "cup".
Regards,
John

[CarlS]

A picture of one with the cup on it can be found on page 189 of the 1993 Edition of the Dickey and George book.  None of my other artillery books show the cup on the base.  I have never seen a cup that I can recall.

[speedenforcer]

ok thankyou