The Confederate shell, below, has about the most obvious tie-ring feature seen on any wartime Rebel shell. Most likely, it was never used for that purpose. The reason is that it was designed by Robert Archer for the state of Virginia's ordnance department in early 1861, not long after the VS state congress allocated money in January for Tredegar to "ream and rifle" around 50 of its old iron 4 pounder cannon. They would have to purchase a projectile and Archer had the mold pattern fabricated (usually white pine) which included the afore mentioned tie-ring groove. For the first 6 1/2 months of the year, all VA field artillery projectiles were "fixed."
Then, around mid-June 1861 Col. Gorgas and the CS Ordnance Bureau relocated from Montgomery to Richmond. One of their first important actions was to take full responsibility for all ordnance production. At this time, not a single state 4 pounder had been rifled. Tredegar's limited workforce was busy with other projects. At the urging of Gen. Pendleton and other artillery officers, Tredegar finally began rifling the state guns and making around 5,500 of these squat projectiles in September. As replacement guns were manufactured or captured, the old iron cannon and these projectiles were returned to Virginia's control. When used by Army of Northern Virginia gunners, separate cartridge bags were employed as stated in the opening posting. When the state of Virginia resumed control of the gun, I believe they continued to use separate linen bags, but I can't state it as a fact.
The two invoices below show additional examples of the South using "fixed" ammo. For every one of these, there are literally hundreds of invoices where the cartridge bags were not fixed!
Woodenhead