1865 charleston photo

[alwion]

You guys may have seen this before, I never had. I see what looks like some tapered nose hardings, torpedoes, what is termed 6000# blakley tube pieces, but what is the dumbbell shaped piece holding up the large ring on the left side?
Also in the ctr is a stand of grape, with vertical bars instead of Rings?

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

You have me on both counts.  I really can't see the grape you see and no idea of the "dumbbell" shaped projectile.
It is a famous photo and is also the front cover of Jack Bell's book "Heavy Artillery of the CW".
John

[Garret]

Does anyone have a clue as to where those pieces ended up?  Mike's basement, perhaps?   

[Pete George]

  Garrett, a lot of them were sent from Charleston to the museum at the US Military Academy (at West Point NY), and some of them are still there. Jack Bell's book and the Dickey-&-George book show several of them (in individual photos), with the location given as "West Point museum."

  Alwion, you asked "what is the dumbbell shaped piece holding up the large ring on the left side?" That projectile is shown on page 373 of the Dickey-&-George 1993 Edition book.  Under the book's individual photo of it, Tom Dickey wrote "This shot is probably the identical one shown in the famous photo of shells at the Charleston Arsenal. It is pictured there holding up a ring marked 'Blakely Gun Band.' This specimen is somewhat similar to the sub-caliber projectiles in that its center was trimmed down [actually, not trimmed but cast that way] to reduce weight so higher velocity could be obtained for armor punching."

  At the time of the Dickey-&-George books, it was believed to have a Read Ring sabot or a Brooke Ratchet-Ring sabot, because it was inside a glass display-case which Tom wasn't allowed to open during his photo-making trip to the West Point museum. But Jack Bell managed to get permission to do so, and his examination of it resulted in his book's statement that it has a Harding sabot.

regards,
Pete

 

[redbob]

The grapeshot that he is referring to is in front of the bolts for the 13.75" Blakely (to the  left-middle rear).

[alwion]

Pete, that was the closest I found also, but in the picture the taper on the dumbbell looked to me to be on the "outside" edge of the "bourelletes" "swell" on the very top, in Jacks and your book it is on the inside edge pointing to the ctr, maybe just the picture, but it doesn't look "exactly" the same to me which was why I asked.

The Grape has what looks like vertical wrought iron flat bars. was that a US/CS variation on the rings, or imported?
I have seen another pic( altanta arsenal?) that shows vertical rods, but not bars

[Pete George]

Alwion, unless you've seen an Atlanta Arsenal photo that I've never seen, I believe the photo of heavy-caliber Grapeshot held together by multiple vertical rods is from the Tredegar/Richmond-Arsenal site shortly after the surrender of Richmond. The photo is from the US National Archives. I only have a low-resolution version of that photo, which I will attach below this post's text. Multiple examples of that type of Grapeshot are seen at the mid-ground in the photo's center and right. Perhaps somebody here has a high-resolution version of the photo, and can "crop" that section of it, so its filesize won't be too large to post in this forum (greater than 256Kb, I think).

  Apparently, that version of Grapeshot was strictly CS-made, and only in the very-late-war period. Being present in quantity at Tredegar/Richmond-Arsenal seems to prove it was not an imported version. I am not aware of any specimens ever having been dug. Apparently, none are still in existence, because there is no modern-made photograph of that type in any of the various books on civil war artillery projectiles, nor magazine articles.

Regards,
Pete

[tomcrawford]

Sir, I believe the dumbbell shaped item is another torpedo, similar to the dome trigger floaters.  The trigger fingers are the antenna array on the top, the bottom is a weight assembly.

[alwion]

I tried to blow up the bolt

[alwion]

Tom thanks for pointing out the antenna array, I missed what that was in the ctr of the picture