I'm taking the liberty of bringing this thread back to life because I came across another noteworthy mention of the big 7.5 inch "Blakely" shells. In early February 1862, the Richmond Arsenal sent to the subordinate arsenals and depots drawings of a new regulation design for all of its field projectiles and a couple of the larger siege shells. This was the Tennessee copper disc sabot. The first letter, below, dated Feb. 10, 1862, was from Capt. Wagner commanding the Montgomery, Alabama, Depot to Capt. White at the Mount Vernon Arsenal near Mobile. Wagner advised: "I received today tracings of a different kind of rifled shell to be used from the Ordnance Bureau." "Richmond Shell" (Jack Bell's "Tredegar Pattern") for the 5.82 inch rifled Columbiad, the rifled 24 pounder also 5.82 inch and the 6.4 inch Rifles. The "New Pattern" (Tennessee sabot) for the 4.62 inch Rifle Siege Gun, 3 inch Rifle, and 2.25 inch Mountain Rifle Guns. Same for the rifled 32 pounder and the "Blakely Rifle Gun, bore 7.44" inch.
The following day, Capt. Wagner notified Capt. Olandowski (soon to be Ordnance Chief for the Army of Tenn.) about the new shell design from Richmond employing the copper disc quoting from Gorgas' letter "and abandoned the other plans for giving the shell the rotary motion." Again, the shells were listed by type with the first group continuing to use the existing "Tredegar" or "Richmond" pattern, while the second group would have the "new pattern" disc sabots. Montgomery subcontracted its shell production to nearby Janney & Co. The final paragraph at the bottom of the letter pertains to a completely different matter involving the "Read Shell" whose "pattern & tracings I found yesterday at Quartermaster's office." Wagner was not being honest here because other correspondence indicated Dr. Read's presence at Montgomery when the "tracings" of the new Mullane design arrived. A civilian ordnance agent, Read had the mold patterns and sabot-striking dies in hand to set up production of shells equipped with his superior copper cup sabots. Imagine his disappointment when he examined the drawings of the new official disc sabot. Evidently, the message was softened because Capt. Oladowski had been a fervent proponent of the Read shell. Afterwards, Dr. Read withdrew from the field and offered no further assistance during the war.
The third item seen below is page two of a Dec. 2, 1861, letter to Capt. Oladowski from the great New Orleans foundry Leeds & Co. After first discussing the manufacture of additional guns and carriages, Leeds announced: "We would be pleased to learn that there has been made some better & lighter projectile for rifled 32 Pdrs. than those made according to the Dahlgren pattern, or according to the Tredegar plan." The latter was the "Richmond shell" mentioned in the first letter from Montgomery (above) with two raised bourrelets and a cast-on lead sabot. Leeds labeled them "Tredegar shells" as does Jack Bell in his Civil War Heavy Explosive Ordnance. In case the reader was unsure of which projectiles they meant, the founders added: "The Tredegar shot, you will recollect, has a base of hardened lead with projections cast so as to fit easily with the corresponding grooves of the gun." This was Jack Bells' Type I Tredegar shell - a rare and desirable collectable. John Brooke described these "Richmond shells" in great detail in Ironclads and Big Guns of the Confederacy. They were supposed to be used by the Merrimac until Brooke's field tests proved them to be practically worthless.
The last item pictured below is a Nov. 1, 1861, bill from Leeds & Co. using their commercial letterhead. They produced 32 pounder "Dahlgren shell" and "Tredegar shell covered with lead."
Woodenhead