I have a few questions about a shelf frag I found many years ago at Gettysburg. I dug this around 1996 at the McMillan House (private property) on W. Confederate Ave. I found it right next to several Hotchkiss bases and marked it as a Hotchkiss nose at the time. I was going through all the stuff I dug this weekend and noticed that it is not a Hotchkiss nose, but appears to be to a 3.67 grooved-cone Schenkl, p 307 in Dickey & George. Does anyone have a measurement of the width of the grooves? I assume that would be a good way to confirm this theory.
That book lists this as having been fired from a rifled 6 pounder. I researched the cannon at Gettysburg and did not see any rifled 6 pounders among the Union cannon listed. The 2cd Connecticut did have two James rifles, but they were further south on the field. Could this have also been fired by a 20 pound Parrott? The 5th New York had the only 20 pound Parrott guns on the field. They were positioned in Evergreen Cemetery, almost directly across from where this was found on Seminary Ridge. The battle report from their Captain states that he fired 80 Schenkl shells and 63 Schenkl caseshot. (
http://civilwartalk.com/threads/white-oak-church.97836/)
Has anyone ever found this type of shell at Gettysburg before?
Thanks,
Josh
