C. S. Harding Projectile;

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

To All Interested,
    Last year I obtained the illustration plates from Gilmore's Siege of Charleston.  Below is a specimen from Long Island on James Island and the comparison drawing by Gilmore.  Looks a little like Parrott except for the alternating height of the sabot tabs.
Regards,
John

[CarlS]

John,

Thanks for sharing.  Very nice projectile and I don't recall ever seeing one or even a piece of sabot with the alternating tab height.  Some questions:

• What caliber is it? The drawing indicates 8-inch but I don't recall an 8-inch CS gun at Charleston and most Harding projectiles seem to come from Charleston as best I know.
• Also the rifling on your fired example appears to maybe be Brooke ratchet rifling.  Is that the case?  I kind of see full lands-n-grooves too but not sure.
• What type of fuse does it have?

Thanks,
Carl

[CarlS]

Well, had I looked in Jack Bell's book before I typed the above reply I would have noticed this projectile in Jack Bell's book. I see the rifling on the one in Jack's book matches an 8-inch rifled Columbiad now located in Ft. Moultrie so that's probably the case of your example too.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Carl,
Both the real projectile and the drawing are 8" .  No idea where it was shot from or from what but it landed on Long Island where most of them were found.  Normally they would use a C.S. time fuse adapter, but many were duds.
John

[CarlS]

The one in Jack Bell's book, page 234, indicates it has a wood fuse adapter hole in the nose.  It seems from looking at the variety of Harding projectiles in Jack's book that they were all either bolts or wood fused shells.  No example shown with a threaded fuse hole.  It seems likely this is what the pictured example above had.

I've dug a number of shells at Long Island and seen a bunch of projectiles from there but never an 8-inch caliber round.  There were 6.4-inch and lots of 7-inch rifled rounds.   I'll have to ask some of my friends that dig down there what might have been found that I've not seen.  One good friend occasionally reads this forum and might be able to offer some archeological input here.  He would know if anyone did what came from there.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Carl,
  My mistake, they do use wooden time fuse adapters.
This pr0ojectile came from L9ong Island.
John

[6lbgun]

In Manigault,s diary (Siege Train) he talks of inspecting the batteries on James Island.  In his inspection of Battery 0 in his entry of 31, Aug 1864 he mentions: "1 8in. Rifle double banded, 10 groves Saw fashion......
1 nondescript ("Hardin"), 29 8in Rifle Shell in magazine."
This is found on page 237.
Hope this helps.

Dan

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Thanks Dan,
   Below is some more data on Harding.  If you haven't read Warren Ripley's Book "Siege Train" you are missing a treat about Charleston
John
.

[CarlS]

I agree about Siege Train.  Anyone who likes Charleston or likes ACW artillery should read it.  It is a very good read.  Thanks for digging up the info from Manigault. 

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

To All Interested,
    Below is my rendering of the Harding shell to better illustrate the sabot.
Regards,
John

[Selma Hunter]

Bart -

Great art - as always! Thank you for your continued contributions.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Thank you Bill, my pleasure.
Regards,
Bart