Bullet and Shell Civil War Projectiles Forum
Relic Discussion => Artillery => Topic started by: speedenforcer on October 18, 2017, 08:18:39 PM
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I know the civil war era incendiary rounds are one of the rarest. How often were they used in the war, how effective and what types of targets were they employed against. Supply depots?
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I have seen a few used against Fort Fisher, the barracks were burned down and fires set in other areas. I don't know the ratio but in a very unofficial survey roughly 10% of the 100 pound Parrotts were incendiary. Probably more useful for shooting at ships and starting fires which is the worst thing to happen to a ship
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I know Fort Fisher and Charleston areas have the incendiary rounds recovered. Anyone know where else they've been found? Any from the western theatre? I would think they might have been used around Mobile.
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My 8.0-inch Parrott incendiary shell came from Charleston. At one time I also had a 6.4-inch Parrott two-compartment incendiary shell, also Charleston. According to the ORs, Gillmore was obsessed with using them around Charleston.
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Contemporary records suggest the CS Army's Ordnance Bureau had more than a passing interest in incendiary ammunition - both field and heavy. The first pic below is page one of a December 5, 1861, letter from ordnance officer Capt. J. Henderson to Gen. Bragg. Feeling anxious about the defenses of Pensacola, I take the liberty to drop you a line to say that a new projectile has recently been invented here (i.e., New Orleans) which would no doubt be of great service to you... I refer to a shell filled with an inflammable material which sticks to almost any and everything it touches and burns so intensely that water has no effect in quenching the flame. It sounds a lot like modern napalm.
Eventually, the concept was embraced by the Richmond authorities. I'm speaking only of the army here. The Navy operated on its own track and I have few of their production records. The second picture below is an excerpt from Tredegar's Sales Book for the month of April 1863. For the Napoleons of the Army of Northern Virginia, the famed ironworks made 2,360 12 pdr. Shrapnel (case shot, I believe) followed by "1,590 12 pdr. Incendiary shells." These must have been fired at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. I don't know how much production followed because there were few entries labeled "Incendiary" during the last two years of the war. As an aside, another noteworthy entry on this April 1863 production report is "One 10 pdr. rifled Mullane gun complete" for $350. Yes, this was the same Tennessee guy who brought the concept of a disc sabot to Richmond in 1861. This was the only wrought iron 3 inch Rifle produced by Tredegar during the war. What we know is that John Mullane was a civilian ordnance agent associated with Alabama's Montgomery Arsenal. During late 1864 and early 1865, assisted by the Richmond Arsenal, he tried to set up a factory in Danville, VA, to manufacture wrought iron 3 inch Rifles. I am not aware of any finished products.
The third document below reported the Jan. 30, 1864, receipt at the Army depot at Goldsboro, NC, of various field projectiles. They could have been sent from Richmond or Georgia (or elsewhere). On the first line "40 Rounds 3 inch Rifle Case Shot." Since the production of side-loading Rifle ammunition stopped during the spring of 1863, these must have been filled thru the fuze hole as has been noted in examples dug at Petersburg by Col. Biemeck. On the second line, "280 Rounds of 3 inch Rifle shell." In January 1864, the last of the common 3 inch Reads with copper cups was being made before a switch to the rounded-nose Broun shells was required. But the third line is most important: "80 Rounds 3 inch Rifle Incendiary." Maybe that's what made the Wilderness burn.
The last document dated March 5, 1863, lists Confederate heavy ammunition delivered to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. About 2/3rds of the way down is 16 - 8 inch shells incendiary. I'm certain there are more "incendiary" listings among the thousands of CS ordnance documents available on fold3.com, but only recently did I file them as a separate category.
Woodenhead
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Some were homemade. The Confederates tried to remove Bormann fuses and mix into the shells pieces of port fire and bursting charge of powder to fire at Yankee ships passing Vicksburg.
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Mike the the base of a 100lb Parrot incendiary shell I found near Chester Va. I was also present when a whole ground burst 100lber was found. Hope that helps expand the location of fopield finds. Gary
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Your Honor,
You got to dumb it down a little. what is a fopield find? Sir? Also is that invite to come to your chambers and see some of your shells still open. I would love to come see them.
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My guess is "fopield" was meant to be "field".
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::) ok I see that now, sorry judge.
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so what different compositions did they use. Seems to me we did cover this before. Greek Fire (what ever that is), Turpentine, etc. etc.
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The week before he died, Sam White drilled into a 30 pound Parrott shell I had bought from Harry R, and found that it contained a white liquid that he saved in a Mason jar for me. He said it was probably an incendiary round. After his death, the jar disappeared, as did the shell. I had intended to have it analyzed, but no luck.
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I would bet my inheritance that it was confiscated in the interest of public safety after the tragic accident. Sometimes Local, State, and Federal Law Enforcement get a little ridiculous and uses that to excuse their stupid decisions.
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Scott, do you remember the recovery location of that 30 lb. Parrott shell? Just curious if it was Fort Fisher.
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Thank you guys for the spell check. Yes it was a FIELD find. Guess my eye sight is the second thing to go with age! Yes that invite is still open. Just give me a shout when you want to come by. 904-255-1354 is the office number. Gary
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Thank you guys for the spell check. Yes it was a FIELD find. Guess my eye sight is the second thing to go with age! Yes that invite is still open. Just give me a shout when you want to come by. 904-255-1354 is the office number. Gary
No, but I probably have the records somewhere. It was a late war shell.
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About 15-16 years ago, I had a badly corroded incendiary shell unloaded mainly to save the fuze, with the contents saved. (See page 58 of my book on CW Heavy Explosive Ordnance). The liquid inside smelled very much like turpentine, although there was also a smell of black powder in it, probably from the fuze and bursting charge.
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Jack, Your book is next on the list.
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For what it is worth in Chuck Jones' fuse book on page 107 is an incndiary Parrott shell fired across the James River from Dutch Gap. It has a very rare Tice concussion fuse as well as Mac Mason's writing on it.
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yes got that book. ill re read it when I get off work. how hard is it to find a good example of a tice?
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The hardest part is probably paying for one. A nice Tice fuse alone is probably in the mid teens $ wise and a good shell with a Tice fuse in it is still higher.
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Isn't the Tice fuse the one that is so dangerous and unstable?
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somewhat for my understanding.
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yep, it was dangerous to the gunners back then too which is why it is seldom encountered. It's use was discontinued pretty quickly
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Emike123 wrote:
> For what it is worth in Chuck Jones' fuse book on page 107 is an incndiary Parrott shell fired across the James River from Dutch Gap. It has a very rare Tice concussion fuse as well as Mac Mason's writing on it.
Mike, part of the Jones book's history of that Tice-Fuzed Parrott Incendiary shell is incorrect. I'm sure about it, because that shell was part of Mac Mason's artillery shell collection when I bought it from Mac several years before he passed away. Mac dug that shell himself, and he (deservedly) proudly told me how he found it. He read a report in the US Navy Official Records about a yankee gunboat firing three experimental Tice-fused Parrott Incendiary shells at a house above the James River's banks below Richmond. The report said two exploded, consuming the house, and the third was a dud. Mac did the necessary research to locate the house site and by golly he found the one-out-of-three which was a dud. He had the shell's top sawed off to show the shell's interior and bottom of the Tice fuze.
Mac Mason passed away about 30 years ago, and my memory is now shredded enough that I can't remember the yankee ship's name... but the shell was NOT "fired (by yankee Army artillery) across the James River from Dutch Gap." Notice that the Jones book's photo shows Mac painted a USN anchor on the shell's side. Somebody here can reply do a Navy Official Records keyword-search for "Tice" and find the report with the ship's name and other details.
I had to speak up, lest that's shell's amazing dig-history be lost.
Regards,
Pete
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Wow now that is an awesome relic. Now not to talk bad of Mr. Mason, but that was no ordinary shell. I don't think I would have sawed into that very historical shell. :o
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I always thought the Confederates fought in a most civilized manner. Despite their desperation and ultimate defeat, they treated the enemy prisoners as well as possible and there are no mass graves of their black population. Indeed, the only wartime mass grave of the black population I am aware of is in New York City where the ancestors of today's "snow flakes" slaughtered them to demonstrate their opposition to the draft. But I digress.
While browsing the tens of thousands of CS documents available on fold3.com, I find the naughty Rebel ordnance boys came up with a "suffocating shell." It was developed in Nashville at the same time Forts Henry and Donelson were being captured by Gen. Grant. An appropriately named "Professor Vile" was responsible and presented his concept to Col. Gorgas, the Chief of Ordnance in Richmond. Gorgas ordered five samples to be sent to Richmond. They were produced in February 1862 by Nashville's Ellis & Moore, one of the primary western theater suppliers of artillery projectiles until the city fell a short time later. The invoice is pictured below reading: "5 Suffocating Shells fitted up for Prof. Vile forwarded to Col. Gorgas." They were large mortar balls obviously intended to hinder the North's powerful river fleet. The last document pictured below is a letter to Capt. Moses Wright, commander of the Nashville Arsenal, soon to gain fame as commander of the Atlanta Arsenal. "I will be much obliged if you will let the bearer have an order for me to take ___ mortar shells to the Penitentuary and fill them immediately in order to send away to Richmond by request of Col. Gorgas... I am going to fill them with explosives, etc., leaving out the poison..." I don't even want to know what the penitentuary was doing with "Suffocating Gas" on the premises.
Woodenhead