Palmetto Sharps

[Wilmington Mike]

These sharps bullets with long sprues are found in the camps occupied by Charleston Light Dragoons.  They apparently are now called Palmetto Sharps.  .543 OD, they look like a regular sharps other than the elongated sprues.  Thoughts?

[mgmradio]

 I found a number of them in camps in Virginia. In my opinion they are just New Model Sharps bullets that the sprew was not cut off after they were removed from the mould.

[aggiereb]

I agree with you that they appear to be regular Sharps without the sprues removed.  In my opinion, the disinguishing characteristic of these bullets is that they were intentionally made that way. 

I had never seen or heard of such bullets until a few years ago.

Wes

[misipirelichtr]

Interesting some have been found in Virginia.  New information to me.  I believe they were named Palmetto is because the first documented recovery was in a river in SC, I think in or near Columbia.  Only ones I personally recovered were in SC. 

[aggiereb]

Likewise, I had never heard of them outside SC.  From my readings, it appears they were dumped in the Congaree river in Columbia when the Yankees arrived.  It was assumed they were awaiting sprue removal.  It wasn't until a few years ago they showed up in excavations around Columbia, indicating they had been sent to the field with the untrimmed sprues.  Prior to that they were only found in the river.

Interestingly, I read that the ones fished out of the river are always darkened because of a creosote plant dumping upriver.

Wes