Gentlemen,
I recently procured an "unknown shell" at auction. The shell had been dug by long time relic hunter Ken Brame in the days before NPS put and end to digging on national Battlefields. Brame had painted (rather sloppily) "Barlows Knoll" on the shell. After more than a fair amount of research, I identified the shell as an Armstrong minus it's lead encased sabot. Here's where it gets interesting;
the base mic's out at 3.3" and tapers as it moves forward. After that discovery, I realized that this munition could not have been used in a muzzle loading Parrot or Ordinance Rifle (even had they been bored to 3.3") Apparently the only system capable of firing this round was the British made Armstrong (a considered superior to its contemporary Whitworth counterpart.) There exists no (remaining) record of an Armstrong at Gettysburg. based on the location of this find, the most likely Confederate Artillery Bn would have been Jone's of Ewell's II Corps. However, of the four batteries in Jones' Bn, there was the normal mix of two 10" Parrots, six 3" Rifles and eight 12' Napoleons. This shell, if I have identified correctly and found where reported to have been dug, would rewrite a small piece of history. I open it up to this informed body for discussion. Mike
(I will have to post photos separately dues to size restrictions)
