Confederate 3 Inch Read Shell
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Item: Confederate 3 Inch Read Shell
Construction: Cast iron with copper fuze plug/adaptor and copper ring sabot.
Approximate size: Weight: 7.6 pounds. Diameter: 2.94 inches. Length: 7 1/2 inches.
Condition: Very good, excavated. The shell is still in its natural dug state with stable iron and complete with copper fuze plug/adaptor and copper sabot. The sabot nicely shows seven lands and grooves as a result of being fired from a captured US 3-inch ordnance rifle. In old very light white lettering just below the fuze adaptor is printed "Richmond". There are no repairs, no coating, or excessive cleaning. This shell has been deactivated.
Comments: According to Peter George, co-author of "Field Artillery Projectiles of the American Civil War", the Confederates preferred using the captured US 3-inch ordnance rifle primarily due to their quality of construction and accuracy, not to mention that they had captured a Yankee gun! Mr. George writes:
"Above all other reasons… the CS cannoneers knew the yankee-made 3” Ordnance Rifle, being made of wrought-iron instead of cast-iron, was far less likely to burst during firing than the CS-made rifled cannons (all of which were cast iron – or brass – because the Rebs weren’t industrially capable of making wrought-iron cannons). There is no record of even a single 3” Ordnance Rifle bursting in combat. (Compare that with the Parrott Rifle’s terrible record.)
Next-most-important, it had a reputation for being highly accurate. Yankee gunners who used it claimed they could put three shells into a bushel-basket at the range of a half-mile. That wasn’t stretching the truth by much. Decades ago in Georgia, I dug five fired dud 3” Hotchkiss shells in a 20-foot circle. (Remember, the civil war artillery “average” was 1 out of 4 fired failed to explode… which means 20 Hotchkiss shells were fired at that 20-foot circle, five being duds, all 5 landing within it.)"
Finally, during my discussions Mr. George about this shell, his eagle eye noticed something only a skilled professional would notice, and that is, the remnants of the paper time fuze recessed within and along the walls of the fuze adaptor. This Confederate artillery shell will be an excellent addition to any excavated Civil War artillery, battlefield, or general relic collection.
Recovered: Richmond, VA. area.
- Product Code:
- PC7174
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