Arty fuze or shotgun slug???

S

shack

Established Users
Hey all, I recovered this lead item MDing a construction site with Dave K and his son Harrison.

It looks like a fuze to me, at least the top of one. It appears to have been hammered down in place as there appears to be no mechanism to turn it down. There is a small lip at the top.

Weighs 710 grains or 46 grams or 1.625 ozs

Diameter is .876 inches or 22.32mm, measured the middle, not the top with the lip. It's .949 in diameter measuring the lip.

Any ideas?
 

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Emike's guess is correct, Shack. This item is definitely the sideplug from an exploded Sideloader CS Case-Shot.

Sideloader-plugs were always threaded into the shellwall, and they are normally found with their threads "mostly" intact. Though most of your lead plug's threads are not visible, a few show in your 4.jpg photo.

Here's why your sideloader-plug shows few threads ...and also, why yours has a concave underside.

Lead sideplugs were made by twist-forcing a long ROUND bar of soft lead into the shell's threaded iron sideloading-hole. The lead bar was then cut off flush with the shell's surface ...thus creating a lead sideplug ...and then any protrusion on the lead plug's external side was hammered flat. (This accounts for the evidence of hammering on your plug.)

Note that neither side of such plugs was concave when it was installed in the shell.

It appears that when the shell detonated, your sideplug was violently driven out of its threaded hole in the shellwall by a "direct hit" from one of the iron case-shot balls inside the shell. That case-shot ball left its spherical impression deep in the plug's "internal" side.

Your lead plug's threads were mostly smeared away when it was forced out of its threaded hole by the iron case-shot ball.

The presence of this lead sideloader-plug at the dig-site means fighting occurred there during or after Spring 1863. That's when Sideloader Case-Shot makes its first appearance in the war.

Also... the presence of this lead sideloader-plug indicates the small (approximately .5 to .7-inch diameter) iron balls you found at the construction site are Confederate sideloader case-shot balls ...not "grape shot." :)

Regards,
Pete [PCGeorge]
 
Pete

Geez Pete, you sure do know how to make a guy feel real stupid :p

Just kidding of course. Your knowledge in artillery is simply amazing. I've learned so much from this forum in the short time I've been a member. Folks like you and the other experts here really make this a super hobby.

Amazing picture you paint with this simple relic. This is all starting to make sense now. I can picture the rebs jamming a lead pole in the side hole, cutting it off with a huge pair of snippers, then smacking the heck out of it until it is flush with the ball. I also find it amazing that one of the projectiles actually exploded into this piece, forcing it out and making a deep impression on the way.

We did find about a half-dozen case-shot in total. We got the most tones in the last hour as we wandered up a long hill and hit the south facing slope. That would have been the direction that fire was coming from. Now we know what to expect when we go back, and that may help lead to other places with similar results.

Again, thanks.

Shack
 
One more thing...

Any idea what that white stuff is caked onto the underside of the plug? It's hard but will pick off if I really pick hard. Is that the hot "matrix" solution they used inside?

Shack
 
Shack wrote:
>Any idea what that white stuff is caked onto the underside of the plug? It's hard but will pick off
>if I really pick hard. Is that the hot "matrix" solution they used inside?

Yes, I know what it is ...and your guess is exactly on-target. By early 1863, the Confederacy was short on
supplies of the two materials the yankees used for case-shot matrix (asphalt, and sulfur) .. so the
Confederate Ordnance Department substituted a material which was quite plentiful even in the wartime South:
Pine(sap)-Resin. :)

Regards,
Pete [PCGeorge]
 
ok

keep it comin! now I'm learning! I read that a while back, but never knew the CS used good ole pine sap! Wow, talk about bare bones natural resources.

Shack
 
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