Confederate 3-inch "Short Pattern" Broun Shell with Original Wood Fuze Adaptor - High Quality
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Item: Confederate 3-inch "Short Pattern" Broun Shell with Original Wood Fuze Adaptor - High Quality
Gun: Confederate 3-inch rifle.
Construction: Cast iron with copper band sabot.
Fuzing: Wood fuze plug/adaptor for paper time fuze.
Approximate size: Weight: 8.4 pounds. Diameter: 2.94 inches. Length: 7.5 inches.
Condition: Excellent, excavated, with light surface pitting. The wood fuze adaptor is present. An asterisk is found stamped into the shell's bourrelet and is likely the mark of a North Carolina arsenal's inspector. The shell's thin copper sabot, with its dark patina, is intact and has two slits, or saw cuts, which aided in the expansion of the sabot into gun's grooves. It distinctly shows seven lands and grooves indicating that it was fired from a captured US 3-inch ordnance rifle (see more about this below in the Comments section). There is a small 3/4-inch section of sabot missing likely lost during firing and possibly due to having been thinly cast in that area where one of the seven "lands" is found. A visible lathe dimple is present on the bottom of the base and is surrounded by "MIDDLEWAY WV" printed in gold marker. The shell has been deactivated and treated with electrolysis and paraffin so as to preserve the iron and is ready for display. There are no repairs.
Recovered: Middleway (formally known as Smithfield) area of Jefferson County, WV.
Reference: Similar examples are pictured in:
- "Field Artillery Projectiles of the American Civil War" 1993 edition, by Thomas S. Dickey and Peter C. George, page 132.
- "Field Artillery Ordnance 1861 - 1865", by Jack W. Melton, Jr., and Lawrence E. Pawl, page 107
See above pages in the additional images.
Comments: According to Dickey & George's, "Field Artillery Projectiles of the American Civil War" 1993 edition on page 132, "Captain William LeRoy Broun, commanding the Richmond Arsenal, patented his 3" Rifle projectile in April 1864. The nose is blunter to increase its wind resistance, which it was thought would help stabilize the flight of heavy-based shells. The Confederates later adopted this principle for their 20- & 30-Pdr. Parrott Rifle rounds. He dispensed with the usual body ring above the base, making the sabot wider in diameter to act as the lower bourrelet. Two saw-cuts were added for flame grooves. The Broun projectile's first appearance is at 2nd Cold Harbor, Virginia, May 1864."
How we know this shell was fired from a US 3-inch ordnance rifle:
Peter George advised: Since 3-inch rifles used by the Confederates had either five, six or twelve groove rifling and, all Federal used 3-inch rifles had seven groove rifling, this shell with its seven lands and grooves had to have been fired from a captured US 3-inch rifle.
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!
In an email to Virginia Relics, Pete 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.)"
This excavated Confederate Broun shell offered here is brand new to the market and was acquired directly from the digger. Recovering a 3-inch Broun shell with an intact sabot is a rarity and this high-quality example will be an excellent addition to any excavated Civil War artillery or general relic collection.
- Product Code:
- PC11533
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