grapeshot?

[khbynum]

This question is not about the game, so I hope I may be forgiven, but since there are so many here with knowledge of the war I thought I would ask.

The phrase "a storm canister and grapeshot" is so common in Civil War writings that even professional historians use it, but as I understand it grapeshot was a naval munition, not used by field artillery. My only reference to field artillery does not list grapeshot in the standard load carried in limbers and caissons. I think captains of rifled guns were reluctant to use anything but shot, case and shell for fear of damaging the rifling. Comments from you grognards?

[Jim-NC]

As I understand it, grape was used on land in smooth bore cannons only. The issue was the distance factor, you had to be real close to use grape, and were probably taking casualties from the enemy infantry at that time. Rifled cannons only used shells or other solid type shells (due to the rifling).

[charlesonmission]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapeshot

[George McClellan]

Grapeshot was used in field artillery since George Washington and Napoleon's time. As Jim had said, they were only used in smoothbores. It became somewhat obselete after the Canister shot.

[Stauffenberg]

Of course an even more effective WMD was developed by the South in the form of the double-barrelled-cannon:

[INDENT]In 1862 John Gilleland, dentist, builder and mechanic, designed the double-barreled cannon. It was cast in Athens, Georgia, for a cost of $350. The two barrels have a divergence of 3 degrees, and the cannon was designed to shoot simultaneously two cannon balls connected with a chain to "mow down the enemy somewhat as a scythe cuts wheat".

First tested on 22 April 1862, and aimed at a target of two upright poles, uneven combustion of the powder and casting imperfections in the barrels gave the connected balls a spinning movement in an off-center direction, with witnesses reporting that on its first firing it "plowed up about an acre of ground, tore up a cornfield, mowed down saplings, and then the chain broke, the two balls going in different directions."

On its second firing the chain shot across the horizon and into a thicket of pine. "[The] thicket of young pines at which it was aimed looked as if a narrow cyclone or a giant mowing machine had passed through", reported another witness.

On its third firing the chain snapped immediately and one ball tore into a nearby cabin, knocking down its chimney, the other spun off erratically and struck a nearby cow, killing it instantly. Gilleland considered the test-firings a success.[/INDENT]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-barreled_cannon

[khbynum]

I wasn't asking about the Napoleonic Wars and don't regard Wiki as a dependable source. I have recently obtained a copy of L. Van Loan Naisawald's Grape and Canister, 2nd edition. Here it is from an expert (p. 430):

"The author has used a bit of poetic license in titling this work Grape and Canister, for the use of grape in field guns had been discontinued in the United States service for a number of years."

A subsequent paragraph states:

"In reading through the Official Records, however, one will continually come across references by infantry commanders to the fierce storm of "grape and canister" that their commands had to endure. But careful reading of field artillery reports will show that grape was not used. The author has never found a reference by a field battery commander that he had fired grape. Further, the manuals of that time do not make any provision for its use by this type of battery, nor is it listed as a standard item of issue in the ammunition chests. But "grape and canister" was a catchy phrase born decades before, and though now inaccurate would die hard." (italics by the author)

Personally, I've read literally hundreds of books on the Civil War and only found a single eye witness account of a participant examining a wound he thought was caused by grapeshot.

[Random]

The Wikipedia article is poorly worded and incorrect in that it confuses grape shot with canister. Typically the terms are used interchangeably but they are technically very different munitions used for different purposes against different targets.

Grape shot was essentially a naval ammunition used to sweep the decks and masts of enemy warships free of sailors manning guns or small arms. The illustrations in the Wiki article are of grape shot, called because the resemblance to a bunch of grapes. In grape shot the sub-munitions were large so as to carry through the boarding nets, sails and railings while retaining enough velocity to inflict lethal wounds. Grape was generally held together with iron pusher-plates or packed into a heavy canvas bag that tore apart after shot ejection so that the effects area was relatively limited at the desired range. The advent of rifled muzzle-loading shell guns and iron ships rendered it useless but it had already passed from effectiveness by the end of the Napoleonic wars. It's probably a pretty safe bet that little true grape shot ammunition was available to either side by the time of the US Civil War.

Canister was originally Case Shot and early shells were called Spherical Case. Canister sub-munitions were much smaller than grape shot and contained in a light metal container that disintegrated in the bore creating a shotgun effect out to perhaps 300 yards when fired from a 12 pounder Napoleon gun/howitzer. Canister balls were musket-ball sized or smaller and modern canister usually use tungsten-carbide shot or tubular shaped sub-munitions. Rifled guns could fire canister but it tended to do nasty things to the bores as far as erosion and wear.

Grape shot and canister are technically two very different things for different roles however like the much-abused term shrapnel (which has a very specific meaning in ammunition) being used in place of the far more accurate term "shell fragments" or "fragmentation", they usually get mixed up in the narratives by people with little technical knowledge of the subject.

See the assorted works on ammunition by the late Ian V. Hogg, Master Gunner R.A. or the Rheinmetall classic textbook Handbook of Weapons rather than Wikipedia.