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Great Britain
DIAMETER: 3.05 inches |
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| This projectile consists of a thin cast iron shell enclosing forty-two segment-shaped pieces of cast iron, built up so as to form a cylindrical center cavity. The exterior of the shell is thinly coated with lead, which was allowed to percolate among the segments so as to fill up the interstices; the central cavity was kept open by a steel rod. The projectile was so compact that it could be fired through six feet of hard timber, yet its resistance to a bursting charge was so small that less than one ounce of powder was required to burst it. The Confederates had the exclusive use of this Armstrong-pattern projectile; it saw no service in the Federal forces. The Confederates fired one projectile of this pattern into General Abbot's Dutch Gap batteries in 1864. Abbot stated: "Had it not been for this circumstance, I should have supposed that none of the ordnance of this gun-maker was ever used by either army in Virginia." Ten of the unfired Armstrong projectiles were recovered in a Confederate fort at High Bridge, Virginia. | ||||