Encyclopedia · Projectiles and ammunition

Trans-Mississippi projectile patterns

Trans-Mississippi projectiles are the distinctive, often improvised rifled projectiles made in the isolated Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, where local shops supplied the armies cut off beyond the river.

Also known as: Trans-Mississippi projectiles.

RegionConfederate Trans-Mississippi Department
CharacterLocal and often improvised patterns
CauseIsolation of the region beyond the Mississippi

Ordnance west of the river

The Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, cut off beyond the great river especially after the fall of Vicksburg, had to supply its own armies from local resources. Its ordnance shops produced rifled projectiles that are often distinctive in their sabots and construction, reflecting improvisation and local methods.

These Trans-Mississippi patterns are prized and studied for what they reveal about ordnance production under isolation, and they are identified by their characteristic construction and their find histories in the region.

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