This non-excavated
example was intended for use in the 6-pounder, 2.6-inch caliber Wiard rifle.
Specimens have been recovered at Shiloh, Tennessee, and City Point, Virginia.
Standard canister are found with iron or lead balls stacked in tiers; the interstices are
then filled with dry, sifted sawdust which is packed with a pointed stick so that the
balls will hold by themselves. The wooden sabots found on field canisters have two grooves
cut into them. The cartridge bag was tied onto these deep grooves cut into the wooden
sabot in a complicated fashion. The canister cylinder was commonly made of tin, which was
dipped into a lacquer of beeswax dissolved in spirits of turpentine, to prevent rusting
while in field service.
