CONFEDERATE CIVIL WAR ARTILLERY TOW HOOK

CONFEDERATE CIVIL WAR ARTILLERY TOW HOOK

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$550.00

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 2026-9283

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Tow hooks are simple affairs- an iron handle bent at one end to help unpack artillery shells that that stabilized and cushioned during transport by thick wads of cut fiber “tow,” and with a short claw-hammer head fixed on the other end. Gibbon, Artillerist’s Manual describes on as follows: “made of round iron, with a hook at one end, and a small hammer welded to the other. It is used for unpacking the ammunition chests of field-carriages, the hammer being used for making any repairs on the strapped shot and shell and fixed ammunition, which may be found necessary, or for any other purpose.”

This one measures 14-inches overall and despite minor differences in length there is generally not much to separate one from the other, but in this case the hammer head seems so hastily made that it merits a place in a Confederate artillery collection. The hook is bent, slightly flattened and pointed, and the head shows some short facets, but the head was very simply split at the back end to form the claw, which has both a very narrow slit, unevenly done, and appearing both stubby and somewhat clunky in profile, setting it apart from most we have seen, something that might do the job, but on which there was a little time spent in the forging as possible- all Confederate characteristics rather than a US maker whose products would have to pass a more rigid inspection, and if supplied by a contractor might be rejected with little compunction.

The handle is mostly smooth metal, brown in color. The hammer head, though, shows some gray peeking through the dark brown, with some scattered, thin, light brown rust and pitting, perhaps due to the quality of the metal, field use, or storage, or a combination of all three.

Gibbon listed these in his Artillerist’s Manual as among the “implements and equipments for field carriages, specifically those for a gun or howitzer carriage, to be carried in the implement trays, or in other vacant spaces in the ammunition chest,” along with the gunner’s haversack, tube pouch, vent punch, gunner’s pincers, and pendulum hausse.” (With some other elements carried in the tube pouch, etc.) That was a U.S. manual, of course, but CS artillery practice was likely the same.

This is a key piece of gear in any artillery collection or display, and we feel this one would be particularly appropriate in Confederate artillery display.   [sr][ph:L]

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