According to Peter George, co-author of Field Artillery Projectiles of the American Civil War, "this shell is extremely rare as very few have been recovered". He also mentioned that "this specific model of the 3.3-inch tie-ring Archer shell saw early war use and all were made in Richmond. The manufacturers were either Tredegar Iron Works or Samson & Pae Foundry and Machining Shop. The recovery of a tie-ring 3.3-inch Archer shell, from the Tredegar test firing range, confirms its Richmond origin.

This example stands 5 1/8 inches tall and weighs in at 7 pounds 2 ounces. The shell has no flame grooves that are associated with later war examples. The ring at the bottom was used to tie the powder bag on to the projectile. The majority of the “drive in” wood fuse plug is intact. The exterior is somewhat pitted with B-B sized surface marks. The lead sabot is fully intact with an oxidized light brown color.

This shell was fired from a cannon that had three wide lands and grooves, like a Parrott. The confederacy had a few bronze 3.3-inch guns but, they were reported to have five or seven groove rifling. Two 3.3-inch Parrot guns survive but, they had seven-groove saw tooth (CS) rifling. The lead sabot on this shell does show a little widening on one third. It’s possible that it may have been fired from a 3.5-inch (20 pound) Parrott.

Due to its rarity, this Confederate Archer shell would be an excellent addition to any excavated Civil War artillery collection. [stp][ph:L]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS ITEM, AS WITH ALL OTHER ITEMS AVAILABLE ON OUR WEB SITE,

MAY BE PURCHASED THROUGH OUR LAYAWAY PROGRAM.

CLICK HERE FOR OUR POLICIES AND TERMS.

THANK YOU!