A very good condition 3-inch Hotchkiss shell with base cap and brass fuse adapter in place. The lead sabot band is missing, but the lower portion of the shell body shows “SPOTTSYLVANIA” very clearly in rubbed, but legible white paint.

The shell functioned by the propellant charge forcing the base cap against a lead sabot band, forcing it to expand and take the rifling of a cannon barrel. The shell body and base cup both have flame grooves, an improvement to ensure ignition of a time fuze inserted in the brass fuze adapter in the nose of the shell, which in turn would set off the explosive charge. The exterior has just shallow corrosion with a nice even olive-brown patina to the iron showing just some thin, light brown in the flame grooves. The brass fuse adapter has a pleasing, mellow green color and just a few dings.

This is very good example of a round from a field gun widely used in the Civil War and one recovered at one of the war’s best known and bloodiest battlefields. Spottsylvania marked a temporary stall in Grant’s relentless 1864 campaign, pressing onward from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor and the trenches of Petersburg and Richmond, with continuous fighting all the way.  [sr][ph:m]

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