The ammunition used in the war
O. E. Hunt, Captain, United States Army
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| 18-inch shells for the sea coast mortars These missiles, filled with explosive, and trailing a fiery fuse, shrieked like lost souls in their flight, that covered nearly two and a half miles from the gaping mouths of the tremendous mortars looking like huge bullfrogs with their muzzle elevation of forty-five degrees. The shells seen in this photograph show the larger hole where the time fuse was inserted, and the indentations which enabled the gunners to handle them with a sort of pincers carried by two men. The mortars were manned by the famous First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, prominent in many important engagements from the Peninsula to the Petersburg Campaign. Companies served on the Bermuda Hundred lines in 1864, also at Fort Fisher. |
