Raining death and destruction from afar…

Raining death and destruction from afar…. . This now deactivated artillery round was recovered from the western side of the October 1862 Corinth battlefield. Called spherical case, this hollow projectile contained a small bursting charge of gunpowder, surrounded by 450 balls, each of .69 caliber. Armed with a timed fuse, this shell was designed to explode over a large concentration of troops, showering down many small but destructive bullets on the enemy. A four-pound charge of gunpowder could hurl this round over a mile. Fuse reliability was a concern; shells failing to detonate would burrow into the earth, causing little harm., This massive cannon ball, one of the heaviest used in the two-day battle, would have been fired from an 8-inch siege howitzer. Union forces had four such fearsome weapons, posted withing Batteries Madison, Phillips, and Williams. (No less than 169 pieces of artillery of several different types and calibers saw action during the Battle of Corinth)., On October 4, 1862, gunners in Battery Madison began to fire in this direction, to blunt a Confederate breakthrough. Private George Jenkins of Battery B, 2nd Illinois Light Artillery wrote, “We wheeled our old bull dogs from battery and just as the Rebels were entering town, our old sixty-fours began to drop among them and mow them down like grass.”, However, unable to accurately aim through the thick clouds of smoke, the Illinois gunners’ lethal rounds also began to explode over the Union infantrymen of the 2nd Division, killing many. Brigadier General Thomas Davies reported how one o these large balls grazed a staff officer at his side before “taking off the legs of two of my brave soldiers directly in his front”., “I sent two orderlies in succession to the commander of this battery, begging him to reserve his fire for the enemy.” , – Brig Gen. Thomas Davies, Commander 3rd Division, (captions) , Highlight of “Plan of the Battle of Corinth.”, An 8” Siege Howitzer at Seven Pines, VA. Library of Congress., A Model 1841, 8” Siege Howitzer. Shiloh National Military Park