Hayes Lowe
Cannon shot and shell.
Sun Apr 8 20:44:53 2001


Glenn did a very good job of explaining the exploding ball for you. But you should also be aware that the exploding ball was only one of many types of projectiles shot from cannon during the Civil War.

Some of these include:

Solid balls.

Hot balls. (usually heated solid balls)

Rifled shell front loaders (generally bullet shaped).

Unrifled shells front loaders (also generally bullet shaped)

Canister shot (lots of small balls in a canister that comes apart when fired)

Rifled shell breach loaders (much like our modern big-gun self-encased shells)

The exploding shells could be adjusted as to when they exploded.

Plus, there are all kinds/sizes of mortars and mortor shells, too.