Artillery Ammunition-Unusual

In this, our final look at Civil War artillery ammunition, we are going to look at three types that rarely if ever saw field use but was used at sea against sailing ships.  These consist of Hot shot, Chain Shot and Bar Shot. Sadly I lack photographs for Hot and Chain but I do possess one for Bar shot.

Hot shot is actually extremely simple but extremely dangerous to use. Hot shot consists of a solid shot or cannon ball that is made smaller than normal for the cannon it is intended for.  When heated in a special furnace to red or possibly white hot, it is loaded into a cannon with the intent of starting a fire on the enemy warship.  As wooden ships float a solid shot is not likely to sink it. Wooden ships, though, have a tendency to burn easily as they have tar, hemp, and other highly burnable materials not to mention the hull itself.  If the idea was to simply destroy the enemy ship, hot shot was the most effective way.

You may be asking "How the heck can you put a red hot cannonball next to Black Powder? Wouldn't it set off the powder?"  The answer is yes and no.  The hot shot would set it off, if there weren't precautions taken.  To prevent the round from rolling back out as the ship pitched in the waves, wadding of shredded hemp was used to retain the ball. A wad of dry hemp would be placed against the powder charge and then a wet one on top of that.  Then the hot shot is loaded, followed by another wet and then possibly a dry wad.  The theory was that the hot shot would cool in the barrel before it burned through the wet wad.

If you want to disable a sailing ship, the best way to do it is either chain shot or bar shot.  Both serve the same function. Once again being balls smaller than normal for the cannon, this time there are two connected by either a length of chain or a solid iron bar. When fired these rounds would spin through the air, shredding any rigging or men in their way.  Potentially they could even bring down the masts themselves.  Given enough damage in this way, the enemy ship would be disabled and ripe for capture. 

Example of Bar shot.

These types of ammunition, while not seen in field use, are interesting to include here because they were common for several hundred years at sea and in the ammunition magazines of coastal forts. Hot shot was largely replaced by the time of the Civil War by the exploding shell as it was much quicker to make ready, less dangerous to the user, and results were much more rapid in occurring.

-Corporal

Bar shot photograph was taken at the Michiana Pirate Fest. It was taken during the talk abut Black Powder weapons given by Hooka Joe.