Tweet
First things first, my search of the A/C and other sources came up with some similar topics, but not the definitive answer I was looking for.
Gents,
As the artillery forum has been somewhat dry lately, I have been saving this post for a while now and am just getting around to post it.
A recent post by Mark Jaeger at
that references GRAPE in a period newspaper article in a period account resparked my consternation on this topic.
The question is this: You see numerous period references to “GRAPE” or “GRAPESHOT” or “GRAPE and CANISTER” in the same sentence. These were often made by seasoned soldiers and even times artillerymen themselves.
However, my sources below show no place for grapeshot in a field limber chest and Gibbon’s clearly states that it was no longer in use for “a number of years”.
So WHY THEN, DO PERIOD ACCOUNTS AND SOLDIERS CONTINUE TO REFERENCE GRAPE(SHOT) REPEATEDLY THROUGHOUT THE WAR, when period official sources tell us it wasn’t used in the field? It also seems from visiting battlefield and CW museums and viewing photographed collections GRAPE seems to be absent… (Note: I can understand fortress engagements, I’m talking field battles, such as Gettysburg, etc… where only field guns where in use.)
Is this a case of memory laziness? What I mean is I personally still call any black box on top of my TV a VCR. It hasn’t been a VCR for many, many years now… in fact, if you know what a Beta or VHS is count your gray hairs boys. But I still call the DVR, DVD, HDTV, blah, blah, blah… a VCR. Don’t you?
So is this the case? Just old habits not going away from Mexico and Napoleon?
Gibbon’s, The Artillerist Manual, 1863 printing states on p. 314, “The use of grape-shot for field-pieces has been discontinued for a number of years, it being considered that for the ranges of that kind of artillery, the shot of which canisters are made, are large enough, and the canister possesses the advantage of striking a great many more points at one discharge than grape. There is an advantage, too, in not having so many different kinds of ammunition for a piece.”
French, Barry and Hunt’s, Instruction for Field Artillery, 1864 printing states on the charts on pages 13-14 and in the limber drawings on pages Plate 1-2 do not state or make reference to any grape-shot in field limbers.
So, your quest gentlemen, as always, period sources only explaining this curiosity.
Please refrain from personal opinions… the slippery “well, I think that or I was told once” slope…
I have always had some questions in explaining this issue to visitors at NPS events and other events and was never able to say for sure why this reference was made consistently.
Thank you in advance.
Chris Sedlak
Gents,
As the artillery forum has been somewhat dry lately, I have been saving this post for a while now and am just getting around to post it.
A recent post by Mark Jaeger at
HTML Code:
http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21120&highlight=grape
The question is this: You see numerous period references to “GRAPE” or “GRAPESHOT” or “GRAPE and CANISTER” in the same sentence. These were often made by seasoned soldiers and even times artillerymen themselves.
However, my sources below show no place for grapeshot in a field limber chest and Gibbon’s clearly states that it was no longer in use for “a number of years”.
So WHY THEN, DO PERIOD ACCOUNTS AND SOLDIERS CONTINUE TO REFERENCE GRAPE(SHOT) REPEATEDLY THROUGHOUT THE WAR, when period official sources tell us it wasn’t used in the field? It also seems from visiting battlefield and CW museums and viewing photographed collections GRAPE seems to be absent… (Note: I can understand fortress engagements, I’m talking field battles, such as Gettysburg, etc… where only field guns where in use.)
Is this a case of memory laziness? What I mean is I personally still call any black box on top of my TV a VCR. It hasn’t been a VCR for many, many years now… in fact, if you know what a Beta or VHS is count your gray hairs boys. But I still call the DVR, DVD, HDTV, blah, blah, blah… a VCR. Don’t you?
So is this the case? Just old habits not going away from Mexico and Napoleon?
Gibbon’s, The Artillerist Manual, 1863 printing states on p. 314, “The use of grape-shot for field-pieces has been discontinued for a number of years, it being considered that for the ranges of that kind of artillery, the shot of which canisters are made, are large enough, and the canister possesses the advantage of striking a great many more points at one discharge than grape. There is an advantage, too, in not having so many different kinds of ammunition for a piece.”
French, Barry and Hunt’s, Instruction for Field Artillery, 1864 printing states on the charts on pages 13-14 and in the limber drawings on pages Plate 1-2 do not state or make reference to any grape-shot in field limbers.
So, your quest gentlemen, as always, period sources only explaining this curiosity.
Please refrain from personal opinions… the slippery “well, I think that or I was told once” slope…
I have always had some questions in explaining this issue to visitors at NPS events and other events and was never able to say for sure why this reference was made consistently.
Thank you in advance.
Chris Sedlak
Comment