Letter, 1863 November 3, Talcott to Brooks
National Park Service
Item Details
CreatorTalcott
Dates
Date Created
Descriptive Information
LanguageEnglish
Letter to Brooks from Talcott, including detailed information on Parrott guns in Fort Putnam (Gregg), Battery Chatfield, and Fort Strong (Wagner). Facts are provided for each gun, such as the date of bursting, number of rounds fired before bursting, the number of pieces each gun burst into, and how far the pieces were thrown. Descriptions of any fractures are provided, as well as other observations on the conditions of the guns after bursting.
Transcription[Letter, continued] was uninjured. Two men were slightly wounded. I was unable to ascertain whether the shell left the gun whole or not. it certainly did not reach Sumter. From the nature of the explosion I should say it resulted from a want of care in the loading. I do not think the shell could have been carried home. II. A 100 pdr. gun burst at Fort Strong (Wagner) Oct. 28, 1863 at the 87th round. A shell burst in the muzzle breaking off about 18 inches of the muzzle in 3 pieces and cracking the gun back about 6 or 8 inches from the break, rendering it useless for further firing. The metal appeared good no flaw being discernible. This gun I saw a few hours after the accident. III. The left 100 pdr gun at Fort Putnam burst Oct. 29, 1863 at the 58th round, the breech blowing out about the center of the reinforce band. A slight starting of the gun from the reinforce band was detected before the gun burst. The appearance of the fracture upon the gun was concave. The base of the shell remained in the gun and was drawn back nearly to the vent. I could not ascertain how much of the shell remained in the gun. A small hole was plainly visible through the base of the shell. The breech of the gun was thrown back 50 or 60 yards into the marsh. This gun, on the 27th fired three or four shell on Charleston at a high elevation. At the time of bursting however, it was firing on the James Island batteries. I did not see the gun until some hours after the accident. At that time the appearance of the fracture developed no flaw. As the bursting of this gun was feared before it occurred no one was injured.
TopicsSouth Carolina--History
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Artillery operations
Fort Sumter National Monument (Agency : U.S.)
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Artillery operations
Fort Sumter National Monument (Agency : U.S.)
Physical Descriptions
Mediumcommercial correspondence
TypeStill Image
Formatimage/jpeg
Contributing Institutions
Identifiers
Digital Identifiersmt_brooks446_022_005
Permanent Linkhttp://purl.clemson.edu/3BBAC0FEDAE96950EC0A6CB703073BF4
Batch ID20180328174717