[Bryn-gwlad] [OT] Civil War fact-checking help, please

[Marlin and Amanda Stout]

Ray Smith wrote:

> Basically, I was approaching it from the other side...not at all 
> familiar with civil war artillery, but there's a line in that chapter 
> where I try to describe what a character's arm looked like after 
> getting hit by a cannonball, and didn't know how "accurate" it was.
>  
> Andre

Well, medically speaking, if it was hit by a round shot it's gone. The 
lightest CW cannon fired 6-lb or 3-inch shot (which are not the same 
caliber, they're just the smallest two I know of that were used in the 
field.) If a chunk of iron that size hits your limb at the speed a 
cannonball travells, you'll likely never find what's left of it.

If your character has a limb left he might have been hit by shell 
fragments or grapeshot balls. For grape you can think of it like a 
large-caliber musket ball (.68-.75), but he very well may be hit by more 
than one: a single load could be 50 or more balls depending on the 
caliber of the gun; 12 .75-cal balls weigh one pound.

For shell fragments or shrapnel compare to modern fragmentation weapons, 
they all work the same.

Does this help?

BTW- A few years ago I picked up a replica of a .36-caliber 1851 Navy 
Colt revolver. I also have a .40-caliber flintlock rifle. It might be 
handy for you writing to actually see what handling weapons similar to 
those of the era was like. You could also look for CW reenactors: there 
are groups in both Austin and San Antonio. They could tell you loads 
more about the period, right down to what life in the armies was like.

Marlin