And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Ouch!
Skull from the American civil war. Fatal wound inflicted by exploding 12 pound artillery shell.
That skull was hit by a single one inch round ball from a civil war canister round. It was a mostly "spent" round that was "skipping" along the ground (something they'd do for more than a mile) and hit him from behind moving at an "up" angle. A 12 pounder was a 3 inch gun that would have taken his skull and upper body apart at a mile or more.---Ray
Looks more like a round from a Hotchkiss 1.65-inch (42 mm) light mountain gun. It replaced the 12 pound mountain howitzer.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cannonsuperstore.com/hotchkiss165.html
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Steve
That skull was hit by a single one inch round ball from a civil war canister round. It was a mostly "spent" round that was "skipping" along the ground (something they'd do for more than a mile) and hit him from behind moving at an "up" angle. A 12 pounder was a 3 inch gun that would have taken his skull and upper body apart at a mile or more.---Ray
ReplyDeleteAKA grapeshot. Lived 10mi from Gettysburg...those steel balls were everwhere.
ReplyDeleteDoubt he felt anything. One second he was, the next he was not.
ReplyDelete