Saturday, April 28, 2018

Just two dudes enjoying the shade under a burst 300-pounder Parrot gun. Morris Island, SC, summer 1863


5 comments:

  1. You wouldn't want to have been there when it burst.

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    1. I'll bet the sound was stupendous.

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    2. If you were the gun crew it's unlikely that you'd have survived it.

      In that era, cannons burst often. It was particularly devastating when a large caliber gun burst on a wooden ship.

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  2. The Barrel was cast iron, the breech band was wrought iron. This design had a tendency to burst. See the Widow Blakely at Vicksburg.

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  3. I was real close to there yesterday - at the site of Fort Johnson where a monument claims the first mortars fired on Fort Sumter. Was a beautiful day looking out to the fort in the bay and Morris Island to its right.

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