Is This True About Howitzers?

[nematode]

I live in a small seaside town on the east coast, Lewes, Delaware. Lewes was founded in 1652 under the Dutch explorer Peter DeVries. In colonial times Lewes was routinely bombarded and pillaged by French pirates and later on two ocassions, including the war of 1812, by the British. Before white settlers came to Delaware, the place was occupied by Natives. As a boy, my brother used to dig up arrowheads in the canal with a stick. I found a fragment of a cannonball when I was hiking across a wilderness area near the beach, when I was 14 and have held on to it all these years. Recently I put a short video together talking about the cannonball fragment as part of my bid to get it appraised and be on the Antiques Roadshow. I never heard from the show but thought some of you might enjoy the short video. Please pardon the choppy nature as I edited it heavily to keep to Roadshow time restraint.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGZK_mC4SpY

I was told or read somewhere as part of the history of Lewes, that in colonial times, only the British had Howitzer cannons - is that correct? Is it also correct that Howitzers fired the hollow cannonballs? I ask because the fragment I have is about an inch thick of solid iron but has a hollow core. I have concluded that it is a piece of a Howitzer cannonball and that this may have been part of the bombardment of Lewes by the British in 1812. Is my thinking correct or what are your thoughts? The name Howitzer seems like a German name to me and so I will be surprised if the notion about Britain having monopoly on the cannon type, is true.

[KABAR2]

Most armies used howitzers these were not exclusively British,

it may be hard to date your shell fragment as shells were cast in the same method

through out the centuries,  if it is from the War of 1812 time frame and fired from a

British war ship it most likely was fired by a Carrionades  these were longer than

the standard howitzer and fired a hollow shell, in ship to ship tactics they could have

a murderous affect on the opposing crew. hope this helps answer some of your questions.


Allen <><





Something I just thought of, If you can determine the outside circumference of the shell from your fragment it would be possible to figure out what size gun fired it.

Allen <><

[nematode]

Thanks Kabar - appreciate the information.

[cannonmn]

You may have a mortar shell fragment.  British ships bombarding the shore in W of 1812 used mortars for explosive effect.  There were a lot of 13-inch mortar shells fired at Ft. McHenry during the famous battle there for instance.  British ships did not have howitzers for shore bombardment in W of 1812.  Naval howitzers were really first developed by Frenchman Phaixhans (sp?) in early 19th C. after W of 1812-it was his idea to fire explosive shells from large bore, short naval guns.  In the US these were called shell guns.  John Dahlgren was big proponent of them prior to CW.

Naval mortars were normally fired from Bomb Ketches or Bomb Ships, with specially reinforced hulls to withstand the huge downward recoil of the mortar.

British mortar shells and fragments are often found at places they bombarded in W of 1812 and Rev War.  Another target was Newport R.I.

I don't think carronades as originally developed, used explosive shells, but they may have been used for that later such as 1830's.

[nematode]

Thanks cannonmn - very interesting. I was wondering about the size of the cannonball that I recovered the fragment from - seemed quite large to me but since you mention 13in mortar shells, perhaps it could be from one of them. That's a pretty big shell. Reminds me of scene from the more recent remake of Last of the Mohicans that shows huge French mortars destroying the fort and people inside - devestating. I think that was fort McHenry, the one you mentioned?

Per Kabar:
I noticed the edge of the fragment, being fairly straight or radial, could serve as a stencil. I laid the fragment on a sheet of paper and traced that edge. First section traced was the whole edge of the fragment. I noticed a slight indentation in the middle of the curve and so I then proceeded to move the fragment around, aligning it each time with previous tracing, so that only about an inch of new arc was added. In the end, the line came right back to first segment and formed a perfect circle. I measured across the mid-point as best I could and come up with an odd size - 6 3/8"  The ball was much smaller than I had thought but definitely hollow. Any ideas what kind of cannon?

Interesting about the indentation I noticed when tracing the fragment. Apparently deformation from impact.
Pretty cool.

[Double D]

Fort McHenry is in Baltimore Harbor---The fort that Francis Scott Key watched being bombarded and about which he wrote the Star Spangled Banner.  Coopers LasT of the Mohicans fort is Fort William Henry.

[nematode]

Ahhh... thanks for clarification DD.

[Terry C.]

Your guestimation of the shell's diameter could possibly make it a 32-pounder.

Were there any 32-pounder mortars or shell guns of that period?

[nematode]

Terry C, I presume your reply question is directed toward DD or some other knowledgable person here - and not me! I haven't anyknowledge about cannon balls sizes etc for different guns or periods. A 32 pounder sounds pretty big to me! Must have been devestating.

[GGaskill]

A 32 pounder would be about 6 1/4" in diameter.