I had heard of the "Hazard Powder Company" before, and knew that pressed powder cartidges were made for small arms during the Civil War, but I wasn't aware that pressed powder charges were also manufactured for artillery.
Pressed Powder Charges Pressed Powder Charges
By Terry A. White
As you may all know, the Hazard Powder Company located in Hazardville, Connecticut, manufactured pressed powder cartridges for small arms during the American Civil War. The most common of these was for the .44 caliber Army revolver, and universally called the Hazard cartridge (Figure 1). R. Ogden Doremus and Bern L. Budd were medical doctors in New York City. They received patents #34,724 and #34,725 on March 18, 1862, for their "pressed powder" cartridges. With no manufacturing skills, the two doctors partnered with the Hazard Powder Company to manufacture the cartridges. Patent #34,724 covered the pressing of black powder into a cake, while #34,725 covered the attachment of a bullet to that charge to make a cartridge. Doremus and Budd also received a third patent, #34,744 dated March 24, 1862, which detailed the waterproofing of their pressed powder cartridges.
What is less known is that Hazard also manufactured and sold "pressed powder" charges for artillery. They made "pressed powder" charges for the 10, 20, 30, and 100-pdr. Parrott rifle, the 12 and 24-pdr. and 11-inch Dahlgren howitzer, and for the 6 and 12-pdr. James rifle. Other than materials located at the National Archives, Washington D.C., very little information is found on the artillery pressed powder charges.
Depending on the gun, a set amount of cannon powder was placed into a brass mold. (The diameter of each mold was one-tenth of an inch smaller then the desired caliber to allow for easy loading.) The powder was then pressed in the molds using 10 to 30 tons of pressure for a specific period of time to form the powder cakes. Once formed, the powder charge was removed from the mold and placed in a zinc container and labeled. The preprinted, paper label was applied to the lid and detailed the contents, intended weapon, patent date, manufacturer and directions (Figure 2).
Figure 3 illustrates a pressed powder charge for the 12-pdr. Dahlgren boat howitzer and its zinc container. Due to the ravage of time, some of the powder charge on this speciman has been chipped away leaving it shorter in overall length. The zinc container is 2.125 inches in diameter and 4.25 inches long. A small number of the 12-pdr. Dahlgren boat howitzer charges had an experimental sabot attached prior to shipment from the Hazardville powder mill, but whether it worked successfully, is unknown. Figure 4 illustrates a label for a 10-pdr. Parrott rifled cannon. It is not known if any other pressed powder charges exist in collections today.
While the exact number of powder charges shipped from the factory is unknown, it is estimated to be less than 60,000. After the war, the Government sold their surplus pressed powder charges back to the Hazard Powder Company to be reprocessed.
