Canister shot

“ The large shot came against the ship’s side like iron hail, shaking her to the very keel, or passing through her timbers, and scattering terrific splinters, which did a more appalling work than even their own death-giving blows. The reader may form an idea of the effect of grape and canister, when he is told that grape shot is formed by seven or eight balls confined to an iron and tied in a cloth. These balls are scattered by the explosion of the powder. Canister shot is made by filling a powder canister with balls, each as large as two or three musket balls ”

“ The number of shot in each tier varies from three to five. Grape is very destructive up to three hundred yards and effective up to six hundred yards. Canister shot as we know it at present, is made up of a number of iron balls, placed in a tin cylinder with a wooden bottom, the size of the piece of ordnance for which it is intended.
Towards the close of the eighteenth century, short cast-iron guns called "carronades" were introduced by Gascoigne of the Cannon Iron Works, Scotland. They threw heavy shots at low velocity with great battery effect. ”

“ Grape-shot, canister, and spherical case, on striking collectively—that is, before they have spread—as sometimes happens in assaulting or in accidental close proximity to guns in the field, produce the same kinds of injuries as cannon-shot, but individually resemble musket-shot in their effects. ”

“ The XI-inch gun, at 10° elevation, gives for the mass of grape or canister a range of about 1,300 yards; the spread about 10°. They may therefore be used with great effect against boats or exposed bodies of men.
273. A stand of grape is not to be used with any other projectile.
274. Canister or case-shot, prepared for immediate use, are supplied for all guns, including boat and field howitzers, and are effective at short distances against boats or exposed bodies of men; they may be used also, under favorable circumstances, against the tops of an enemy. ”

“ Then the canister, which produced ghastly murder, chain-shot to bring down masts and spars, langrel to fire at masts and rigging, and the dismantling shot to tear off sails, were all made ready. The muskets for the marines, the musketoons, the pistols, the cutlasses, the boarding-pikes, the axes or tomahawks, the bayonets and sailors’ knives, were placed conveniently for use. A bevy of men were kept busy cleaning the round shot of rust, and there was not a man on the ship who did not look with pride at the guns, in their paint of grey-blue steel, with a scarlet band round the muzzle. ”

“ Scarcely had the smoke of our first shot cleared away, when a couple of masked batteries suddenly opened on us at short range, and enveloped us in a storm of shell and canister, which, concentrated on so narrow a space, did fearful execution among our party, men and horses falling right and left, the animals kicking and plunging wildly, and everybody eager to disentangle himself from the confusion, and get out of harm’s way. ”

“ The artillerymen, who had hitherto fired at long range, now brought up their guns almost within pistol shot of the streets, and, in spite of the musketry fire of the insurgents, bravely posted their batteries and began hurtling showers of canister among the defenders of the barricades. ”

“ These guns are all made of steel.
Ordnance, Ammunition for. For convenience in loading and safety in transportation, cannon ammunition is prepared in a peculiar manner and with great care. The ammunition so prepared is classified into field and mountain, siege and sea-coast ammunition.
Ammunition for Field Service is composed of solid shot, shells, spherical case-shot, and canister-shot (see headings) . In mountain service solid shot are omitted. A stand of ammunition is composed of the projectile, sabot, straps, cartridge-bag, cylinder, and cap. ”

“ He took his revolver and fired at it, aiming to hit it just in front and below the hammer, its most vulnerable part. Instead, the bullet hits the ground and ricocheting enters the breast of the dead man. He shudders as the body stirs from the force of the shot, although he knows that life has been gone for hours. Everything is plain to him now why his other shots had not taken effect. He was unnerved. How could a man with a hole through his body hope to hit anything. He had heard of men shot through the heart killing their assailants, and had often wondered if he could do it. ”

“ Through its branches they surveyed for a moment of comfortable satisfaction a form in a gray blanket extended on the ground near the fire. The smile of joyful anticipation fled quickly, to give place to a quiet air of business. Two men lifted shot-guns with much of the barrels gone, and sighting these weapons through the branches, pulled trigger together.
The noise of the explosions roared over the lonely mesquit as if these guns wished to inform the entire world; and as the gray smoke fled, the dodging company back of the bush saw the blanketed form twitching. ”

“ If ever two guns were worked for all they were worth, those were! I don’t believe any two guns, in the same time, ever fired as many shots as those two “Napoleons” did. We kept them just spouting canister! Several times three canisters were fired. Billy White, “No. 2,” had only to reach down for them, and he would have loaded the guns to the muzzle if “No. 1” had given him time. The gun got so hot that, once, in jumping in to put in the friction primer, the back of my left hand touched it, and the skin was nearly taken off. ”

“ To fire a piece by way of the ricochet, the cannon is only charged with a quantity of powder sufficient to carry the shot along the face of the works attacked. The shot, thus discharged, goes rolling and bounding, killing, maiming, or destroying all it meets in its course, and creates much more disorder by going thus slowly, than if thrown from the piece with greater violence.
When ricochet firing is used, the pieces are elevated from 3 to 6 degrees, and no more; because if the elevation is greater, the shot will only drop into the work, without bounding from one place to another. ”

“ Their purpose is to assist the artillerist in attaining his object without waste of time and ammunition, and also to regulate his aim when the effect of shot cannot be seen on account of the dust and smoke of the battle-field. The first few shots generally produce a great effect on the enemy, and it [163] is very important that they should be directed with some knowledge of their results, which, in the field, can only be attained by experience, or from the data afforded by a table of fire. Tables of fire for different kinds of cannon may be found in the Ordnance and Artillery Manuals. ”

“ To carry an experiment of this kind out satisfactorily, it will be well to test the intended purchase against some gun of known excellence, as no arbitrary rule can be laid down as to the number of sheets which should be penetrated, no two surfaces of paper being exactly alike in quality, substance, and mode of arrangement. Tin powder canisters are also used as a test of penetrating power. Some guns will riddle them from side to side, whilst others, with the same charge, and at the same distance, merely throw the shot through one thickness of the tin plate. ”

“ Holding a thirty-two-calibre pistol in his right hand and aiming it at the target, Kennedy picked up a large piece of coarse homespun from the table and held it loosely over the muzzle of the gun. Then he fired. The bullet tore through the cloth, sped through the air, and buried itself in the target. With a knife he pried it out.
"I doubt if even the inspector himself could have told us that when an ordinary leaden bullet is shot through a woven fabric the weave of the fabric is in the majority of cases impressed on the bullet, sometimes clearly, sometimes faintly." ”

“ Shot after shot was fired, and one after another the Confederate cannon were disabled. They were blown up by small charges of powder put under them, set off by fuses lighted by the Confederates themselves, but this did not show in the picture, and it looked as though the Southern battery was blown up by shots from the big gun.
"All ready now, Paul! Lead your men!" yelled the director, who was standing near Russ and his camera. "Rush right up the hill. Stop firing here!" he called to those in charge of the big gun. ”

“ Jones and Patterson came stumbling up the steps, crying dreadful information. Already the enemy's bullets were spitting and singing over the house.
The sergeant suddenly was stiff and cold with a sense of the importance of the thing. "Wait until you see one," he drawled loudly and calmly, "then shoot."
For some moments the enemy's bullets swung swifter than lightning over the house without anybody being able to discover a target. In this interval a man was shot in the throat. ”

“ Then he crept, panther-like, to where the unconscious man lay, and sent a rifle bullet crashing through his brain. Fearing, perhaps, that the wound was not of a deadly nature, or because, possibly, the victim in his dying struggles would alarm some one, the fiend grasped an axe and pounded McCain’s head into a mass of broken bone and oozing brain. The closeness of the gun when the shot was fired was such that the bullet passed entirely through McCain’s head and the bottom of the wagon, to still retain enough momentum to flatten itself on a stone. ”

“ It seems to come to infantry and artillery at the same instant, and out from the rifles of the men and the mouths of those cannons leap the death-dealing bullet and canister; again and again, with almost lightning rapidity, they pour in their deadly, merciless fire, until along that entire ridge it has become almost one continuous volley. ”

“ Cannon shot fell through the roof of the house, on which my aunt, our servants, and I rushed forth into the streets, and were separated by a crowd of terrified fugitives. Ignorant alike whither to turn my steps, or where to seek shelter, while shells were bursting, flaming rockets and hand-grenades flying about in every direction, I rushed into a lonely alley, where I met a man who, by his attire, seemed to be one of our Breton peasantry—a woodcutter ”

“ The solid bullet of pure lead would have killed upon the spot, as the bullet would have retained its substance although it altered its form, and the shock would have been more severe, The hollow bullet exhibits a peculiar result in a post-mortem examination: the lungs may be hopelessly torn and ragged, the liver and the heart may be also damaged, all by the same projectile, because it has been converted into small shot immediately upon impact. ”

“ With great holes pierced through their bodies by the leaden messages of death, their sole anxiety seemed to be to return shot for shot, and only when the spark of their life ceased to burn did they relinquish their hold on the death-dealing revolver, and they sank to earth as the smoke from their weapons ascended as from a funeral pyre. ”

“ The mortar gun is a short cannon, say eighteen inches long, working in a carriage on a pivot and so arranged as to be shot at any angle, even to straight up. They had perfected themselves so that they knew the exact elevation to give the gun and the length of the fuse to explode it, as in many instances the cannon ball would fall in our trenches, and, exploding, would do much harm, and causing much confusion among us. ”

“ I stooped to take it up, and while stooping he fired one of the pistols at me; and on examining my person, I found the mark of a bullet and twenty-seven grains of shot in my side, just under my left arm. ”

“ Nowadays, with the wax bullets driven by fulminate out of a duelling pistol, shooting off the heads of assistants can be done with very little risk except to the eyes, whereas with a leaden bullet a bad shot means the death of the assistant unless provided with a steel skull cap under a wig. ”

“ It was perfectly evident that our shot had told with severe effect.
As though the discharge of our broadside had been the preconcerted signal for a general cannonade, every battery within range on each side of the harbour now opened fire upon us, some of them, however, fortunately for us, being unable to bring more than a single gun to bear. Had the guns on shore been served with only ordinary skill, we should undoubtedly have been destroyed ”

“ It flew high over the college building, to burst with a deafening report.
"Hello, what's that?" yelled several.
"Who fired that shot?"
"Did a cannon go off?"
"It was an aerial bomb—and there goes an other!" cried Allen Charter. "Somebody is celebrating in earnest"
All of the students on the campus stared at the bombs in wonder, while others came rushing from various buildings, to learn the meaning of the reports.
"Who shot off the cannon?" stormed Professor Sharp. "It's against the rules to shoot off that cannon without permission." ”

“ The range of these giant cannon is enormous and their destructive power great, this being added to by the fact that the explosive shell has replaced the solid round shot of old-time gunnery. A 14-inch gun of 45 caliber can discharge a 1,400-pound projectile at a muzzle velocity of 2,600 feet per second. If we compare this with a locomotive going at the speed of sixty miles an hour, we have in the latter a speed of eighty-eight feet per second to compare with the 2,600 feet per second of the cannon ball. ”

“ As soon as we were near enough she opened fire upon us with her two stern-chasers; and at the very first fire both shots came in through our bows and raked us fore and aft, killing one man and wounding three others with the splinters that were sent flying about our ears. Finding that we had approached her too closely, we immediately hauled our wind, and began to sail to-and-fro athwart her stern, keeping up a brisk fire upon her with our long gun, and raking her at every shot. ”