Explosive Bullets

The use of explosive ball ammunition in rifles has an interesting history. Such projectiles were definitely not anti-personnel missiles. The bullet was hollow, with a cavity filled with a few grains of black powder. Sometimes a conventional percussion nipple was fitted into the nose, recessed below the curve or ogive of the tip. A percussion cap was put on the nipple. Since this cap was below the level of the bullet, the projectile was not set off when it was rammed home. Or, as in the original Jacobs rifle, the ramrod was recessed inside for clearance.
British General Jacobs, of the East India Service, is recorded as being a pioneer in the practical application of explosive shell to small arms. While no Jacobs Rifles were obtained for regular issue by either side in the War, a digression on this famous rifle is worthwhile

Col. M. B. Walker, U.S., gave order for his brigade to charge after firing volley with bayonets fixed. In distance, Rebel skirmishers were deployed in the advance to draw Union fire while main body of troops stood ready in woods. Range appears about 100 yards but the Minie rifles both sides used were man-killers at 800.

here. The explosive bullet is tied up with an understanding of the savagery of the conflict, while a few Jacobs rifles could reasonably have been used by Southern chivalry as double-barrel shotguns in the early days of the War. It was deemed of sufficient importance to be fully described by Wilcox (Rifles and Rifle Practice, pp 208, et seq.) and was commonly known by military men in the late 1850’s.
“The Jacobs rifle, so called from its maker, General Jacobs, of the East India service, is double barreled, with four deep grooves, of breadth equal to that of the lands; length of barrel 24 inches, weight of barrel six pounds; the grooves of uniform depth and twist, making four fifths of a turn in the length of the barrel; diameter of bore, .529 inches. The ball has four projections or ridges to fit the four grooves of the barrel; these projections have the same inclination as the grooves of the rifle, extending throughout the length of the cylindrical part of the ball, which is used with a thin greased patchin (sic); diameter .524 inches; it has no hollow, the base being flat and smooth; length, 2Vi diameters; weight, 754 grains, charge, 68 grains.
“General Jacobs reports excellent practice with this rifle at 2,000 yards, both with the solid ball and with the shell, which is of the same exterior form as the ball. At 1,000 yards, he says that a soldier tolerably instructed, can strike a target the size of a man once out of three times. Firing at 1,200 yards, with his shells, they penetrate a brick wall several inches, and bursting, tear out large fragments. In the rammer to this rifle the head is hollow, in order that in pressing down the shell no accident may occur. A copper tube, containing the powder, and having the fulminating composition at its upper extremity, is inserted in the shell.”
The use of the rifle in this period, prior to the War, when Jacobs was at work, was attractive to infantrymen who sought to disable the enemy’s artillery ammunition wagons. British ordnance boards were at the time characteristically composed of artillery officers and, according to J. N. George, British Guns & Rifles, they took a dim view of anything tending to discredit their arm of the service. An earlier explosive ball, developed by a Captain Norton in 1824, had seven studs on it to engage the grooves of a 7-grooved Baker rifle, standard British Light Infantry arm. Norton argued, says George, that “riflemen would in future Wars engage and silence enemy batteries at ranges far beyond those at which the solid bullet was effective, since by firing at their powder caissons they would be able to blow them sky-high when at a distance at which it would be next to impossible to pick off an individual gunner.”
The early explosive bullet experimenters were not above using their projectiles on soldiers, since it was found that the pointed ball on rupturing presented a greater area in its passage through the body, like the old round ball, and so created a more severe wound. Because the explosive bullets were generally of large
caliber anyway, the wound differences attendant on velocity increases of a “forced ball” were not at first recognized. Further, other than the Indian Mutiny and the Crimea, War-time experiences using the new Enfield “minie” bullet, actually the Pritchett bullet, were few.
Norton’s bullet was studied by a British committee of artillerymen who concluded that the studs on the bullet body would be worn away by the projectiles rubbing against each other in the soldier’s bullet pouch and render it useless in accuracy; they therefore reported against the use of the Norton bullet and generally condemned the principle of the explosive bullet thereby. But the principle remained a challenge to experimenters.
It was Colonel John Jacobs, founder of the Scinde Irregular Horse Regiment of Indian cavalry and the town of Jacobabad, who pushed the explosive rifle shell to the front and forced it upon the military as well as to the attention of sportsmen. The great game of India were the first proving ground of the rifle shell, but it was on a special range built wholly at his own expense at Jacobabad that (later) General Jacob performed his tests. Says J. N. George:
Some idea of the extent of Jacob’s experiments will be gathered from the fact that his practice range at Jacobabad . . . extended for over two thousand yards, with massive targets of whitewashed brick, some of them as much as 50 feet wide and 40 feet high, spaced out at irregular intervals. More than fifty single and double barreled rifles and bullet moulds innumerable had to be made in London, and thence shipped to the General’s Indian headquarters, before these experiments were completed and powder and lead were consumed literally by the ton in testing these weapons and projectiles. His experiments wit,h the rifle shell alone accounted for some thousands of pounds of gunpowder, which was packed, hundreds of pounds at a time, into wooden cases or wagons meant to represent military caissons, and was successfully exploded by rifle fire at ranges varying from twelve hundred to two thousand yards.
Of the rifles themselves “Stonehenge” records that:
The recoil is by no means pleasant. The gauge is 32. This rifle does not seem to have any advantage at sporting ranges; but for military purposes it has been strongly recommended, especially in reference to the explosive shells which are used with it. In 1856, a report upon General Jacob’s rifle was made to the Indian Government, which states, “that at ranges from 300 to 1200 yards the flight of the shell (used with this rifle) was always point foremost, and the elevation at the extreme range inconsiderable. The shells which struck the butt invariably burst with full effect; and practice was made by the many officers who attended, at distances which could not have been attained with any other missile.” The shells alluded to in the report require a short stout barrel, and cannot be used with a long thin one, like the Enfield. For killing large animals, like the elephant or rhinocerous, they are peculiarly qualified; and I should strongly recommend elephant hunters to examine into the merits of this rifle, as made by Mr. Daw, of Threadneedle-street, London, who received his instructions from the late General Jacob.
Something of an anomaly, these short, powerful two-barrel guns for use at extra long ranges, have a stud attached to the right tube at the muzzle for attaching a bayonet like the sword bayonet of the Baker rifle, for close-in fighting!
The Jacobs bullet was a massive shell, thick walled, and with a not always safe type of nose primer. But experimenters continued to work, knowing that a bullet for the Enfield or Springfield type of rifle musket would have far wider an application to the battlefield, than a special projectile requiring its own species of shoulder howitzer to propel it. Although Wilhelm’s Military Dictionary, 1883, notes “There is a strong sentiment against use of these bullets in firing at troops,” this sentiment was not respected by Confederate troops at Vicksburg.
In his Memoirs, Grant conjectured that the defending Southern riflemen used explosive musket balls, because they thought the balls would burst over the Union trenches and do some damage. The wound damage was considerable:
“A solid ball would have hit as well. Their use is barbarous because they produce increased suffering without any increased advantage to those using them.” Officially, the Confederacy did manufacture some explosive bullets for small arms. According to Commander Minor, C.S.N., “Lt. (Beverly) Kennon ordered the manufacture of 100,000 rounds of musket shells at 15 cents apiece, of which 39,000 rounds are now at the Naval Laboratory at Atlanta, Georgia. Many were lost in New Orleans. They were of no use in the Navy and a dangerous projectile, and many exploded in the operation of ramming. Their sole value lay in the components of lead and fulminate of mercury. As Ordnance officer, I would not authorize their use.” Perhaps Lieutenant Kennon envisioned their value being fired from marksmen in the fighting tops of the ships, to set off the powder barrels beside the enemy’s cannon, in a close-and-board battle. Commodore Preble noted that “C. S. Sharpshooters used explosive
balls. Dr. Burton has one. A conical ball, pointed and charged with fulminate.” It appears this “Kennonshell” had no small primer but was entirely filled with fulminate; a most dangerous conception. Kennon had shells made in .69 musket caliber and .54 for Mississippi rifle, but there is no record of their practical use by the miniscule Confederate Navy.
The C. S. bullet may have been inspired by a West Point manual used in 1862 which summed up the popular experience on the subject. The manual described how “percussion bullets may be made by placing a small quantity of percussion powder, closed in a copper envelope, in the point of an ordinary riflemusket bullet, or by casting the bullet around a small iron tube, which is afterWard filled with powder and surmounted with a common percussion cap. The impact of the bullet against a substance no harder than wood is found to ignite the percussion cap or charge and produce an effective explosion. These projectiles can be used to blow up caissons and boxes containing ammunition at very long distances.”
Improving on this general description of a high explosive rifle bullet was the development of Samuel Gardiner, Jr. He patented (November 23, 1863) an explosive shell which was a tiny copper vase case inside the bullet, with the neck protruding at the base. The interior was filled with powder, and the neck closed with a slow-burning powder, timed for 1 ^lA seconds. Ignited on firing, the projectile burst in the air without needing to hit. A total of 33,350 of these shells were issued to Federal troops in calibers .54 (363 grains), .58 (451 grains) and .69 caliber. Total purchased were 110,000 of the “Gardiner musket shells” of which 10,000 rounds were abandoned in Virginia and 10,000 used at Gettysburg.

Sixth Maine Infantry overran Confederate lines at Fredericksburg at this point, even though gray soldiers were behind stone wall. An 1855 Rifle Musket and 1856 Enfield lie in foreground. Indignity of death was heightened by comrades and thieves who turned pockets of dead inside out: former to send mementos home to loved ones, latter for gold.

Some of these were fired by Confederate troops. General E. L. Dana, U.S.A., informed H. E. Haydon that C. S. troops fired explosive balls at his command, and Dana’s ordnance officer reported that they were Union ammunition which had been lost the day before. A form of Gardiner shell made by the South has, according to Colonel B. R. Lewis, characteristics of make and wrapping which suggest Richmond Arsenal as the place of manufacture, though the package does not conform to C. S. Government orders requiring date and arsenal of fabrication, and is marked simply “ca. .577 Enfield” in ink. The fact the ammunition packages contained explosive ammunition was revealed by the color code, the colors of string used in tying—two strands, purple and brown.
Though evidence proves explosive bullets were issued by both sides, the post-War charges that the South was barbarous by so doing were not particularly well-founded. Isolated use of musket shell against personnel were few. But there were enough to demand some consideration at the St. Petersburg, Russia, convention of 1867 which tried to get warfare back to a gentlemanly basis. The convention, to which the United States was not a party, agreed to limit explosive projectile weight to a minimum 400 grams. The American Benjamin Berkeley Hotchkiss had been developing a rapid fire gun of rifle caliber—a specimen with nine barrels in approximately .45 caliber was tested by the U. S. Navy about 1869—but the St. Petersburg convention bound him to use larger calibers for explosive projectiles. He accordingly took an extra margin for his minimum shell, and designed a projectile of “ideal” form which coincidentally measured 37 millimeters diameter when he turned one up. Thus did the 37mm caliber come into existence, one of the most
⁷ _# popular sizes of light ordnance of all time. Honor being put into the discard after World War I, explosive projectiles again returned in small calibers, 20mm for aircraft cannon and, in World War II, many nations used rifle bullets carrying a bursting charge. German “B-Patronen” 8mm fired at a steel plate at 50 yards distance makes a blinding blue flash on impact, and if deflected will leave a sky trace visible in daylight for several seconds. The Gardiner musket shell evidently left a sky trace, too, but the possible value of a tracing projectile for spotting rifle fire or locating targets for artillery did not occur to the Blue and Gray soldiers.