Frederick Engels. Case Shot
Case shot, or canister shot, consists of a number of wrought-iron balls, packed in a tin canister of a cylindrical shape. The balls for field service are regularly deposited in layers, but for most kinds of siege and naval ordnance they are merely thrown into the case until it is filled, when the lid is soldered on. Between the bottom of the canister and the charge a wooden bottom is inserted. The weights of the balls vary with the different kinds of ordnance, and the regulations of each service. The English have, for their heavy naval guns, balls from 8 oz. to 3 lbs.; for their 9-pound field-gun, 1 7[2] oz. and 5 oz. balls, of which respectively 126 and 41 make up a canister for one discharge. The Prussians use 41 balls, each weighing V32 of the weight of the corresponding round shot. The French had up to 1854 nearly the same system; how they may have altered it since the introduction of the new howitzer gun, we are unable to tell. For siege and garrison artillery, the balls are sometimes arranged round a spindle projecting from the wooden bottom, either in a bag in the shape of a grape (whence the name grape shot), or in regular layers with round wooden or iron plates between each layer, the whole covered over with a canvas bag.
The most recently introduced kind is the spherical case shot, commonly called from their inventor, the British general Shrapnel, shrapnel shells. They consist of a thin cast-iron shell (from Vs to [3]/[4] inch thickness of iron), with a diaphragm or partition in the middle. The lower compartment is destined to receive a bursting charge, the upper one contains leaden musket balls. A fuse is inserted containing a carefully prepared composition, the accuracy of whose burning off can be depended upon. A composition is run between the balls, so as to prevent them from shaking. When used in the field, the fuse is cut off to the length required for the distance of the enemy, and inserted into the shell. At from 50 to 70 yards from the enemy the fuse is burnt to the bottom, and explodes the shell, scattering the bullets toward the enemy precisely as if common case shot had been fired on the spot where the shell exploded. The precision of the fuses at present attained in several services is very great, and thus this new projectile enables the gunner to obtain the exact effect of grape at ranges where formerly round shot only could be used. The common case is most destructive up to 200 yards, but may be used up to 500 yards; its effect against advancing lines of infantry or cavalry at close quarters is terrible; against skirmishers it is of little use; against columns round shot is offener applicable. The spherical case, on the other hand, is most effective at from 600 to 1,400 yards, and with a proper elevation and a long fuse, may be launched at still greater ranges with probability of effect. From its explosion near the enemy, by which the hailstorm of bullets is kept close together, it may successfully be used against troops in almost any but the skirmishing formation. After the introduction of the spherical case shot, it was adopted in almost all European services as soon as a proper fuse composition was invented by each, this forming the only difficulty; and of the great European powers, France is the only one which has not yet succeeded in this particular. Further experiments, accidents, or bribes will, however, no doubt soon place this power in possession of the secret.
Endnotes
[2] "Abensberg" is the first in the provisional list of articles for The New American Cyclopaedia written by Engels overleaf his letter to Marx of May 28, 1857, to be agreed on with Dana with respect to his initial request (see present edition, Vol. 40). Besides this theme Engels listed the following: Aboukir, Axle (artillery), Acre (St. Jean d'Acre, its siege), Actium (battle of). Adjutant, Afghanistan (invasion by English), Aland Isles — see Bomarsund, Albuera (battle of), Aldenhoven, Alessandria (fortress and sieges), Algeria (French conquest of and English bombardment of), Almeida (siege of in Peninsular war), Amusette (artillery), Anglesey (Marquis of), Attack (in battle and siege), Antwerp (fortress and sieges), Approaches, Arbela (battle of), Arquebuse, Aspern and Essling (battle of 1809), Augereau (Marshal), Advanced Guard. In his letter to Marx, July 11, 1857, Engels said that he had begun writing articles according to the list (by that time it had probably been slightly changed) and promised to send him by July 14 the articles "Abensberg", "Adjutant", "Alma" and "Ammunition" (the last two were not mentioned in the list), "and more such stuff, thus finishing off the whole of A (except 'Algeria' and 'Afghanistan') up to Ap and Aq". On July 14 Marx thanked Engels for the first, and on July 24 for the second, batch of articles he had received. Judging by an entry in Marx's notebook about the dispatch of the first batch, this material was sent off to New York on July 24. Some articles mentioned in the list ("Axle", "Approaches", "Advanced Guard") were not published in the Cyclopaedia and were probably not written by Engels. There is no indication that Engels wrote the articles "Anglesey" and "Augereau".
[3] The defeat of the Austrian army at Abensberg was an episode in the five-day battle of Regensburg (from April 19 to 23) during the Austro-French war of 1809 (a war waged by France against the fifth European coalition: Austria, Britain, Portugal and Spain). It was followed by the Austrians' defeat at Landshut on April 21 and at Eckmühl on April 22, and their retreat from Regensburg on April 23 under pressure from French troops. Nevertheless, the Austrian army retained its fighting capacity and put up a stubborn resistance to the French advance on Vienna.
[4] Acre was captured by Richard Coeur de Lion in 1191 during the third cru-sade (1189-92). The crusades were military colonialist expeditions by the big West European feudal lords and Italian trading cities under the religious banner of recovering Jerusalem and other "Holy Lands" from the Mohammedans. Peasants also took part in the crusades, hoping thus to be freed from feudal oppression. History knows eight main crusades (1096-99, 1147-49, 1189-92, 1202-04, 1217-21, 1228-29, 1248-54 and 1270). Not only Mohammedan states in Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Tunisia but also the Christian Byzantine Empire were the objects of the crusaders' aggressive strivings. The crusaders' conquests in the Eastern Mediterranean were not lasting, and were recovered by the Mohammedans. The Knights of St. John (also Hospitallers)—members of a Catholic military order founded by the crusaders in Palestine early in the twelfth century. After the defeat at Acre in 1291 they transferred their seat to Cyprus, then, early in the fourteenth century, to Rhodes and in 1530 to Malta (from that time on it was also called the order of Malta); since the nineteenth century its seat has been in Rome.