Original Item: Only One Available. Originally, 32-pounders had been employed almost exclusively aboard large European warships or in coastal fortifications, as their size and weight made them difficult to move overland with the limited means of locomotion then available. At the beginning of the 19th Century, Britain’s Royal Navy featured 32-pounder “long guns” weighing 5,500 pounds apiece and measuring nine-and-a-half feet in length, as the main armament along the lower decks of their largest ships-of-the-line, as well as in their principal overseas naval bases. The fledgling U.S. Army and Navy both acquired such 32-pounder guns for their own use from a variety of manufacturers and sources, domestic and foreign.

Case (or "spherical case" for smoothbores) like this 32LB Case Shot here, were anti-personnel projectiles carrying a smaller burst charge than shell, but designed to be more effective against exposed troops. While the shell produced only a few large fragments, case was loaded with lead or iron balls and was designed to burst above and before the enemy line, showering down many more small but destructive projectiles on the enemy. The effect was analogous to a weaker version of canister. With case, the lethality of the balls and fragments came from the velocity of the bursting projectile itself—the small burst charge only fragmented the case and dispersed the shrapnel. The spherical case used in a 12-pounder Napoleon contained 78 balls. The name shrapnel derives from its inventor, Henry Shrapnel.

The primary limitations to case effectiveness came in judging the range, setting the fuse accordingly, and the reliability and variability of the fuse itself.

This 32LB Case Shot cannonball is in great “dug-up” condition. There is pitting all over and the original hole where the fuze would go is almost unnoticeable due to the fact it was in the ground for so long. This is still a remarkable piece of American historical significance and would be great in any early American ordnance collection.

Comes ready to display!