Original Item: Only One Available. A fantastic Federal civil war 8-inch mortar shell with ears or tongs and thinner with a large fuze hole fuze hole to accommodate the long burning wood mortar fuze.

DIAMETER: 7.8 inches
GUN: 8-inch Mortar
WEIGHT:  About 48 pounds
CONSTRUCTION: Shell
FUZING: Wooden Mortar Fuze - Missing

Three primary types of mortars were used during the war: siege & garrison  While guns were intended to batter down the walls of a fortification during a siege, mortars were designed to fire explosive shells over the walls of the fortification, killing the men inside, and forcing others to stay in bombproof shelters, or preventing the gunners from serving their guns and repairing damage caused by the bombardment. Mortars could also destroy structures inside the fortification such as barracks and kitchens which would normally stay unharmed from standard guns. Heavier mortar shells could penetrate magazines and many bombproof shelters.

In defense of fortifications, siege and garrison mortars could harass work parties constructing siege batteries and trenches. Their fire could also suppress hostile siege batteries. Seacoast mortars could penetrate the decks of wooden ships and even threaten the deck plating of ironclad vessels.  Lastly, these could also kill men where other guns couldn't reach them

The 8-inch and 10-inch siege mortars had maximum ranges of 2,225 and 2,064 yards, respectively,

Coehorn mortars were lighter mortars, designed to be brought well forward in the trenches.

With the replacement of masonry fortifications with earthen works, mortars became more important. Works that could resist the horizontal fire of guns were still vulnerable to the vertical fire of mortars.