Effects of canister shot in the Civil War: skull of a soldier of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers.

Abstract

This skull (Fig. 1) was discovered in 1876 on Morris Island, South Carolina, near the site of Battery Wagner, a powerful fort that had protected the entrance to Charleston Harbor during the Civil War. The skull belonged to a man of African descent— most likely a soldier of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers, which led the assault on Wagner on the night of July 18, 1863. Of approximately 600 men of the 54th who made the charge, 256 were killed, wounded, or missing. The 54th Massachusetts Volunteers was not the first black regiment in the Civil War, nor was it the first to fight. However, it was the first black regiment raised entirely of free men enrolled on the same terms as white troops and the first to engage in a major action well covered by the national press. Its gallant conduct in the doomed assault on Battery Wagner on July 18, 1863, electrified the nation and proved once and for all that the black man, given the opportunity, would fight as well as any white man. From the size of the wound, and what appear to be remains of the projectile itself, it can be surmised what type of munition hit this man: a canister ball from one of two field howitzers known to have been used in the repulse of that attack. Canister balls were made of iron; for the 6-lb gun, 1.17 inch in diameter, for the 12-lb field howitzer, 1.08 inch. The entry wound on the skull is approximately 1.18 inches across. Battery Wagner had no 6-lb guns, but did have two 12-lb field howitzers. In this case, it can be seen that a single canister ball has created a nearly round entry wound and a larger and more irregular fracture on the opposite side of the skull. Radiating fractures from the entrance and exit can be seen crossing the temporal, parietal, and frontal bones. The ball entered from rear left, traveled back to front and upwards,