In the Civil War, did they really have explosive cannonballs like in the movies?
Henry Shrapnel, a British officer, is generally credited with bringing exploding shells to a point of practical usefulness by about 1804, and is often thought of as their inventor. So yes, they were available in the War of 1812, as well as the Civil War. It apparently was the sight of this awsesome new weapon that Francis Scott Key included in his poem. It also played a major role in the British victory over Napoleon. And this, from Notre Dame Magazine: http://www.nd.edu/~ndmag/au2002/cannons.html Did cannonballs explode? In movies showing battles from the Civil War and earlier conflicts, cannon-fired projectiles inevitably send up dirt and smoke and flailing stuntmen upon impact. It makes a nice visual and is probably easier to stage than an iron ball bouncing murderously through a division. In reality, an array of both exploding and solid projectiles were used in the Civil War and for centuries before, but solid shot predominated until around the1850s. The earliest cannons, developed
