Civil War Ketchum Hand Grenade 1/1 scale

**ct ertz** · #1 01-13-2010, 06:55 PM

I had a big time computer crash here a while back but my girls boyfriend managed to save all or most of my files. All of my stuff was moved off the damaged hard drive and stored on all kinds of digital storage devices. Now that the computer is back up and going I had to reinstall everything. While doing so I found this model I was making a while back. It was almost done, so I am double checking it and hope to have it available soon. It is on three pages of card stock and will make a 1-1 scale model of the 1 pound (I think) Ketchum. Below is from the cover page of the model.

The Ketchum Hand Grenade, a short history

Patterned on August 20th, 1861, the Ketchum Grenade was at first adopted with enthusiasm by both the Union Navy and Army during the American Civil War. The grenade consisted of a cast iron body hat contained the bursting charge and percussion cap, a tail fin for stabilization in flight, and a plunger to detonate the cap on impact with the target area. The explosive device came in 1, 3, and 5 pound versions.

In theory, the Ketchum had a number of advantages for the user. Fist, the were shipped with out pounder or cap, meaning that the user would fill the device with fresh powder and primer. After filling the grenade through the back end, the opening was plugged by the wooden tail, Next the primer was inserted in the front, onto a recessed nipple. Although primed and charged, the grenade was still relatively safe to carry. To explode the device, the plunger would be inserted into the front just before throwing (the Civil War version of pulling the pin!) Unlike other grenades that had to be lit prior to throwing, the Ketchum needed no slow match, and the problem of pre-mature detonation was lessened.

Do in part to the Ketchum's advanced safety feature, it was not as effective in combat as the designer had hoped. The main problem was that the dart like grenade had to be thrown in such a way as to have the grenade land directly on the plunger. Even when this happened, if the ground was soft, the plunger would still fail to strike the cap with enough force to explode. (Confederates at Port Hudson actually put out blankets to catch the grenades tossed over their earth works, so that the unexploded devices could be returned to the original throwers!) Even when the grenades exploded, the small bursting charge was not heavy enough to cause the amount of damage or injuries as a six pound artillery shell might.

The Union Navy remained impressed by the Ketchum grenades however, and would issue them through out the war. Boxes of the devices were found on the sunken USS Cairo when it was found and recovered. During the Fight between the USS Miami and the Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle, an intense musket and grenade fight took place between the two crews when the ships were side by side. This type of combat was near perfect for the Katchum,as they could be thrown from the observation masts of the Miami onto the hard decks of the ironclad, and into opened gun ports.

Confederate grenades at the start of the war generally consists of the century old method of attaching a paper or wooden fuse plug to a small hollow iron or clay sphere, lighting the fuse with a slow match and tossing the bomb. These grenades were generally 2.5 inches in diameter and weighed about 1 pound. Although they had a relatively low failure rate, they had many drawbacks, primary the slow match needed to light them. Also, like the Ketchum, they had a light bursting charge. Also, unlike the Ketchum, the sphere grenade could explode in the throwers hand if the fuse was faulty.

To alleviate the problems with the sphere grenade, the South copied th Ketchum. The most widely produced variety came from the Augusta Arsenal. Redesigned by General Raines, CSA, the copied Ketchum often had a long paper or cloth streamer attached to the rear instead of, or added to, the tail fins. This was an effort to improve the head down landings of the grenade. The Southern Raines grenade had all of the same drawbacks as the North's Ketchum, and the sphere grenade remained popular with troops in the trenches at Vicksburg and later Petersburg.

**B-Manic** · #2 01-13-2010, 07:57 PM

A very interesting subject CT. I really enjoyed the history of the device.

Coincidentally, I was just talking to my boss about a hyperbaric grenade (non-lethal) he designed as a project on his ammunition technical officer course.

**cdavenport** · #3 01-14-2010, 10:37 AM

Cool stuff CT! BTW, I saw a vintage photo of the Brooke's rifle/circular mount you designed. Looks exactly the same!

**ct ertz** · #4 01-14-2010, 10:57 AM

I need to get back into gimp and correct the back ground color and make it white. For some reason it is printing a light tan. Rather pleasing effect but why waste the ink? I hope to have pictures soon. One of the ports for the memory stick is not working for some reason.:(
CT

**cdavenport** · #5 01-14-2010, 11:14 AM

Check out the German forum: Kartonmodell-Forum | Portal

Your model, the CSS Fredricksburg, was chosen as the build of the week!

BTW, if you need testimonials to help sell your models on EBay, you can count on me.