Grapeshot

Close-up of grapeshot from an American Revolution sketch of artillery devices

Model of a carronade with grapeshot ammunition

In artillery, a grapeshot is a type of shot that is not a one solid element, but a mass of small metal balls or slugs packed tightly into a canvas bag. It was used both in land and naval warfare. When assembled, the balls resembled a cluster of grapes, hence the name. On firing, the balls spread out from the muzzle, giving an effect similar to a giant shotgun.

Grapeshot was devastatingly effective against massed infantry at short range. It was used to savage massed infantry charges quickly. Cannons would fire solid shot to attack enemy artillery and troops at longer range and switch to grape when they or nearby troops were charged.

A canister shot (case-shot) similarly consists of many small elements, although packed into a canister (case). The canister is usually made of tin or brass, and could be guided by a wooden sabot. Later, the shrapnel shell was invented that acted in a similar manner but had much better effectiveness at long range.

Scattershot is an improvised form which uses chainlinks, nails, shards of glass, rocks, etc. Although scattershot can be cheaply made, it is less effective than grapeshot due to the absence of uniformity for every projectile in terms of mass, shape, material, and terminal ballistics.

Field-expedient Claymore mines, consisting of a container, projectiles such as ball bearings or used ammo links arranged to project in one general direction, and explosives are often called grapeshot.

Use in conflicts

Conflicts in which grapeshot was effectively used include:

• The noted pirate Bartholomew Roberts (popularly known as "Black Bart") was killed by a blast of grapeshot from HMS Swallow on February 10, 1722.
• Battle of Culloden - 1746, Jacobites under Bonnie Prince Charlie vs. British forces under the Duke of Cumberland
• Battle of the Plains of Abraham - 1759, Marquis Louis-Joseph de Montcalm was mortally wounded in the abdomen by grape-shot.
• Kazimierz Pułaski was injured, and later died, from a grapeshot-inflicted wound in the Battle of Savannah during the American Revolutionary War.
• Battle of Guilford Court House-1781, when Cornwallis ordered two grapeshots to be fired into the middle of a battlefield, where hand-to-hand combat between the British and Continental Army was taking place.

An example of Grapeshot

• 13 Vendémiaire - Napoleon, then a brigadier general during the later stages of the French Revolution, famously dispersed a Royalist mob on the streets of Paris with a "whiff of grapeshot" on 5 October 1795. He was rewarded with the command of the Army of Italy in 1796, and his victories at the battles of Lodi, Castiglione, Arcola and Rivoli provided a springboard for his military and political ambitions.
• During the Haitian Revolution, grapeshot was used by French troops against the victorious troops of Toussaint Louverture.
• During the Irish Rebellion of 1798, grapeshot was widely used by British forces against Irish forces, notably in the battles of New Ross, Arklow, Saintfield and Vinegar Hill. At the Battle of Vinegar Hill the British used grape shot to kill hundreds of women and children who were fleeing the battlefield.
• Battle of Borodino, 1812—Prince Mikhail Kutuzov (Russia) v. Napoleon Bonaparte (France)
• British commander Sir Edward Pakenham was fatally wounded while on horseback by grapeshot fired from the earthworks during the Battle of New Orleans.
• At the Battle of Waterloo (1815) The Earl of Uxbridge was hit in the leg by French grapeshot, the leg was amputated and The Earl of Uxbridge was commended for the injuries he sustained and his bravery in the battle.
• In Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables, grapeshot was the weapon used against the barricades in the 1832 insurrection in Paris.
• During the Battle of Buena Vista (Mexican-American War) in 1847, General Zachary Taylor effectively employed a double load of grapeshot for his artillery in defeating a numerically superior Mexican army led by Santa Anna. His famous order, "double shot your guns and give them hell", became the campaign slogan that later won him Presidency in the White House.
• Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War in 1863, Union forces effectively used canister shot in repulsing the massed Confederate advance known as Pickett's Charge, a key stage in the battle.

See also

• Beehive
• Canister shot
• Chain shot - a shot consisting of metal chains
• Shrapnel shell
• Shotshell, functionally identical small arms ammunition
• Salvo