Hi Gerald,

I remember the show and the canister test, but I don't recall any tests of shell or case. Solid shot is of course rather simple.

I wish the History Channel would delve into something like this in some real detail.

I became more interested in this when looking at the sections of some shells, reading about the small burst charges, and the non-segmented nature of most shells/case.

I've done a brief survey of ACW general officer fatalities by working through Ezra Warner's lists and found that artillery is well represented (much greater than the oft quoted low percentages) with shell/case being the most often mentioned source. I chose generals as the subset since the documentation of wound source is mostly complete for them, and they provide a full cross section of the war on both sides and in every theater.