Ketchum Grenade

Prior to the American Civil War, hand grenades were simple three-pounder or six-pounder cannonballs filled with gunpowder and fitted with a fuse kept in place with a piece of rag or clay and thrown or simply dropped over the enemy ramparts. These designs often failed to detonate either because the fuse fell off or was extinguished during flight or on landing, largely falling out of use. During the Civil War, hand grenades reappeared into the battlefield: the invention of the percussion cap allowed the development of more advanced designs, such as the Ketchum and the Haynes 'Excelsior' grenades.{{sfn|Hogg|1987|page=55}}

File:MHS Grenade.jpeg]]

The grenade consisted of a cast iron oval head containing a charge of gunpowder, an {{cvt|8|in}} wooden tail rod with four pasteboard fins, while the front end of the grenade had a hole bored and fitted with percussion cap nipple which detonated the gunpowder charge upon impact. Into this hole, a short metal rod with a flat dished end was fitted in, forming the nose of the grenade. Before throwing it, the soldier first removed the nose rod, inserted a cap over the nipple with a hollow stick, re-inserted the nose rod, which was kept separated from the cap by a spring, and finally poured the powder at the opposite end.{{sfn|Hogg|1987|page=55}}{{sfn|Bartleson|Naval Ordnance Systems Command|1972|page=125}}

Upon impact, the nose rod was driven towards the percussion cap, detonating the gunpowder charge, shattering the iron head into lethal fragments.{{sfn|Hogg|1987|page=55}}

The Ketchum grenade was made in several sizes ranging from {{cvt|1|,|3|and|5|lb}},{{sfn|Bartleson|Naval Ordnance Systems Command|1972|page=125}} though the smaller grenades were more popular by troops since they could be thrown further and with better accuracy. About 93,200 grenades were procured by the Union Army throughout the war.{{sfn|Hogg|1987|page=55}}

After the Union Army found out that frontal charges against an entrenched enemy were suicidal, they began issuing hand grenades to its soldiers to assault dug in Confederate forces.{{sfn|Driver|1963|pages=43−44}}

One of the most famous accounts of Ketchum grenades use occurred during the Union assault near the Confederate works referred to as the "Priest Cap" in Port Hudson, Louisiana. The New York troops threw Ketchum grenades over the entrenchments into the earthworks of the Confederates. The defending Confederates figured out that if the plunger didn't strike at the correct angle the grenade would fall harmlessly onto the ground. Lt. Howard C. Wright described the scene from the Confederate side of the assault:{{sfn|Wright|1937|pages=41−42}}

"The enemy had come this time prepared with hand grenades to throw into our works from the outside. When these novel missiles commenced falling among the Arkansas troops they did not know what to make of them, and the first few which they caught not having burst, they threw them back upon the enemy in the ditch. This time many of them exploded and their character was at once revealed to our men. Always equal to any emergency, they quickly devised a scheme…Spreading blankets behind the parapet, the grenades fell harmlessly into them, whereupon our boys would pick them up and hurling them with much greater force down the moat they would almost invariably explode."

A similar incident occurred during the Siege of Vicksburg according to an 1899 account by Pvt. J. M. Sharp:{{sfn|Sharp|1899|page=66}}

"These grenades were thrown in great numbers, and with deadly effect, when a happy thought occurred to Private Masterson, who gathered a blanket and stretching it open above the ground began to catch the shells, while others would hurl them back at the foe, and soon we routed them with their own infernal machines."

While the Ketchum (and other contemporary designs) was an innovative design at the time incorporating a mechanical fuse, it was also complex, costly to produce and dangerous to its users.{{sfn|Rottman|2015|pages=18−19}} The blast radius of the heavy versions of the Ketchum exceeded the distance they could be thrown.{{sfn|Driver|1963|page=44}}

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |last1=Bartleson |first1=John D |last2=Naval Ordnance Systems Command |first2=United States |title=A Field Guide for Civil War Explosive Ordnance |date=1972 |publisher=U.S. Naval School, Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Naval Ordnance Station |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zLrX80FPyRsC&dq=ketchum+grenade&pg=PA125 |access-date=6 April 2025 |language=en}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Driver |first1=MSgt. J. P. |title=Hand Grenades 1775−1963 |journal=The Marine Corps Gazette |date=March 1963 |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=43−45 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lhtoylXTfS0C&dq=ketchum+grenade+civil+war&pg=RA2-PA44 |access-date=6 April 2025 |publisher=Marine Corps Association |location=Quantico, VA |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Hogg |first1=Ian V. |author1-link=Ian V. Hogg |title=Weapons of the Civil War |date=1987 |publisher=Military Press |isbn=978-0-517-63606-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/weaponsofcivilwa00ianh |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Rottman |first1=Gordon L. |title=The Hand Grenade |date=2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4728-0736-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J5KHCwAAQBAJ |language=en}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Sharp |first1=J. M. |title=Siege of Vicksburg − From a "Private's" View |journal=The Lost Cause: A Confederate War Record |date=May 1899 |volume=2 |issue=5 |pages=65−67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JX3-5IIfijoC&dq=confederates+catch+grenades+blankets+throw+back&pg=RA1-PA66 |access-date=6 April 2025 |publisher=Courier-Journal Job Printing Company |location=Louisville, KY |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Wright |first1=Howard C. |title=Port Hudson, its history from an interior point of view |date=1937 |publisher=St Francisville Democrat |location=St. Francisville, LA |url=https://archive.org/details/porthudsonitshis00wrig/mode/2up}}

{{refend}}

• http://armscollectors.com/mgs/grenades!.htm
• http://members.lycos.nl/lexpev/hobbies.html
• http://www.inert-ord.net/19cent/grenat/index.html
• http://www.pooral.com/grenadepages/ketchum.html
• https://patents.google.com/patent/US33089A/

{{USCWWeapons}}

Category:American Civil War weapons

Category:Incendiary weapons

Category:Hand grenades of the United States