1 Pound Ketchum Hand Grenade / On-hold

1 Pound Ketchum Hand Grenade - Inventory Number: ART 431 / SOLD                        

This Ketchum hand grenade, complete with wooden shaft and hard paper fins, has “Patented Aug. 20, 1861 by William F. Ketchum” written on one fin.

The Ketchum grenade was a hand thrown weapon with limited range used primarily during sieges; the fins stabilized the grenade’s flight and assured it landed nose first, which was required for detonation; this requirement also made them largely inefficient. They were manufactured in one-, three-, and five-pound sizes.

Union forces who used the Ketchum grenade in great numbers in their attacks at Port Hudson found its limitations. Many failed to explode when thrown into the Confederate defenses and were subsequently thrown back into Union positions. The Confederates also devised a method to render the Ketchum useless by rigging blankets to catch the grenades.

This example is non-excavated and retains most of the original orange paint as well as the plunger and percussion cone.  The wooden fin is an original from Bannerman’s Island and the cardboard fins are an exact copy for displaying.

Inventory Number: ART 431 / SOLD