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Confederate artillery near Charleston in 1863

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch January 25, 1864:

Siege of Charleston.

–This is the two hundredth day of the siege of Charleston. The Courier, of Thursday last, says:

The enemy continues the bombardment of the city with slight intermissions. The shells thrown are still the Wiard rifle and 100 pounder Parrotts, fired at intervals of about one every ten minutes. One hundred and thirty-four shots were fired at the city from half-past 5 o’clock Tuesday afternoon to half-past 5 o’clock Wednesday evening. We learn that a private of the Gist Guard, Capt. Chichester’s company, First S. C. Artillery, was instantly killed last evening by the explosion of a Wiard rifle shell. This is the first instance of a white person having been killed outright by a shell since the bombardment of the city. The name of the man was not ascertained at the time of writing our report. A negro was also reported severely wounded on Tuesday.

Here’s a homemade remedy from the same issue:

A Styptic which will stop the Bleeding of the Largest wound.

–Scrape fine two drachms of Castile soap and dissolve in two ounces of brandy or common spirits. Mix well with it one drachm of potash, and keep it in a close phial. When applied, warm it and dip in pledgets of lint. The blood will suddenly coagulate some distance within the vessel. For deep wounds and amputated limbs, repeated applications may be necessary.

And there sure were a lot of amputated limbs 150 years ago.

Wiard gun in D.C. arsenal 1862