This is a fantastic piece! It is an original Confederate cannon shell for the rifled Confederate Brooke pattern cannon. This big boy is similar to the one that used for the illustration on page #184 of the heavy artillery book by Jack Bell. He explains how these purely Confederate shells were recovered from the areas of Vicksburg, Charleston, Mobile Bay and Fort Fisher. They weigh 68 pounds and were designed to be fired out of a rifled 42#er or rifled 7 inch cannon. The first picture shows the size of this shell compared to a standard 3 inch diameter shell. These shells have always been one of my favorite patterns because of the way that the sabot attaches. They took a bolt and bolted the sabot in place to try to keep in intact. On this one it worked because we have not only the full copper sabot but we still have the bolt on the bottom. The iron on this one is in attractive shape with some old pitting as you can see. The copper sabot has a thick dark tone all over. At the top of the shell the fuse hole it has the original Brooke pattern time fuse holder intact. This is a fantastic piece of big Confederate iron!