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Ketchum’s patent hand grenades


These hand grenades were designed and patented by William F. Ketchum of Buffalo, New York. They were designed to be thrown like a dart, and upon impact, an internal plunger would strike a percussion cap that would ignite the powder. Made as one-, three-, and five-pounder grenades, they were used by both the federal army and navy. Ketchum grenades have been recovered at Petersburg, Port Hudson, Vicksburg, and in the USS Cairo, the Union gunboat that was sunk in the Yazoo River in Mississippi.


Division of the History of Technology, Armed Forces History
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Behring Center
Charles Bremner Hogg Jackson Collection

 

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