"As an observer of the lone test of Gilleland’s cannon recounted, ”[The chain shot] had a kind of circular motion, plowed up an acre of ground, tore up a cornfield, and mowed down saplings. The chain broke, the two balls going in opposite directions; one of the balls killed a cow in a distant field, while the other knocked down the chimney from a log cabin.”

The chain didn't break immediately. Reading the trail of destruction, I call that a resounding success. I can't help but wonder and clench my neither sphincter at the idea of what it would have done to an Union battalion.