Cannon ball found in Atl by construction workers.

[Hdubya]

They blew it up!! Why would they do that? Idiots...

 

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[ekeisler]

I hate the police way of handling artifacts.

 

[ghost]

I got this cannonball from a friend of mine who was a building engineer at the old soldiers home in Washington DC and he found three twelve inch cannonballs in a abandon building on the site. Leftover from the civil war. He gave me one. Had Fairfax County police come over to make sure it was okay. It was. This is next to Lincolns summer white house. Went to the Grant building which was also abandon and on the property and did some ghost hunting. 8am on a Sunday morning and got some weird experiences. alas, my friend does not work there anymore. He told nobody likes going there. This was about six years ago. Good place for ghost hunting.

 

[Citiboy289]

Was going to post the link but was beaten to it !!! There still is a bunch of stuff in ATLANTA , where this was found is only about 2 blocks from the OLD FIVE POINTS RAILROAD DEPOT that is always shown in the Atlanta Civil War pictures
What is really interesting is that the Local news WSB TV went on and on about how it was " LOADED WITH BALL BEARINGS AND BLACK POWDER " made it seem like some modern Terror weapon
The real shame is that with so much history in the area and items to be found ATLANTA PD blows the thing up

 

[Mach1Pilot]

What a shame it couldn't have been disarmed and saved....

 

[Sharecropper]

If it had the Tice fuse, destroying it would have been the only recourse. The Tice fuse had a small glass tube filled with nitro that was supposed to explode when the ball hit its target, thereby igniting the main powder charge. The nito becomes more volitol with age, and after 150 years, it would indeed have a hair trigger. I seem to recall back in the 1970's a relic hunter in Virginia was digging a ball out of the ground with his shovel and accidently hit the Tice fuse. The explosion killed him on the spot. I can't see in the photo but the flatness of the fuse face sure looks like a Tice to me.

 

[HutSiteDigger]

I think they did the proper thing.. It was a construction site and lot of the times if you find 1 cannonball there is bound to be more somewhere on the construction site. Hitting any artillery shell with a piece of heavy equipment would probably not be good. And the guys running the construction site probably had no idea what to do and probably even had no knowledge it was a civil war projectile! so whose to call?? As you know there are enough Civil War artillery projectiles out and about so it is not a huge historical find.

Also to Sharecropper.... I too have heard of this story about a relic hunter in Virginia who got blown up digging a cannonball ?? out of the ground. I heard it was a post civil war cannonball? but i do not know. I think CannonBallGuy one of are members here who has written books on civil war projectiles and is mentioned in many artifact books, would be the one to ask about that...

The story about the virginia digger may not even be true!! I have never heard, that I know of a digger getting killed while digging a civil war projectile? but i have heard of people getting killed digging post cw and ww1 and ww2 artifacts! in like old training camps and such. I also know of a handful of cases of someone who got blown up or hurt really bad trying to drill into a cannonball. The old-timers who have been dealing with cw projectiles for awhile, have told me that if you defuse 300 cannonballs, out of that 300 there will be 1 or maybe 2 that will blow up.

And that is what happen to Sam White who got killed defusing a cannonball at his home near Richmond,Virginia!! that most diggers know about that happen fairly recently. He would defuse civil war projectiles in his garage by drilling into them and I was told by someone who knew him that he was on his like 400+ projectile defusing project? so i assume that would be like 20 or so years of defusing projects then that 1 got him. I think Civil War artillery shells are very safe to handle you can hit the shells a million times with a shovel and they wont go off ! it is only when you drill into it or hit it with a piece of heavy equipment.. now with cannonballs they tend to scare me more than a shell. I have dug 1 cannonball before and i just left it there because i had a bad feeling about it and I didn't know if it was a post war one or not. If it was not a cannonball but say was say a civil war dyer shell, i would have no issues or worries in removing it from the ground but then would have to find someone to defuse it for you.

 

[Davers]

I would have taken & had it disarmed. But here [ATL] as in moat areas they close streets then blow up peoples lunches when they fall off the work truck. It would have been cheaper for the city to have it disarmed and given it to the Atl. HISTORY CTR, than it was to destroy it.

 

[HutSiteDigger]

Davers - Where do you take it to get it disarmed? Back in the 70s/80s and even early 90s you could find someone willing to do it. Now with all these laws and federal agents all paranoid over terror threats it is virtually impossible to find someone? There use to be a guy out in Virginia who dug a bunker and defused projectiles using a remote control robot but I heard the feds made him stop. If it is a cannonball I would recommend not messing with it unless you truly know what you are dealing with. When it comes to shells like Dyer shells,etc then yah removing it is not a problem!! but cannonballs are more dangerous. But, I would like to know Where do you go these days to have someone defuse it for you Legally? if you bring it to the ATF they will not do it for you. Just this morning I read someone brought a defused Civil War shell into a police station near Richmond and they cleared everyone out of the building and called the bomb squad.. Back in the days of non paranoia that would not have happened.

Edit: Just found out CannonBallGuy still does Disarmament's of projectiles and is certified to them, he lives in Petersburg,Virginia and has written a well known - Field Artillery Projectiles of the American Civil War by Tom Dickey and Peter George. So I guess that is one person you can bring one to.

 

[Davers]

I know a guy ,that has recently done some disarming of a couple shells in the past year & for a very small price, these were shells not cannon balls tho, but I hear this person is more than qualified to do so. In my op I should have said "try to have it disarmed" These day's folks with the know how to do such things must keep a low profile. My relic hunting mentor knew a fellow who disarmed Cw era artillery up until several years ago when he had [I believe] his grandson spraying the piece with a water hose while he drilled into it & it exploded badly injuring him but not the grandson [so I have heard] , this took place in N.GA & the man passed on a few months back also heard a large artillery collection a large portion of witch was destroyed by the feds..I know stories can change over time but this is how it was told to me. Needless to say he was never the same after this event. I suppose the question may be is it worth the risk to engage in such activities , there will always be someone willing to try. NOT ME.