Cannon Ball Found In Park?

[Fugio]

So, here's one for the Cannonballguy, I was out detecting in my hometown in NH and I dug this large ball of iron from the town park(town was settled in 1760). I thought it was curious, but didn't think much of it until I read a thread about a possible canister shot find here on T-Net.
Needless to say I got curious. So, I took some measurements that can be found below. Ball is pretty clean, but appears to match quite well with the Ordnance Manual specs found here:
http://www.civilwarartillery.com/shottables.html
What do you guys think of this? There are no records I can find of any military action in the vicinity, so the presence of a canister ball here is puzzling to me. Any input or opinions are greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!

 

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[Fugio]

I apologize ahead of time for the misleading title. I should have typed canister shot, not cannonball I got a little too excited...

 

[Oddjob]

Thats really cool, have you found other there in the past.

 

[Fugio]

Thanks brother. This is the first one I have found. It came out of the hole after digging down about a foot. It was my first time on this site, so maybe I'll find more next time I'm there.

 

[steelheadwill]

Not far off from the specs on some of the canister shot here, hats off to Cannonball guy for posting the link on one of my whatzit posts.
Best wishes to you there my friend, I'll probably raid that site too. just kidding
Cannon bore, shot, and shell diameters for smoothbore guns

 

[Oddjob]

Thanks brother. This is the first one I have found. It came out of the hole after digging down about a foot. It was my first time on this site, so maybe I'll find more next time I'm there.

Well I hope you find plenty more of them, enough to build a cool looking pyramid stack of them.

 

[Oddjob]

So how exactly do we nominate something for a Banner, can anyone nominate, if so I think this should certainly be considered.

 

[TomPA]

There may not have been any military action locally, but there is another possibility. Iron furnaces in NH were in use in the early 1800's and this could possibly be a relic made for The War of 1812. Check the local records and see if there was a furnace nearby.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Here is my input, as you requested. Your ball's diameter-to-weight ratio proves it is made of cast-iron, not steel. All civil war and earlier Grapeshot and Canister-ammo artillery balls were made of simple cast-iron, never steel. So, your ball passes the first Authenticity test. It also passes test #2 and #3, being the correct diameter and correct weight to match up precisely with one of the artillery ball types listed in the Ordnance Manual's "Shot Tables" charts. So, I believe it is indeed an actual artillery ball, specifically, either a civil war era Canister ball, or a Colonial era "quilted grapeshot" ball. You say there is no record of civil war artillery (battle) firing at the location where you found it, but there may have been civil war artillery training happening there. Or, there may have been Revolutionary War or War Of 1812 artillery firing there.

In the comments above, I mentioned that its size-versus-weight ratio proves it is made of cast-iron. Steel is an alloy which is about 10% heavier than cast-iron. But your 1.47" (okay, actually 1.469") ball weighs almost exactly what the Shot Tables cast-iron 1.47" ball weighs. It's definitely not steel, which is what most 20th-century metal balls are made of.

 

[austin_luker]

You can always guess someone dropped it and it was never fired? Most of the grape shot I have seen has the indentations from the other shot being pressed into it while fired. Im not seeing that on this piece of shot.

 

[Fugio]

Here is my input, as you requested. Your ball's diamter-to-weight ratio proves it is made of cast-iron, not steel. All civil war and earlier Grapeshot and Canister-ammo artillery balls were made of simple cast-iron, never steel. So, your ball passes the first Authenticity test. It also passes test #2 and #3, being the correct diameter and correct weight to match up precisely with one of the artillery ball types listed in the Ordnance Manual's "Shot Tables" charts. So, I believe it is indeed an actual artillery ball, specifically, either a civil war era Canister ball, or a Colonial era "quilted grapeshot" ball. You say there is no record of civil war artillery (battle) firing at the location where you found it, but there may have been civil war artillery training happening there. Or, there may have been Revolutionary War or War Of 1812 artillery firing there.

Thank you so much for your valued input and for fulfilling my request, it is greatly appreciated. I am very excited about this find! I will do some more research and see if I can discover any training or engagements that may have taken place there that I may have missed. There is so much history here who knows what May have taken place in the past at any given location.

 

[Fugio]

Not far off from the specs on some of the canister shot here, hats off to Cannonball guy for posting the link on one of my whatzit posts.
Best wishes to you there my friend, I'll probably raid that site too. just kidding
Cannon bore, shot, and shell diameters for smoothbore guns

Haha thanks buddy! Let's raid it together soon! And a big thanks to Cannonballguy for sure for sharing his knowledge and resources with us. I would not have even looked into it were it not for his posts'.

So how exactly do we nominate something for a Banner, can anyone nominate, if so I think this should certainly be considered.

I'm not sure exactly myself, but thanks so much! I don't know if it's banner worthy or not but I appreciate it my friend!

There may not have been any military action locally, but there is another possibility. Iron furnaces in NH were in use in the early 1800's and this could possibly be a relic made for The War of 1812. Check the local records and see if there was a furnace nearby.

That's a good idea. Definitely could have been left over from manufacturing. Perhaps even left there during training. I am going to do some more research into the industry that was here. Mostly textile, leather, and shoe makers here but I could have missed something. Thanks for the tip brother!

 

[A2coins]

bottom corner of thread for banner button in red below like

 

[Leeann38]

Here is my input, as you requested. Your ball's diamter-to-weight ratio proves it is made of cast-iron, not steel. All civil war and earlier Grapeshot and Canister-ammo artillery balls were made of simple cast-iron, never steel. So, your ball passes the first Authenticity test. It also passes test #2 and #3, being the correct diameter and correct weight to match up precisely with one of the artillery ball types listed in the Ordnance Manual's "Shot Tables" charts. So, I believe it is indeed an actual artillery ball, specifically, either a civil war era Canister ball, or a Colonial era "quilted grapeshot" ball. You say there is no record of civil war artillery (battle) firing at the location where you found it, but there may have been civil war artillery training happening there. Or, there may have been Revolutionary War or War Of 1812 artillery firing there.

In the comments above, I mentioned that its size-versus-weight ratio proves it is made of cast-iron. Steel is an alloy which is about 10% heavier than cast-iron. But your 1.47" (okay, actually 1.469") ball weighs almost exactly what the Shot Tables cast-iron 1.47" ball weighs. It's definitely not steel, which is what most 20th-century metal balls are made of.

Any idea what this may be?? I found it in my backyard while digging.

 

[Oddjob]

I'm not sure exactly myself, but thanks so much! I don't know if it's banner worthy or not but I appreciate it my friend!

Cool story, cool place to find it and cool artifact. To me it sounds like a banner but it is not my choice, and to be honest I am not sure who even makes that choice.

I have found some canon balls my self in Europe but never anything so small, that thing is small enough to want to keep. Try finding finding over 40 12 pounds in as little as 10 years, the wife starts to get pissy about why I was keeping them. Wish I had found one of these because she could not complain then.

So regardless of how your artifact is judged it is still a banner to me, and the user above who offered that intel made some great points too.

 

[Fugio]

I have found some canon balls my self in Europe but never anything so small, that thing is small enough to want to keep. Try finding finding over 40 12 pounds in as little as 10 years, the wife starts to get pissy about why I was keeping them. Wish I had found one of these because she could not complain then.

So regardless of how your artifact is judged it is still a banner to me, and the user above who offered that intel made some great points too.

Thanks Oddjob, I'm glad you enjoyed the story and appreciate the artifact. That's amazing that you found 40 cannonballs! I don't know what you do with them all. My wife would kill me if I had that much iron in the house haha.

 

[Oddjob]

Thanks Oddjob, I'm glad you enjoyed the story and appreciate the artifact. That's amazing that you found 40 cannonballs! I don't know what you do with them all. My wife would kill me if I had that much iron in the house haha.

They where not all found at once, it took about 10 years, but they where all from the same location. I just stopped hunting that area after a while.

But your right, that much metal does anger the wife. I gave mine to a University in Germany.

 

[AU Seeker]

So how exactly do we nominate something for a Banner, can anyone nominate, if so I think this should certainly be considered.

bottom corner of thread for banner button in red below like

Close but no cigar, Actually to nominate a find for the Banner it would be at the upper right of the post/find being nominated, not at the bottom are you would be nominating the first reply instead, in this instance it would be the very first post of this topic by Fugio where he is asking about his cannister shot.

And yes anyone can nominate, but it will take numerous members doing so for the item to make the Banner.

 

[AU Seeker]

Cool story, cool place to find it and cool artifact. To me it sounds like a banner but it is not my choice, and to be honest I am not sure who even makes that choice.

I have found some canon balls my self in Europe but never anything so small, that thing is small enough to want to keep. Try finding finding over 40 12 pounds in as little as 10 years, the wife starts to get pissy about why I was keeping them. Wish I had found one of these because she could not complain then.

So regardless of how your artifact is judged it is still a banner to me, and the user above who offered that intel made some great points too.

Oddball,

How the Banner works is members who think a find is worthy to be on the Banner nominates the find as I describe in my previous post, after a member click on the Nominate Banner link they have to also add a comment stating why they think the find deserves to be on the Banner, if there's enough nominations of the find the forum's staff put the find up on the Banner.

I can't tell you how many members have to nominate the find, but I do know that it's base on the number of nominations and also the content of the statements.

The staff also seems to not put the same type of finds on the Banner in close proximty of each other.