✅ SOLVED Cannonball Identification Help Please

[ScottVid]

Hello,
I bought a box of five of these "cannonballs" from an estate that had a number of civil war items. So, I'm hoping that they are indeed civil war cannonballs. They weight 3 pounds 10.9 ounces and measure 9-5/8 inches around the center. I'm attaching some pictures. Is there any more information needed? Thank you so much for looking at this. All the best, Scott

 

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[Georgivs]

From what I understand cannonballs don't have seams

 

[A2coins]

That's what I thought as well I hope were wrong are there any holes for a fuse or is it smooth all the way around

 

[mirage83]

Yeah, that seam would cause some real problems down the bore. Maybe mill balls?

 

[Kray Gelder]

Canister shot?

 

[Dfxcobb]

Thinking grape shot look up cannonball dimensions. Should be able to find it. It has precise measurements and weights

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

ScottVid, as my member-name indicates, my specialty area of relic study is Historical (pre-20th-Century) artillery projectiles. I co-wrote a very detailed educational article on how to tell with certainty whether or not an iron ball is actually an artillery ball.
http://www.pochefamily.org/books/SolidShotEssentialsMod.html

First of all, I should mention that unlike civil war era artillery balls, many Revolutionary War era artillery balls did have a very-visible casting-mold seam. BUT, so do many Civilian-usage balls, such as the Mill-Balls mentioned by Mirage83. Thus, the presence of a mold-seam on a ball MAY OR MAY NOT be a "disqualifier"

Because multi-millions of round and round-ish iron balls have been manufactured for strictly Civilian industrial (and ornamental) purposes, we cannonball collectors rely on the historical Ordnance Department records to tell us which sizes of balls are artillery balls and which are Civilian-usage balls.​

http://www.civilwarartillery.com/shottables.htm​

As the super-precise diameter & weight measurements (called the "Shot Tables" in the US Army Ordnance Manual of 1861) at the link above show, here are the only artillery balls which are even "close" to your 3-pound 10.9-ounce balls:
3 pounds 1 ounce, a 3-Pounder caliber Solid-Shot cannonball (2.84"-diamter)
3 pounds 2.5 ounces, a 32-Pounder caliber Grape-Shot ball (2.87-.89"-diameter)
3 pounds 10.9 ounces, your balls

4 pounds 1 ounce, a 4-Pounder caliber Solid-Shot cannonball (3.12"-diameter)​

Note the very-exact diameter of the actual artillery balls in the data above. Yours are 3.06-inch in diameter (9 & 5/8th-inch circumference divided by 3.1416 equals 3.06-inches). The size data in the Shot Tables (given above) is for civil war era artillery balls... but Revolutionary War era balls were a few hundredths-of-an-inch smaller. So yours, at 3.06-inch diameter, are within the "margin of tolerance" to be a RevWar era 4-Pounder Solid-Shot. The original weight of your cast-iron balls was reduced a few ounces by a type of corrosion called Graphitization, which can occur during 200+ years of burial in "swampy/marshy ground." From studying battlefield-dug cannonballs for over 40 years, I recognize the grey-ish appearance of your excavated-&-cleaned cannonballs as showing Graphitization corrosion. ​

 

[Gene Mean]

So congrats on the Rev War cannonballs!

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

The following is intended only as friendly educational advice. The photo posted by Kray Gelder shows what is known as a Stand Of Grapeshot, not Canister ammo. Canister, as its name implies, was an iron sheetmetal can (a "tin can") filled with dozens of iron balls.

In addition to a Stand Of Grapehot, there was another version, called Quilted Grapehot. The name "Quilted" came from the look of the canvas fabric wrapping being held in place by a wire mesh, giving it the look of a quilt.

The photos below (some may not be in the order listed) show:
Canister, 4.62"-caliber, excavated condition, can is corroded open, revealing some of the dozens of balls inside.
Canister, 4.62"-caliber, non-dug condition, can's soldered seam has separated, showing balls inside.
Quilted Grapeshot, 3.25"-caliber, non-excavated condition, showing original canvas with wire wrapping.
Quilted Grapeshot, 9"-caliber, non-excavated condition, Navy version, showing original canvas with twine wrapping.
Stand Of Grape, 6.4"-caliber, unfired, excavated condition (cleaned).

 

[A2coins]

Awesome info and ID CBG love it.

 

[smallfoot]

Thanks for all the info!

 

[ScottVid]

Wow! Thank you all for the great information. I take it that I should not wash this cannonball so I don't remove the "Graphitization corrosion." Is that correct? Any other tips on preserving these balls and any other things that I should know. Again thank you all for the wonderful kind help you have given me. Scott

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Sounds like you made a great investment with your estate sale purchase Scott.

If I were you, I would print both of TheCannonballGuy’s posts here and include these with the cannonballs.
This is exactly the kind of background information that future collectors will want to know.

Dave

 

[diggerranger]

[emoji106][emoji106]

 

[ScottVid]

Thanks Dave, I guess it's time to do a happy dance.
Scott