Good to be back! + incedible once in a liftime relic find!

[ncsilverspider]

Good to be back! + incedible once in a liftime relic find! (UPDATED: CLEANED!)

Hello everyone!

It has been awhile since I posted on here, and by awhile, I mean over two years... life got extremely busy. I've been wanting to come back for a long time, but just wasn't able to for various reasons.

Hunting's been slow due to detector issues, so I've mainly been hunting bottles and looking on the ground, which actually produces some of my best finds. it certainly did recently.

As I posted ages ago, I live along the double track mainline of Norfolk Southern's Piedmont Division, ex- Southern Railway. Recently, many of the old Southern signals have been replaced with newer signals. A lot of ground has been moved in order to put these new signals up, which has turned up several interesting relics, including something I've dreamed of for years.

The city of Salisbury was the site of many a fight during the Civil War, including a Confederate prison. While most things were found/destroyed during construction of the railroad, a few things survived. Recently I was train watching in Salisbury where workers had finished putting up a signal a few hours earlier. While walking back to my car, I saw an odd round ball with a hole in the top. I pulled it out of the ground and saw that it had apparently exploded. It was heavy iron and pitted. I had my suspicion but didn't get my hopes up. Nether the less, I had it checked by a Civil War expert. Turns out my suspicion was correct. It's the remains of a six inch borman fuse cannonball once containing grape shot. Never did I expect to find a 65% percent complete cannonball, let alone WITH MY EYES!

the cannonball is currently in electrolysis to preserve it. Here's a pic of me holding it before starting it

.


I just wanted to share and return to this awesome site. Hopefully I will be able to post here more often. thanks for looking and God Bless!

-ncsilverspider

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" - Mathew 6:21

 

[treasurehunter313]

Awesome find. I also like your quote at the bottom. It really resonates with me right now

 

[beez0404]

Fantastic find. Had I gone over that with my detector I probably wouldn't have dug it.......LOL So great eyeball find.

 

[Davers]

A Great Eyeball Find Indeed.
Very Cool.

 

[RJ55]

Cool find, congrats

 

[antique man]

Awesome cannonball!!!!!!

 

[parsonwalker]

Nice frag with the fuse hole intact . . . !

 

[dirtlooter]

double wow! awesome find!

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Ncsilverspider wrote:
> It's the remains of a six inch borman fuse cannonball once containing grape shot.

NCS, just trying to help you correctly ID your find. There's no such thing as a "6-inch" cannonball, so if somebody told you that's what it is, he misinformed you. There was a "6-Pounder caliber" cannonball, whose diameter was 3.58-inches. Based on its apparent size in your hand in the photo, I think you did find an exploded 6-Pounder cannonball.

Also, it did not contain "Grapehot" antipersonnel balls. Those are much larger balls than the balls in an explosive artillery shell. Yours contained what were called "Case-Shot" balls.

Also, the diameter of a Bormann fuze is 1.5"-to-1.6-inches. The size of the fuze-hole in your photo doesn't look that large... although, of course, rust-encrustation can make the hole a bit smaller. Please measure its diameter, minus the rust-encrustation, and tell us the measurement.

The photo posted below shows what a "cleaned" dug Bormann-fuzed cannonball's fuze-hole looks like. Please note that the smaller hole is approximately 1/2-inch lower than the 1.5-inch hole. I'm asking for precise measurements of your shell's fuzehole because it might have held a Confederate copper fuzeplug. The hole for that type of fuzeplug is a bit smaller, being about 1.25-inches wide at the top, with a 1/4"-deep stepdown to a .95"-wide threaded hole.

 

[ncsilverspider]

Ncsilverspider wrote:
> It's the remains of a six inch borman fuse cannonball once containing grape shot.

NCS, just trying to help you correctly ID your find. There's no such thing as a "6-inch" cannonball, so if somebody told you that's what it is, he misinformed you. There was a "6-Pounder caliber" cannonball, whose diameter was 3.58-inches. Based on its apparent size in your hand in the photo, I think you did find an exploded 6-Pounder cannonball.

Also, it did not contain "Grapehot" antipersonnel balls. Those are much larger balls than the balls in an explosive artillery shell. Yours contained what were called "Case-Shot" balls.

Also, the diameter of a Bormann fuze is 1.5"-to-1.6-inches. The size of the fuze-hole in your photo doesn't look that large... although, of course, rust-encrustation can make the hole a bit smaller. Please measure its diamter, minus the rust-encrustation, and tell us the measurement.

The photo posted below shows what a "cleaned" dug Bormann-fuzed cannonball's fuze-hole looks like. Please note that the smaller hole is approximately 1/2-inch lower than the 1.5-inch hole. I'm asking for precise measurements of your shell's fuzehole because it might have held a Confederate copper fuzeplug. The hole for that type of fuzeplug is a bit smaller, being about 1.25-inches wide at the top, with a 1/4"-deep stepdown to a .95"-wide threaded hole.

I sincerely appreciate your information in regards to the size, type and contents of this cannonball. As soon as we take it out of electrolysis I will measure the fuse hole. Thank you again.

 

[CASPER-2]

 

[mangum]

Man, that's an awesome eye spy, I love cannonballs! I'm in Charlotte & have an extra detector if you get the itch to get out!

 

[ncsilverspider]

Man, that's an awesome eye spy, I love cannonballs! I'm in Charlotte & have an extra detector if you get the itch to get out!

Thanks magnum! We're planning on cleaning it on Sunday. Will post pics once done.

You're in Charlotte? What part? I'm in Spencer/Salisbury. Would love to meet up sometime.

 

[DigIron2]

glad you had your eye's open.killer finD!You need to get that detector back in action.

 

[ncsilverspider]

Hey Treasure Hunters!

After several little obstacles, I finally managed to clean the cannonball! After letting it sit in electrolysis overnight, we took a wire brush to it and put a thin layer of water sealant on it. Here is the result!




For the ones interested in the fuse hole: Width across is 1 1/8 inches, and the depth from the lip to the last thread is approx. 1 inch.

Really happy with how this turned out. Not bad for never having done electrolysis! Thanks for checking out! Happy Hunting and God Bless!

-ncsilverspider

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." -Matthew 6:21

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Thank you for providing the fuzehole's measurements, and the after-cleaning photos. I've got great news for you. It is not a Bormann-fuzed cannonball. It is a super-rare Confederate 6-Pounder (3.67"-caliber) Sideloader Case-Shot shell. Rarity: On a scale of 1-to-10, with 10 being rarest, it rates a 9. I think I see the threaded hole which held the sideloading plug in your fragment's side, at the 3 o'clock position in the "underside" photo.

The fact that you've got a bit more than 50% of the thin-walled ball means it did not explode, but was broken by an external force, such as an ammunition-chest exploding. You said you found it near railroad tracks. Did an ammunition train get burned at that spot, when the Confederates had to abandon Salisbury?

 

[ncsilverspider]

Thank you for providing the fuzehole's measurements, and the after-cleaning photos. I've got great news for you. It is not a Bormann-fuzed cannonball. It is a super-rare Confederate 6-Pounder (3.67"-caliber) Sideloader Case-Shot shell. Rarity: On a scale of 1-to-10, with 10 being rarest, it rates a 9. I think I see the threaded hole which held the sideloading plug in your fragments side, at the 3 o'clock position in the "underside" photo.

The fact that you've got a bit more than 50% of the thin-walled ball means it did not explode, but was broken by an external force, such as an ammunition-chest exploding. You said you found it near railroad tracks. Did an ammunition train get burned at that spot, when the Confederates had to abandon Salisbury?

That's unbelievable... I wish you could see the grin on my face.

It is very possible since those tracks have been there since 1850 and once served the Confederate prison that was here. But I don't know if there's anything recording an ammunition train burning but its possible.

I appreciate all the info you gave me... this is definitely one of my best finds if not the best! Thanks again!!

 

[BurntBear]

Congrats on preserving a part of history!

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

I found the historical info for you. When the Yankees captured Salisbury they burned almost everything, including the Salisbury Arsenal and large stockpiles of Confederate ammunition. Two trainloads of Confederate military supplies escaped just before the surrender, another was captured and destroyed.
Stoneman's Raid: Salisbury and the Yadkin River Bridge
From that webpage's historical reports about the yankee burning of captured Salisbury NC:
Stoneman's second-in command, [yankee] Brig. Gen. Alvan C. Gillem, recorded "from the preceding afternoon up to [2:00 p.m. on the 13th], the air had been constantly rent by the reports of exploding shells and burning [ammunition] magazines.

 

[bootybandit]

Very cool!!