Lead Cannon Ball

[tucando]

Howdy
Cleaning up some of my relics and forgot what I believe is a cannon ball that seems to be made of lead and has a diameter of 3.3/4 inches and weight 4.8 pounds... has a flat spot so it could be stacked and is a solid shot. This was dug about 18 inches deep from a 1840's fort in Oklahoma... any info would be helpful
Thanks
Tucando

 

[Mud Hut]

need pics

 

[Tnmountains]

Authentic cannon balls and smaller solid shot (canister and grape) are made of cast-iron rather than steel. The Federal Ordnance Manual of 1862 stated that all shot and shell were to be fabricated from cast-iron with only one exception (lead).

http://www.pochefamily.org/books/solidshotessentialsmod.html

This has some links for sizes but during the civil war yes some shot was made of lead.

 

[tucando]

 

[alabama11]

Nice find.

I once found a lead cannon ball near the battle site of the Decatur Alabama. We were doing a survey for TVA so I turned it in as an important relic. It was a little smaller than a golf ball and had scratches from crashing through trees and rocks. I asked the man who ran the relics shop in Murphreseboro TN about it and he said only one unit used that gun which was mounted on a mule. The gun was unpopular with mules and union soldiers as sometimes the mule would start spinning around before the gun discharged. The unit was an Indiana unit according to the historian. A rare piece he said.

 

[Tpmetal]

We need a cannonballguy signal, like batman but for antique projectiles