Genuinely sorry to have to disappoint you, but... your measurements prove your ball is made of Steel, not cast-iron, which means it definitely is not a cannonball. ALL actual cannonballs wre made of simple cast-iron, never Steel, with one exception (10-inch Solid Shot cannonballs made in Britain in the 1860s). Well, okay, there's another exception, copperbrass cannonballs made and used by the Mexican in the 1847 Mexican-American War.
The civil war Ordnance Manual's "Shot Tables" (viewable online, for free, at:
www.civilwarartillery.com/shottables.htm ) tell the very-precise diameter and weight of cannonballs used in the US from the Revolutionary War through the civil war. The Shot Tables say a 3-pounder caliber solid-shot cannonball was 2.84-inches in diamter and weighed 3.05 pounds (about 3 pounds 1 ounce). You reported your ball is slightly larger than 2.84-inches (by .04-inch) and weighs 3 pounds 7 ounces. Therefore, it cannot be made of cast-iron. Steel is a heavier alloy than simple cast-iron, which explains how your ball can be only .04 larger than a 3-Pounder cannonball but weigh 6 ounces more than a cast-iron ball of the same size.
I co-wrote an Educational article about how to distinguish actual cannonballs from the many civilian-usage lookalikes. It contains detailed instructions, with helpful photos and diagrams. You can read it online, for free, at:
SolidShotEssentialsMod
