✅ SOLVED Shell ID for Cannonball Guy

[etex]

found this six pound shell several years ago close to the downtown square in Tyler, Tx., would this have been made in Marshall powder mill? One side is much thicker than the other.

 

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[Mud Hut]

Cool find for Tyler! Hope you get your ID!

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

I appreciate you including what looks like a Williams Type One bullet in the photo for size scale, but it doesn't actually help enough. Because you did not tell us the ball's size, all I can tell you is that it is a woodenfuzed shell, made anytime from the Colonial era through the end of the civil war. It seems to have unusually thin shellwall thickness, which indicates it is from sometime before the civil war. Round grenades tend to have thin walls, so this might be one, but I've got to have accurate diameter measurement to narrow down the possibilities for this ball. There were several sizes of round grenades from the 1800s and earlier, ranging from 2.5-inches to as large as 3.58-inches in diameter.

 

[etex]

Thanks, the shell is 3.5 inches in diameter

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Thanks for the diameter measurement. It's a 6-Pounder caliber, common in the Colonial era through the civil war. Due to the shallow fuzehole and thin shellwall, I suspect it is from sometime before the civil war.

I should mention, partial-burst cannonballs are rarely found. (They very nearly always burst entirely to pieces.) Congratulations on a very cool artillery find.

 

[nsdq]

Neat find