✅ SOLVED Suspect a beat up cannon ball but what kind?

[Dug]

Please help Cannonball guy.

A friend dug this out of a farm field near a civil war skirmish site in the SC Lowcountry. He brought it by my shop so I did impromptu pics with Iphone and tape and postal scale. Weighs 26.5 lbs but that is minus the inside charge and sections of the outside I'm guessing from elements and farm plows. The fuse hole is exactly 2 inches across. Something noted in the second pic is opposing notches near the fuse hole. Any help with the limited data I have for you?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

That is one of the Top-10 most heavily corroded cannonballs I've seen in my 40 years as a cannonball digger, collector, and dealer. So much of its body is missing, and thus "distorted," I had to do some complicated calculations to figure out what type it is. (I should mention, its fuzehole has been "enlarged" by corrosion.) It appears to be a massively corroded civil war era 8"-caliber Mortar roundshell. Its original diameter was 7.88-inches and its original "empty weight" was 44 pounds 2 ounces.
Cannon bore, shot, and shell diameters for smoothbore guns
So, now weighing 26.5 pounds, about 17.5 pounds of its original iron body has been lost, due to salty/brackish groundwater corrosion.

Yankee and Confederate 8"-caliber Mortarshells looked exactly the same, so there's no way to tell whether it is a US or CS one. That being said, the Confederates possessed FAR fewer 8" Mortars than the Yankees, so this ball is statistically most likely to be a yankee one.

 

[Dug]

I've seen some corroded ones out the Lowcountry (salt and low water table) , but never any with that much body missing either.

Thank you for lending your time and knowledge.

Since the body is relatively intact but the fuze is missing, do you suppose the fuze corroded out over time? If so I will advise my friend to go back and pound that place for it.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

The 8"-caliber Mortar roundshells always had a fuzeplug made of wood... which typically rotted away. The reason to go back and hunt that spot diligently is that unexploded "dud" Mortarshells typically landed very close to the target they were aimed at and immediately burrowed into the ground, instead of bouncing and rolling hundreds of yards past the target. So, there SHOULD be some soldiers' equipment (bullets, buttons, etc.) very close to where your friend found that "dud" Mortarshell.

 

[Dug]

The 8"-caliber Mortar roundshells always had a fuzeplug made of wood... which typically rotted away. The reason to go back and hunt that spot diligently is that unexploded "dud" Mortarshells typically landed very close to the target they were aimed at and immediately burrowed into the ground, instead of bouncing and rolling hundreds of yards past the target. So, there SHOULD be some soldiers' equipment (bullets, buttons, etc.) very close to where your friend found that "dud" Mortarshell.

Roger that!