This sort of thing actually hapepens with some frequency.

"Hapepens"

I love that word!

Goddamn Yankee bastards!

Well, if you've ever kept hapes, you'd understand why they need a pen.

150 year war?

p.s. -- the Civil War bullets are not the size show in my link -- maybe about 3/4th of an inch high but quite thick.

That's a Minie Ball, Chris. Sometimes referred to as the most devastating small arms munition ever created.

Zed

Thanks for that info. I never knew what those bullets were called but always remember thinking it would sure tear one big nasty hole into the poor guy on the receiving end of that bullet.

"digging up rusting bullets"

YEAH!

Lead Rusts?

Dumb fucking Cracker got what he was after! What did he think sticking his finger in would do! Sam White ---- No Shit!

Lead oxide---Rust.

"the south will rise...."

boom!!!


all the best

This is my ancestor I spoke of --

From the roster for the Massachusetts 10th Volunteers -

Edward H. Graves; 1st Lieut.; 21; Townshend, VT; clerk; wounded, 6/21/61, Battle of the Wilderness;
7/1//64; expiration of service; From Co. C.

You would not believe the beautiful handwriting in his letters. Exquisite for someone who was just 21. They wrote so descriptively too back then too. So different than what you see today.

correction

They wrote so descriptively too back then too

Too many "toos"

When I was stationed in Germany a nearby base in the Netherlands got an angry call from a farmer, who was tired of hitting unexploded bombs in his field.

Four different bomb squads went out there after the Army discovered he had more than 100 old pieces of ordnance from WWII -- stacked in a shed: bombs, mortars, artillery shells.

Every time he hit one he'd throw it on the pile

Hell, Vern-the Germans as well as the Allies were busy throwin' a LOT of that stuff around.

In fact-I'm amazed we don't hear about more people being killed by that stuff than we do.

A few years ago in London-a woman called the Police and told them she had a bomb under her bed that had been there since WWII-every other time she'd called-they just blew her off as a kook-but this time-they went and looked-sure enough-there it was-big as life.
So it's no real surprise..

To this day-in the Wilderness Battlefield-they won't allow ANY tree cutting with a powered saw-too many of the trees STILL have mini-balls embedded in them. Many of the lumber mills in the area had people killed trying to cut up trees that were brought in.

Vernon: There are a couple of huge WW1 "mines"-basically tunnels dug under German trenches and filled with amatol, I think, still in France-they are too sensitive to even attempt to remove.

Every so often they dog up a bomb while doing sewer work in London or Berlin.

Can you keep what you find? Anyone know?

I doubt that they would allow you to keep anything that you found in a battlefield park or memorial site. They may not even allow the use of metal detectors in a place like that.
I worked with a guy a few years back though that was really into that sort of thing, and he did all sorts of research on areas where battles and skirmishes had taken place and where armies had encamped. He'd go out tramping through the woods and fields wearing snake proof boots with his metal detector, and he found some pretty neat stuff too. He had some belt buckles & buttons and a ton of bullets and gave me a couple like the ones that you have, and a palm sized cannonball fragment. He said that the holy grail of civil war ammunition was the "Whitworth" shell .

That makes 500,001 killed because of the civil war. There's your reparations!

Wow,
Where can I find a SCUD. I will first polish it with my needle scaler.

To this day-in the Wilderness Battlefield-they won't allow ANY tree cutting with a powered saw-too many of the trees STILL have mini-balls embedded in them. Many of the lumber mills in the area had people killed trying to cut up trees that were brought in.

Posted by frankf55

that makes no sense whatsoever..I run a sawmill and most bullets are not an issue since they are made of LEAD and softer that the surrounding wood. A 3 ring minnie is a .58 caliber bullet not an exploding munition

The area of south carolina that I live in was a site of several Revolutionary War battles. Port Ferry, Black Mingo and Tarcote. When I was a kid, we used to go to some of the old plantations around these areas with metal detectors.

Found some pretty neat stuff and a lot of junk.

Most of the Civil War battles were fought in Charleston and the surrounding areas, and all of that is either covered with concrete or asphalt or it is part of a public park.

Digging things up in a public park will land you with a fine. They're pretty uptight about everything down there. If you own one of the houses in Ansonborough or on East Bay or on "Rainbow Row", you have to meet with a committee just to get new blinds. They would probably be very upset about you digging up their lawn.

Ok I don't want to sound stupid but I thought a cannonball was a solid piece if Iron or steel. If so how in the hell did it explode??

Larry Mohr

Larry

from the article --

Biemeck and Peter George, co-author of a book on Civil War ordnance, believe White was using either a drill or a grinder attached to a drill to remove grit from the cannonball, causing a shower of sparks.

Larry,

Cannonballs were usually hollow and filled with explosive. A big hunk of iron is destructive, but not nearly as destructive as a cloud of shrapnel. Think hand grenade.

The solid balls were used against masonry defenses. The hollow, explosive filled ones were anti-personnel.

Ok I THINK I got it now. It got so hot that it exploded due to the instense heat. OK now it makes perfect sense. Thanks CalifChris

Larry Mohr

So the balls are hollow filled with explosives. Thanks to You too axe. Boy they were smart back then.

Larry Mohr

"Boy they were smart back then.

Larry Mohr"

Posted by LarryMohr

Yup ...

Back then you would have been dead already.

I think the Civil War may have been the most gruesome and deadliest war of all time in terms of carnage to the actual foot soldiers involved. I don't know if WWI was worse with the addition of more effective machine guns and poison gas?

"Sam knew his stuff, no doubt about it," said Jimmy Blankenship, historian-curator at the Petersburg battleground. "He did know Civil War ordnance."



Apparently, not well enough.

RIP Mr White.

The "War of Northern Agression" vs WW1.

They were equally stupid.

There are some tens of thousands of nuclear weapons in existence.

The party has just begun.

Screw them thar yankees. THE WAR IS NOT LOST!

Zat what is it with You and death?? It's like you're in a love affair with all things death related. What gives??

Larry Mohr

Copy this article and insert it into your copy of Confederates in the Attic.

Many, many archaeological sites (especially Civil War battlefields) are destroyed by looters each year. Maybe this will make future looters think twice about their actions.

ARPA clearly doesn't deter anyone but maybe being blown up will!

I'm amazed the archaeologists found anything at the Little Bighorn battlefield, given the going over it's been subjected to by "relic hunters" for over a century.

I've seen damage to prehistoric sites in the Southwest that would make anyone this side of a pothunter or Santa Fe dealer weep.

"The solid balls were used against masonry defenses. The hollow, explosive filled ones were anti-personnel."

Field artillery seldom carried solid shot in the limbers. It was only effective against forts or ships for the most part. The limber was primarily filled with "case shot" filled with powder and musket balls. The gunner would call back to the "box" and order, "Load, shell, 1000 yards" (or whatever range he estimated.) The man on the box (limber) would then cut the fuse on the shell (case shot) to a length corresponding to 1000 yards. It was already attached to a canvas bag containing the powder propellant. It was then placed into a leather pouch carried by the "powder monkey." The powder monkey carried it to the gunner who inspected the round and then ordered, "Advance the round." The powder monkey then took it to the gun where the #2 man removed it from the pouch and placed it in the muzzle of the gun and the #1 man then rammed it home. The gunner then ordered, "Ready." The #3 man would then use the vent spike to poke a hole through the canvas bag. The #4 man would insert the friction primer, pull the lanyard taut and look at the gunner. This told the gunner that the gun was ready to fire. The gunner issued the order to fire and the flame from the firing would ignite the fuse. Ideally, the shell would explode right over the heads of any enemy troops, spraying musket balls and shrapnel.
The limber might carry two or three rounds of cannister which would be used once enemy troops advanced to about 400 yards. They didn't carry more than that because if the enemy was STILL advancing after two or three rounds of cannister, it was time to get out of there.
A common error is for people to call the limber a caisson. The limber is the two-wheeled box carrying the ammo that is hooked to the cannon when being pulled by horses. A caisson can be hooked behind a limber making it a four-wheeled cart and carries two more ammo boxes and a spare wheel on the back.

Have I bored everyone enough?

Have I bored everyone enough?

Actually it was quite interesting and informative. Thanks

" 'Have I bored everyone enough?'

Actually it was quite interesting and informative. Thanks"

Posted by goatman


ditto

But I'm an Army brat.
My old man taught artillery at Ft Bliss.

With Goat and Zat on that thanks for the info jest.

This has been a pretty good thread.

Chris I have a couple old rounds like the one you showed. I also have a couple hundered in confederate cash too. My grandad had a saber from the Civil War but not sure what happened to it when he died.

What really hurt was I had a great uncle who had literaly thousands of dollars in confederate money. One day when cleaning out his shed he got fed up with it and put it on the junk pile and burned it. I didn't find out till a month or two later. I still give him grief about it to this day.

..............a blast from the past..............

Chris
Thanks for the link to the Whitworth shells. My friend had tried to describe them to me, but that was long before I had internet access to research them, and to be truthful I'd all but forgotten about them until I posted here.
Casting the shell to match the twist in the barrel must have been quite a feat in the 1800's.
One other place to look for relics is near rail stations. In years past, when trains carried lots of passenger cars and freight, travelers would often be stuck sitting in the pullmans while the freight was unloaded, pulling forward, car by car at the stations loading dock. These passengers would often get off the train to buy a soft drink etc. at a local store and take it back to the train with them and when finished, they would just toss it out the window of the train. In Conyers Ga. where I grew up, they did some light surface grading alongside the tracks about 300 yds. from the main station and my brother and I found lots of old bottles of all sorts, patent medicines that used cork stoppers, cosmetics, and even an old earthenware whiskey jug.

Jawjaboy

Your post at 12:40 p.m. was so interesting. Thanks.

Larry asked my question..thanks for the answer.

And thanks for the post Jest--no it wasn't boring.

My ancestors did not come here until 1890 and 1895 during the potato famine and from Germany.

In Washington state--they have unused explosives all over the forest. They used it 40-50 years to blow up stumps and such. Had a claim where kids found it and it either blew up or they tried to light it. Took the kids eye out.

Murphy

fascinating stuff to me...

I stayed at Lee's Hqs @ Gettysburg during the 100 year celebration.

interesting vibes there...

"The limber was primarily filled with "case shot" filled with powder and musket balls"

Is this what is referred to as grape shot or is that entirely different?