✅ SOLVED Cannonballs or not?

[yardbird]

The reason I have a metal detector is that while walking between my shop and my barn last year, I noticed a round "rock" sticking out of the ground. I dug it out with my pocket knife and a screwdriver, and it is a perfectly round iron ball. My first thought was that it was probably a "mill ball". many of you probably know what those are. What bothered me about that is that we are a very rural area, and my property is miles from any former quarries, and mostly on a hillside. I bought this property 30 years ago, cleared the trees, and built my house, barn and shop, so I know there was no equipment or even traces of machinery here. the more I thought about it, the more it intrigued me, So I bought a metal detector and I'll be darned if I didn't find another one about eight inches from the first one. Now the thing about mill balls is that they are hardly ever the same size, due to the way they are used. Both these balls are 3.25 inches in diameter, and they both weigh 4lbs. 11 oz. I haven't wire brushed them, so the weight and diameter may vary a little. No seams, and no casting marks that I can see. they remain in the same condition as when I dug them out. I got on the old 'net, and found two references to Balls of this size. A Fella back east had one he said had been dug up in the village of Cobleskill N.Y. near where they had a battle on May 30, 1778. He said what research he had done could not find a cannon that would match those dimensions. Another fella From Tennessee , I think (I've since lost the hard copy I printed) had two that he was selling. he said they were from a pile of about 55 of them(?). not sure what that was about, but the dimensions were almost exactly the same. I talked to a park ranger at Fort Vancouver, and he is an old time artillery buff. He said that he didn't know of any "mountain howitzers" of that bore, or even any close to that. There was a dustup with the Yakima Indians in 1857, and my place is in a direct line between the army fort that was located in The Dalles, Oregon, and Fort Simcoe in the Yakima valley. He was very interested, but that's as far as it went with him. So there it is. Thanks for letting me tell my story, and may God bless America.

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

I see you are already aware of the existence of "Mill-balls" and other non-artillery balls. They cause us cannonball-collectors to have to rely on the extremely precise diameter-&-weight data for actual Historical cannonballs given in the US (and CSA) Ordnance Manual. The data-charts in it cover the precise diameter-&-weight of every caliber of cannonballs, Grapeshot-balls, and Canister-balls used in North America from the 1700s through the civil war (1861-65) ...with the exception of a few Heavy-caliber (very big) French cannonballs. Cannon bore, shot, and shell diameters for smoothbore guns

As you'll see in the cannonball-size charts, your solid-iron (not hollow) ball's diameter and weight exclude it from being a cannonball.

The closest match-up for your ball is a 4-pounder (3.2"-caliber) cannonball, which was specified to be 3.12-inches in diameter, and weighed 4 pounds 1 ounce. I mention those measurements because your ball is only an eighth-inch larger, but it weighs a whole 10 ounces more than a 1/8"-smaller cast-iron ball. That means your ball is made of steel, which is a heavier alloy than cast-iron. (There is no record of steel cannonballs ever being used in America.) So, your ball was manufactured for a purpose which required a harder metal than cast-iron ...such as, rock-crushing, or a ball-bearing. Cast-iron is cheaper than steel, so the balls wouldn't be steel unless they needed to be steel.

 

[yardbird]

Thanks for the info on the steel balls. it's good to have this tool available. I hope you know that you dashed months of scenarios running through my mind of pitched battles and brave explorers moving through my property. Oh well, dreams are cheap, and this little event has given me a new hobby. I hope to be on this forum again with some other mystery to solve. Thanks again, and may God bless America.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Believe me, I get no pleasure at all in having to disappoint a relic-digger/collector with factually-correct identification. I know how it feels because I've had to trashcan some stuff in my own collection during the past 50 years. But I prefer to learn what something really is, rather than cherish something that is "mis-identified."

By the way, I noticed that you are brand-new here. Welcome to TreasureNet and the What-Is-It forum, the very best place on the internet to get mystery-objects correctly identified. Good luck in your relic-hunting. For encouragement, take a look at the Today's Finds forum here on TreasureNet.