✅ SOLVED First hunt: cannonball frag?

[Joe73]

first ever hunt with my new metal detector and I'm not completely sure if I've found a cannonball fragment. I'm also not sure what the long bent piece of metal is. Would like to know what I found. These were found near the Battle of Spring Hill

 

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[A2coins]

Welcome to tnet Looks like you have some good places to hunt. cant help with ID but thanks for sharing your finds

 

[Mud Hut]

The long bent piece was probably straight originally, and looks very much like i/2 of a Civil War era divider.

 

[Old Pueblo]

Need better shots of the fragment to know for sure. But it looks like it could be a chunk of an explosive cannon ball.

 

[Joe73]

 

[callicles]

I would say it is very likely to be a fragment. If it is - and I think so - go back, because there will be more!! Good luck!

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

I'll confirm what Old Pueblo and Callicles said... it is definitely a fragment of a civil war explosive cannonball. Based on comparing its size with the wire-fence brads in the photo, along with the location you dug it at (battle of Spring Hill TN), it is a fragment of a 12-Pounder caliber (4.62-inch) "Common-Shell" cannonball.

It has to be a 12-Pounder caliber roundshell frag, because that was the only caliber of Smoothbore cannons in use at that battle.

Being from a late-1864 CSA Army of Tennessee battle, it is most likely from a yankee-made shell, because at that point in the war (November 1864), the AoTN was using Polygonal Cavity Common-Shells.

Battle of Spring Hill:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Spring_Hill

 

[A2coins]

Yep what he said!!!!

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Good to have CBC here when these items come up.

 

[Joe73]

Thank you very much for helping me identify this. I enjoyed sharing this information with my son.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Joe73, as a longtime civil war artillery shell hunter & digger, I can assure you that where there's one cannonball fragment there's usually more. Plus, other civil war relics. Go get 'em. And, please keep us informed about what you find.

I'm very glad to hear you shared the relic-identification information with your son. Made my day to hear that. "Passing the Knowledge forward" is the main reason I post at Treasurenet.

 

[Joe73]

Went out yesterday and searched the same area again and found this small piece. Not sure what it is though, and have to clean it up some more. Can anyone identify?
CannonballGuy is thier a particular radius that an exploding Cannonball would make? I searched around the area of the other one but didn't get any hits. Being that I'm new at detecting,I will go back several times to make sure I'm not missing something.

 

[callicles]

CBG will certainly know the answer to that and I can't wait to hear is response. I've oftened wondered whether a common shell's fragment might behave differently than a caseshot projectile's fragment due to the amount of powder. Since yours is common, then that might play a roll. Anyway, great job and keep it up!!!

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

An explosive object's fragmentation radius can be measured accurately only if the object is stationary when it explodes. Cannonballs were typically 10-to-20 feet in the air AND traveling at about 700+ miles per hour when they exploded. Therefore, the fragmentation radius is greatly distorted, having the shape of a very long oval instead of a circle. For example, the fragments at the "back side" of the cannonball actually get slowed down by the explosion, because it blows them "backwards"... and the frags at the front side get a boost to their speed, being "accelerated" by the explosion.

Callicles is correct... the amount of gunpowder (the "bursting charge") inside the cannonball affected how far the fragments would get blown. According to US and CS civl war Ordnance Department specifications, a 12-Pounder caliber Case-Shot shell contained a 1-ounce bursting charge (and about 90 antipersonnel balls). The specification for a 12-Pounder caliber Common-Shell (the type Joe73 found) was a 6-ounce bursting charge. Six times more powder would of course cause a much wider fragmentation radius.

Also, keep in mind that explosive cannonballs had a "time-fuze," and worked imperfectly. (A civil war era artillery time-fuze resembled a piece of a cigarette, and was basicly an oversized firecracker fuze.) The time-fuze could be "cut" to explode the shell after (just as an example) 6 seconds of flight, but in actual use their performance varied. Many would detonate the shell at 6 seconds but some would be a bit shorter and some a bit longer. That variability has the effect of spreading the fragments from several shots over quite a wide area.

 

[Joe73]

My son and I finally got out to the area we have been working today. We didn't find anything spectacular but it was neat to find these old nails.