Bullet and Shell Civil War Projectiles Forum
Relic Discussion => Artillery => Topic started by: scottfromgeorgia on August 01, 2013, 09:46:38 AM
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Folks, I thought you might like these pics of the British cannon captured and then blown up by General Washington between Trenton and Princeton. They were found by Mr. Ross and Mac Mason (you can see Mac's signature painting on the balls). Not Civil War, but interesting anyway.
Here are the pics: https://secure.flickr.com/photos/97483618@N00/sets/72157634882759825/
Here is the letter from Mr. Ross about these pieces:
I live in New Jersey and have been detecting most of my life. In the 1960’s And 70’s I detected many Revolutionary War sites, and Mac Mason was a good friend and digging partner. I was familiar with the history of the battle at Princeton and had know that there had been cannons possibly destroyed there. Mac and I never thought that we would find them and we were not looking for them when we went there to detect. We did not do any specific research on the battle before we hunted the field., other than just knowing the battle accounts and the area. We hunted on land that is now owned by the collage near the Center for Advanced Studies. A couple of hundred yards from the present battlefield park. We found a total of 10 pieces of cannon fragments along with several dozen balls. Most all of them seamed to be from the breach end of the guns. I took 5 pieces and Mac took 5 pieces. We did not find any marked buttons, but we did find quite a few musket balls, and the rounded iron piece of the trunion cover. These 4 pieces and the trunion cover have been in my personal collection until I placed them on consignment with Bryan Davis, owner Charleston Underground Relics.
R. Ross
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I remember when those were acquired, Scott. I think they are really cool and tell a terrific story.
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FYI, there is a person on the Civil War Forum: www.civilwartalk.com that is looking for someone in the Atlanta area to drill some shells and balls that he has found.
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"Remember these are now 150 years old and most of their charge has over the intervening years turned to NITRO! "
Yeah, right.
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Redbob (and anyone else),
I can take care of any drilling or cleaning you need. Just send me an email to carl1865 at Comcast dot net and we'll see if we can do what's needed.
(Thanks Jon for catching my typo!)
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I think Carl skipped a digit in his contact email. It should be carl1865 not carl186.
He must be concentrating on preparing for the Marietta. show.
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Jon: Actually it's partly due to being involved in an IT issue at Coke and partly because my brain is all over the place at times. :) Thanks for the catch. I've corrected it in the posting.
Mike and RelicRunner: Please resist the urge to make comment here. ;D
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I posted your email information and maybe you'll hear from him since he's in the Atlanta area.
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thanks for posting some fine relics and a good digging story to go with them.
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Yes, they are some really neat relics. I badly wanted to buy them.
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Looking for any contact info on Richard Ross. I know he moved to Hawaii due to health issues. I know he's kept letters he's received from Mac Mason ( I have a copy of one I'll post this week) and would like to somehow contact him. Thanks.