My motto -- no good deed goes unpunished ;-)

[emike123]

 Saw this 8" mortar ball in a truck of one of the American Diggers' cast in the parking lot of the Richmond show alongside an 8" Columbiad.  It has strange tong holes that flare out like a triangle and also has a cylindrical cavity bored in the back of the tong holes.  I think the latter is a CS attribute but welcome comments.

Aside from having a fairly full car, being 60% weak and lazy, 30% stupid, and 10% thoughtful (% weighting debatable and I am sure some will say 99% stupid), I passed on it and turned it over to another forum member.  I think he got himself a nice ball at a very good price.

[emike123]

Pete called me and said these are extremely rare.  He thinks they are likely either well pre-war or foreign made.  One was found in Baton Rouge and he thinks this suggests it could be well pre war as there was a lot of pre War activity there and an arsenal with a lot of obsolete material.  He said you don't see them at later places like Petersburg where there were a lot of CS 8" mortars there but none of these balls are recovered there.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Mike,
Just happen to have one.
John

[Dave the plumber]

     Mike,       where did the American Diggers' 'cast' say they bought, I mean dug , this from ??!!

[emike123]

It was from "Rue" on the show, but his teenage son took me out to his vehicle and I didn't ask the kid.  Maybe the fellow who bought it did and will post the info.

[Lamar]

I'm that fellow. 

The seller told me that this ball & another ball he had were dug by a man (whose name I can't remember) near Petersburg.

I asked him if he would give me (in writing) all the info he had, he said he would, he gave me his email address, I wrote him several days ago, & I'm hoping he responds. If he does, I'll post the details.

Here's a link to an 8" mortar ball Shiloh Relics has listed -

http://www.shilohrelics.com/cgi-bin/display_item.asp?96397

but it doesn't say where it was found.

[CarlS]

I probably shouldn't admit this since I profess to like artillery so much but I've not paid that close attention to the lifting ears before.  So out of curiosity, I checked the ones in my collection that have the ears and to share it with the forum am posting a picture of the ones I have.   Note that one of my 8-inch mortar has a lifting ear hole like Mike describes and it came from Petersburg.  Two other 8-inch mortars are from Petersburg but don't have that wide mouth.

10 Inch from North Caroline:


8-inch from Petersburg:


8-inch from Petersburg:


8-inch from Petersburg:


8-inch off USS Cairo:


10-inch War of 1812 From Boston:


My favorite ears are on a 13-inch Rev War Ball from Yorktown Area:

[emike123]

I'll have to root around in my basement and find mine which has a "D" stamp on it.

After I saw this one in the truck and before I mentioned it to Lamar, I spoke to Howard Alligood and he said he believed this type of tong hole signified CS.  That said, his comments were based on my description as he was not with me when I saw it in the truck.

[CarlS]

I can say that the three of mine including the one that matches yours was fired by a CS battery.  I presume the Confederates made it since it was so late in the war but it could have been pre-war or even captured from the Army of Northern Aggression.

[Dave the plumber]

      Carl           there are actually variations in the  first few photo's tong holes. If you notice the slot before the hole is triangular in one and rounded in the other.
         And just for clarification, the last ones pictured with the external lifting loops,  can you tell us please what you know of country and year of manufacture of these types

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Mike,
   Alfred knew about this type of lifting holes.
John

[rommack]

This is a 10 inch ball that I dug a number of years ago at Port Hudson.  It was in a ravine where the 15th New Hampshire Infantry retreated to after the May 27 1863 attack.  They were being shelled by several of the heavy Confederate guns that were located along the Mississippi River.  There was a reference to using a 10 inch cannon ball for the headstone of James Morrison, Company H NHV, who was killed in the attack.  The Union dead were moved to the National Cemetery in 1867.  When I dug the ball there were a number of Union Eagle buttons next to it, in a beautiful location under some Magnolia Trees.  I always thought that this could be the headstone.  Maybe -- Maybe Not.  It has an interesting set of lifting ears that I thought would add to the discussion on this thread.   Ronnie

[CarlS]

Dave:  I don't really know much about the manufacture of them.

• The 10 inch ball I was told was British and the quality of the iron seems to confirm that.  It's very good compared to what is normally seen from that period.   I was told when I purchased it that it came from the Boston area but I don't have the exact location.
  
• The 13 inch ball is one from the cache found in the Pamunkey River/York River area near York Town, Virginia.  It was made by the French and exhibits the French foundry name "Trelon" just at the bottom of the picture between the two big lifting handles.

Ronnie: I've seen them like that.  There was one at the Charleston Show some years back that I still kick myself from not buying.  It was advertised as being pre-Civil War which I'm sure it was.  One would think yours came from old storage as well and was put to use in the great conflict.  Congratulations.  Very neat find.

[Dave the plumber]

      When I click on Rommack's picture of the 10 inch ball, it gets a little bigger, but not big enough to see detail.  How can I make it show larger on ,my screen ??

[ETEX]

That's easy, even a leadhead can figure that out. Buy a smaller monitor and the picture will be bigger