I recently dug one of Admiral Farragut's 13" mortar balls. These were normally supposed to be air burst in order to be most effective. The Confederate soldiers said that if they went into the ground before bursting they would penetrate the ground 10 to 12 feet. I'm not sure what happened with this shell I dug as it was only 3.5 feet deep when it burst. My guess is that it burst almost instantly as it hit the ground. Unbelievably all the fragments were in a very small area at 3.5 feet(soft burst). It was quite a job to remove and haul out this 210 pound monster. I finally got them home and started electrolysis on all the fragments. I used gorilla brand construction adhesive to reassemble all the pieces as they had fractured. It has made a great display that was a bucket list item for my Dad and myself. Now I have the 3 amigos (from left to right in the picture) new assembled shell, unexploded 13" mortar ball from Port Hudson and 13 inch Mortar Ball dug from the siege of Yorktown, VA.
