A
Anonymous
Guest
We have a cannonball that we found during excavation behind our house last year for a room addition.
For historic perspective, our house was built in 1864 here in northern Cincinnati in the village of Glendale by an Irish immigrant named Charles Lundy (he came here by way of Canada). The house fronts on part of the route of Morgan's Raid in 1863. This small village also was a stop on the Underground Railroad and is about midway on the north-south route between two early Ohio River Valley frontier forts: Fort Washington on the Ohio River and Fort Hamilton on the Great Miami River.
There also are indian mounds in this area and the village is located on a ridge above the Mill Creek Valley.
The excavators uncovered a large and sturdily-built brick cistern and also what must have been a pit for trash, or possibly the outhouse. The pit area was full of old bottles and china and irontstone dishes - mostly broken - a couple of porcelain doll's heads similar to those from the Civil War era, and this cannonball.
It was very rusty and we turned it over to a local military historian who took it to a restorer in Perrysville KY to have it cleaned up and disarmed after he found traces of black powder in it.
The cannonball is iron. About 5" in diameter, about 16" in circumferance. Weighs about 15.5 lbs. It shows a trace of a circumferential seam, probably from casting. One opening appears to have the shadow or remnant of a collar, about a half-inch wide around it. The ball also appears to have suffered damage at some time that left a small, rough flattened portion on one side (handy now since it keeps it from rolling off its display spot!) A lot of rust, corrosion and mud was removed during the restoration.
There are two openings (apparently unthreaded although it's hard to tell) created by a 1" diameter hole that runs the complete 5" through the ball in a roughly straight line. This channel was filled with black powder so the holes must have been plugged. The "powder"
For historic perspective, our house was built in 1864 here in northern Cincinnati in the village of Glendale by an Irish immigrant named Charles Lundy (he came here by way of Canada). The house fronts on part of the route of Morgan's Raid in 1863. This small village also was a stop on the Underground Railroad and is about midway on the north-south route between two early Ohio River Valley frontier forts: Fort Washington on the Ohio River and Fort Hamilton on the Great Miami River.
There also are indian mounds in this area and the village is located on a ridge above the Mill Creek Valley.
The excavators uncovered a large and sturdily-built brick cistern and also what must have been a pit for trash, or possibly the outhouse. The pit area was full of old bottles and china and irontstone dishes - mostly broken - a couple of porcelain doll's heads similar to those from the Civil War era, and this cannonball.
It was very rusty and we turned it over to a local military historian who took it to a restorer in Perrysville KY to have it cleaned up and disarmed after he found traces of black powder in it.
The cannonball is iron. About 5" in diameter, about 16" in circumferance. Weighs about 15.5 lbs. It shows a trace of a circumferential seam, probably from casting. One opening appears to have the shadow or remnant of a collar, about a half-inch wide around it. The ball also appears to have suffered damage at some time that left a small, rough flattened portion on one side (handy now since it keeps it from rolling off its display spot!) A lot of rust, corrosion and mud was removed during the restoration.
There are two openings (apparently unthreaded although it's hard to tell) created by a 1" diameter hole that runs the complete 5" through the ball in a roughly straight line. This channel was filled with black powder so the holes must have been plugged. The "powder"