He brought a bucket to an Apple Valley, Calif., police station. Inside were 6 Civil War-era cannonballs with Bormann fuses. Officers scrambled to clear the premises

Six cannonballs were brought to the station in this bucket (SBCSD photo)

A Southern California resident thought bringing six Civil War-era cannonballs to a police station was a good way to dispose of them, but things quickly went awry.

Authorities in Apple Valley briefly closed the station after they noticed the artifacts appeared to contain fuses and could potentially explode.

They advised the public after the Feb. 12 incident to call them instead of transporting items.

“These were Civil war era cannon balls, six in total, with black powder inside and a Bormann time fuse,” Jenny Smith, a public information officer with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, wrote in a Feb. 18 email to the Picket

“Three of the six were 12 pounders and the other three were 16 pounders. When they were evaluated, the condition of the fuse was unknown due to the amount of rust.”

The ordnance had been kept by the male individual in a water-filled bucket, leading to the rust.

Smith did not know why the individual had the cannonballs, or whether they were part of a collection. 

After seeing the items that morning, Apple Valley Police Station personnel called the bombs and arson division and established a safety perimeter around the Dale Evans Parkway facility.

The bomb squad later destroyed the cannonballs, said Smith.

“There were no injuries reported, and at no time was there an immediate threat to the public beyond the controlled perimeter,” the sheriff’s department said in a news release.

“The Apple Valley Police Department appreciates the community’s cooperation and reminds residents that if a potentially explosive or military ordnance is discovered it should not be handled or transported. Instead, individuals should leave the item in place and contact law enforcement immediately.”

San Bernardino is not particularly associated with the Civil War, though there were Southern sympathizers and some Federal troops in the area.

A bomb squad rushed to a suburban Atlanta home to check out a possible Civil War cannonball said to be found in the yard. I now toss you the rest of the story

Metal ball had been moved into a bucket in a Marietta, Ga., shed (Cobb County Police)

The bomb squad in Cobb County, Ga., is called in two to four times a year following the discovery of metal objects that look like Civil War ordnance.

That's hardly surprising, given the amount of combat, artillery and troop movement in Cobb and neighboring Paulding County in summer 1864. (more on that later)

“We deal with Civil War ordnance more than other local bomb squads due to Kennesaw Mountain, Cheatham Hill, Pickett’s Mill and other historic sites,” says Cobb County Police Sgt. Joel Cade, who heads the squad.

Such was the case in mid-December, when police in Marietta, the county seat, reached out to the squad.

A resident in the eastern part of the city had called authorities about some items she had found, according to the Marietta police report, which listed the incident code as 89L: BOMB DEVICE LOCATED

“(She) advised that she had located multiple objects that she thought could be explosive devices," wrote one of the responding officers. "(She) advised that the objects were large, round metal objects and that she had located throughout the side and back yards,” the report says. “(The woman) further advised that she had moved one of these objects into a bucket in the shed.”

The Marietta officers thought the item resembled a cannonball. The home and residents on the street were told to evacuate. Traffic on a stretch of a larger road was temporarily blocked. The officers called the bomb squad.

Cade and others traveled to the scene and dealt with the situation.

A couple weeks later -- after I reached out to authorities following a media report --  Cade emailed me about what they saw. It wasn’t what I was expecting.

“It was very clean when we took possession of it. It was in the townhome’s back storage closet when Marietta police took it and placed it into a bucket. The complainant alleged she found it in the ground but could not explain why there was no dirt on the ball,” he wrote.

The bomb squad, citing training and similar calls, determined the solid ball was non-hazardous. And it had no fusing or charge.

So what is it?

Wait for it…..

A shot put ball. 

All of 4 inches in diameter and weighing about 15 pounds (below). To the layman, it sure looks like it could be a cannonball. 

Great for sports competition, but not the field of battle (Cobb County Police)

That raised more questions and I fired a few more back at Cade, who got back with me a few weeks later.

“We concluded it was a shot put from prior cannonball calls we have had and compared it to resources we maintain in our files,” Cade replied. “The ones we have been called out to in the past that were adjudicated as cannonballs have a different texture to the iron, and they have prominent fuze wells.

“Additionally, shot-put sizes can vary (men’s, women’s, junior’s) but I haven’t seen one the same size as the cannon balls we have recovered in the past.”

“The spanner wrench holes with removable plug, opposite welded plug, weight/diameter and good condition led us to the conclusion it was not ordnance. Additionally, as an extra step, we used high energy radiography and looked inside the ball, no fillers or fuze was seen.”

The shot put was destroyed and the remains disposed of, said Cade.

So there you have it.

Of course, a whole lot of real Civil War ordnance has been recovered in metro Atlanta over the years.

Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association, said many shells were found during the construction of downtown Atlanta buildings and sites. Others were dug up in northwest Atlanta. “Those shells were probably from the U.S. artillery massed northwest of the city during the August 1864 bombardment,” he said.

The area home to the shot put ball may have been crisscrossed by Federal and Confederate artillery units during the Atlanta Campaign. And there was artillery firing a couple miles away, and an errant shot may have landed in the neighborhood.

But that scenario proved to be moot in this case.

In 2022, Bomb squad members gingerly removed this round from the Kennesaw battlefield (NPS photos)

Cade said real Civil War ordnance his team has handled include cannonballs and Parrott, Hotchkiss and Schenkl projectiles.

"There are a variety of ways things have been discovered, and some of the ordnance ended up being gained unlawfully," he said. "The few of those cases we responded to the person who had possession was deceased and no prosecution was appropriate (we were notified by their estate)."

One of the more recent publicized discoveries of an actual shell in Cobb County came at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park in February 2022. The county police bomb squad took custody of the Parrott round but later returned to the park after it had been rendered safe and inert.

Officials implied the shell was left intact, a rarity after bomb squads are called in. Usually, they take an object to a safe location and detonate it.

In 2009, a contractor found 42 artillery shells south of Atlanta, near Lovejoy.

CSI: Nashville goes Civil War. Police 3D scanners and drones help plot trajectory of bullets fired on Sunnyside Mansion during battle

A mosaic shows likely trajectories of bullets fired by Union troops (MNPD)

What do police crime scene investigators and archaeologists have in common? It turns out, a lot.

Both take extreme care with evidence. They create detailed notes and photographs, make measurements and diagrams, then document and analyze the data.

These skill sets came into play when the Metro Nashville Historical Commission partnered with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department to study two unoccupied log structures at Sunnyside Mansion in Sevier Park.

They wanted to solve the mystery regarding embedded bullets and holes discovered earlier this year in the cabin walls. The 44 “defects” – bullets, holes and chips – were associated with the December 15-16, 1864, Battle of Nashville, a significant defeat for the South.

Nashville police photographs of bullets, defects and removed projecticle

For Adam Fracchia, archaeologist with the historical commission, the ballistics project has provided an opportunity to learn more about the battle and its impact on the mansion. The house -- situated between battle lines -- was occupied for a time by Confederate pickets. Advancing Union troops fired upon Confederates in the log structures – made of stout cedar -- and used the residence as a hospital.

Sunnyside Mansion, the headquarters for the commission, has been undergoing an extensive restoration.

“I went and looked at the building and I noticed the bullet holes,” said Fracchia, who found more upon inspection. A forensics colleague suggested he reach out to the police department. “We wanted to get a (look at bullet) trajectory and where they were fired from.”

For Nashville police, the partnership was an excellent way to further test their FARO 3D scanners, which were used in the investigation of the 2020 Christmas Day bombing in the city. The scanners take 360-degree measurements and capture other details from a crime scene. (Photo courtesy of FARO Technologies)

Taking advantage of modern technology, police merged the scans with images they took by drones to make a mosaic of the mansion – which was built in 1852 – and show likely bullet trajectories and direction.

The project was only the second time that the department combined FARO and drone data, said Officer Douglas Belcher of the crime scenes detail.

“This gave us a great opportunity to test the technology we have and we think it did very well,” Belcher told the public during a July 13 presentation in the visitor center at Fort Negley, a large Union defensive fortification.

Another disastrous battle for Confederates

Nashville fell to Union forces in early 1862, relatively early in the Civil War. Tennessee was a strategic location for the Northern army and it built defenses in the capital.

Following a disastrous loss at the Battle of Franklin in November 1864, Confederate Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood moved upon Nashville, digging in below the city. Federal Maj. Gen. George Thomas attacked about two weeks later, sending Hood’s battered army off the field on Dec. 16.

The property now in Sevier Park is in the middle (click to enlarge map)

It has long been known that dozens of bullets, including Minie balls, were left on the porch door and columns on the big house at Sunnyside. Fracchia says you can still see evidence today.

The bullets and bullets in the log structures were found in February as restoration work reached that area on the north side of the house.

Until the damage was found, officials did not know whether the structures might have been elsewhere on the property before being moved to the house. Fracchia theorizes they may have been used as a kitchen or other ancillary purposes. Evidence of cabins for enslaved persons has not been found.

The north face in the 1980s and now (red is the area of study)

By the time of the Civil War, log structures were not fashionable and siding would have covered them, the archaeologist said. “The bullets likely went through the siding and they probably replaced the siding and the bullets were covered up.”

Fracchia said officials don’t have detailed descriptions of what happened on the property during the battle, but they believe Confederates must have been a significant target because of the number of bullets and holes. They eventually were forced to retreat.

Siding still covered the buildings when restoration began. “The more siding we took down, the more we found,” Fracchia said.

Crime scene unit logs entry points with rods (MNPD)

Old school and high tech meet

The police crime scene unit’s work at Sunnyside Mansion wasn’t all fancy gadgets. Officers did old-fashioned work first, marking and photographing the “defects” and using handheld rods to help determine trajectory and origin. An angle finder helped plot direction of impact – from the “leading edge” of the bullet. All of this information, including labeling of the defects, was used to complete the analysis.

“The goal is we want to determine origination. We are trying to figure out where the bullet came from,” crime scenes investigator George Bouton told the Fort Negley audience. “Bullets are predictably unpredictable,” he said. Flight paths are dynamic, including the effects of gravity on trajectory.

Police found and marked 44 bullet "defects" (Image MNPD)

Fracchia told the Picket that at some point after the battle, someone had chiseled out some of the bullets before the siding was replaced. “Nobody in active memory knew there were bullet holes in that wall.”

The archaeologist said a total of seven bullets were embedded in the two log structures. Most remain in the larger of the cabins. The smaller cabin, unfortunately, had to be taken down after the police examination because of its poor conditions. The logs have been kept.

The presentation included photos of a three-ring Minie ball and a Williams cleaner bullet.

“We are assuming they are Union bullets, given they were coming from the north, and fits the battle.” Some of the shots fired upon the mansion also came from the northwest.

The two embedded bullets mentioned by police are soft and burrowed themselves into the cedar. They are fairly well lodged in there, Fracchia said. “We don’t know exactly how far they were fired from.”

Officer Steven Jones said the logs had the density of railroad ties. “So it was extremely good cover.” He said most of the bullets were likely .40- or .50-caliber. "It seems to be a heavy concentration of fire in one area.” 

While Sunnyside Mansion is not a crime scene, it was an interesting opportunity for the police department to employ old skills and new technology.

“The last time a human touched this was in 1864,” said Bouton. “It has been that long. It is still right there where it ended up.”

Maps of Federal attack and Southern positions and bullets (MNHC)

More research at site lies ahead

There’s more work ahead, but the project already is helping flesh out details of the fight around Sunnyside as Union forces swept in from the west and north.

“We see a much more complicated picture out of the battle and how it actually played out,” said Fracchia. “It was crucial to tell this part of the Battle of Nashville.”

The commission has found rifle pits and entrenchments on the land. One pit was found this spring when crews were digging a new sewer line to the mansion. “They hit a discoloration in the soil.”

“The soil was burned and there was charcoal. We found melted lead and two percussion caps.” Fracchia (left) said it was evidence of a small fire. “It was very cold during this time period.”

A researcher from Louisville, Kentucky, is doing dendrochronology work to determine the age of the logs.

“We are working on researching what else these bullet holes may tell us,” said Fracchia, adding he may do metal detector surveys and research the site using geophysics. (Metal detecting is illegal on any city property, including parks, he said).

The aim is to tell a wider story and put up interpretive panels next year after the renovation. The archaeologist would like the surviving cabin to have a few places left open so that visitors can see bullets, holes and chinking between the logs. (The holes would be protected by plastic or thick glass.)

Sunnyside Mansion was built in 1852 and it included outbuildings

Fracchia’s work experience has included archaeology in the East, including Baltimore, and forensic aviation archaeology -- he has helped identify fallen US service members overseas.

His goal in Nashville and Davidson County is to build awareness “that could lead to stewardship and ownership and preservation.”

“What is really surprising is the depth and interest in history and the fragility of these resources. We don’t know that they are there until we find them.”

Editor's note: Please contact Adam Fracchia at adam.fracchia@nashville.gov if you have questions or want to join the work on site.

One of the bullet holes tested in a log structure (MNPD)

The rear of the log structures; the one on the right has been removed (MNPD)

Kennesaw Mountain park in Georgia gets back Civil War artillery shell that was taken away by bomb squad after its discovery

Bomb squad members gingerly removed this round from the battlefield (NPS photos)

Months after a firestorm erupted when the possibility arose of it being destroyed by a bomb squad, a Civil War artillery shell found on the Kennesaw Mountain battlefield in Georgia has been returned to the federal agency that administers the park.

“It is an archeological artifact and has been turned over to the National Park Service,” Cobb County Police spokesperson Officer Shenise Barner told the Picket in a recent email.

A team working on a trail project at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park in late February found the Parrott shell during a metal detecting survey. The NPS’s Southeast Archeological Survey said it “had a percussion fuse that did not ignite when it hit the ground.”

While police and the park would not indicate whether the shell was intact when it was returned by the bomb squad, their responses to Picket questions left the impression it may have been.

“The shell was returned to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park (KEMO) as soon as the bomb squad rendered it inert and safe, which was approximately two weeks ago,” Chief Ranger Anthony P. Winegar wrote in late May.

Winegar was the trail team member who dug open the area containing the Parrott round, which was about 10 inches deep.

“No modifications were made to the shell other than what was necessary by the bomb squad to render it safe. Live munitions and explosives are rendered inert by removing all explosive compounds,” he recently wrote. “As stated before, the National Park Service (NPS) treats all munitions with extreme caution. The preservation of human life always takes precedence over the preservation of even the rarest museum objects.”

After he uncovered the ordnance, Winegar called the Cobb bomb squad, which took it away. A subsequent social media post about the find by Join Cobb Police brought a crescendo of concern about the shell’s fate, with some saying it could be easily and safely neutralized.

The page responded: "The bomb squad stated that they would love nothing more than to preserve this piece of history, however there is no way to safely render it without counter charging it. They try to use the smallest charge appropriate. This charge is very small and will perforate the case. Unfortunately, even small amount of live explosives can set the whole shell off."

Given that, it appeared the round would be destroyed in the process. In March, Barner told the Picket the ordnance was collected by the bomb squad for safe keeping.

The Picket remained in touch with the park and Barner in the past couple months. While they responded, answers were measured, possibly indicating the sensitivity of the topic.

When asked by the Picket on how the round was handled and whether it was soaked in water or its powder removed, as some experts suggested, Barner said: “We have no additional information to provide on this incident, and we can't disclose the practices and techniques to render inert any explosive compounds.”

Some historians, munition experts and others have questioned why it might be necessary to destroy or damage the item.

"Absolute travesty to destroy this historical object. These are easy to make inert," wrote one person on the Join Cobb Police Facebook page. Jack Melton, publisher of the Artilleryman Magazine, told the Washington Post that a solution was dipping the round in water.

“These shells used paper fuses and black powder, which is not unstable,” he told The Post. “Black powder becomes inert when it gets wet. Given that it was found 10 inches below the surface, it probably already is inactive. I’m sure it got wet from rainwater more than a few times in the past 157 years.”

Winegar and Cobb County police have stressed safety is the absolute priority.

“KEMO does not yet have a plan for what it will do with the shell,” the chief ranger said. “The Park has several inert Parrott shells in its museum collection, including a shell identical to the one found (Feb. 28.)”

Federal and Confederate forces tangled at Kennesaw Mountain and nearby sites from June 19 to July 2, 1864. A large frontal assault by Union Gen. William T. Sherman failed on June 27. Combat over several days produced about 4,000 casualties in the campaign to take Atlanta.

Artillery played a major role in the fighting, according to the NPS. Sherman, eliminating the element of surprise, launched a barrage from below the mountain on June 27 before the assault.

Parrott guns were a mainstay during the war; here one at Gettysburg (Wikipedia)

It had little effect on the Confederates above, who effectively used their guns to halt the subsequent Union attack.

Among the guns used at Kennesaw Mountain was the 10-pounder Parrott rifle, which had a range of nearly two miles.

When asked how the round came to be in the location, Winegar said in March: “I can only say that orientation of the artifact in situ would indicate that it came from the Confederate line towards the Union line. Based on the depth it is possible that it was fired and impacted, likely short of its intended target, and did not detonate. That, however, is speculation.”

At the time, he indicated the round would be “disrupted” – meaning it would be hit with a charge to render it safe. The park would then take custody of the remaining pieces. 

“This is common practice involving potentially unstable unexploded ordinance (UXO) that is not a rare item. Rarer pieces may be treated differently so that the intact piece is not lost. This does not appear to be a rare item.”

Subsequent responses by police and the park have not indicated the shell is now in pieces, but there was no confirmation of its current appearance.

Another view of the Parrott artillery round (NPS)

Cannonballs galore: They were turning earth for condos in Pittsburgh and came across cannonballs at site of Union arsenal. A lot of it.

Dozens of artillery rounds at site (Pittsburgh Police Facebook post)

A construction crew building condominiums in Pittsburgh last month came across a cache of artillery rounds near the site of an arsenal that supplied the Union army during the Civil War.

Pittsburgh police on Thursday posted photographs of the July 2 find in the Lawrenceville area while crews were turning soil. The number of shells has not been determined. Police described the cannonballs as live.

Jack Melton, who publishes the Civil War News and the Artilleryman magazine, told the Picket the rounds are 12-pounder cannonballs with Bormann fuses.

“Thankfully, this excavator operator had some prior experience and promptly called the Pittsburgh Police Bomb Squad when he recognized what his machinery had hit; a cache of Civil War era cannonballs," police said on Facebook.

“This was the same employee who had helped unearth 715 cannonballs while working not far from here in March of 2017, the site of the former Allegheny Arsenal, an important supply and manufacturing center for the Union Army during the American Civil War.”

Some Facebook commenters say this is a Bormann time fuze.

The Facebook post said the rounds are the property of the Army, and police will handle “mitigation” in coordination with the military. It’s not immediately known whether they will be destroyed.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the discovery is not unusual for the area, located at the site of the U.S. Allegheny Arsenal, which produced 128,000 rifle cartridges a day for Union troops during the Civil War. 

In 1862, 78 people were killed when three explosions erupted in a building called the laboratory. It was one of the worst civilian disasters during the Civil War, according to the newspaper. 

Ground was being turned for construction (Pittsburgh Police)

Police told the Post-Gazette they kept the discovery quiet so that the rounds could be removed without endangering the curious. They had no map or drawings from which to work.

Union knocks trips to battlefields

Raleigh, N.C., Police Chief Harry Dolan is once again defending a three-day trip officers made to Civil War battlefields in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania in June as part of the department's leadership and management training program. • Article