Oorah! Marine Corps makes sure a recovered Schenkl artillery shell is safe, hands it over to Liberia House in Manassas, Va., ahead of its 200th birthday bash

Photos of returned shell (top) and after its discovery in April (below, City of Manassas)

The Liberia House in Manassas, Va., recently received an unwrapped present ahead of its 200th birthday celebration. The hand-delivered item arrived with no fanfare or box, but it did include a rather unique card.

“The following ordnance items have been certified free from bulk explosives, have been certified inert, indicated by an accompanying inert certification.”

U.S. Marines stationed about 25 miles away returned a Civil War Schenkl artillery shell that was found in April by contractors using heavy equipment at a creek near Liberia House, which has a rich history.

“At my request, they did not clean the shell up except to remove loose dirt. So it looks very much like it did when it was discovered, except now it has a big hole in the top from being worked on,” said Mary Helen Dellinger, curator at the city-run Manassas Museum, which manages the historic site.

The striking Liberia House was made from bricks fashioned from red clay on site (City of Manassas)

The fuse was not present at the time of discovery, but Virginia State Police considered the small shell to be a live round. They held it until explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technicians at Marine Corps Base Quantico could take custody.

The Schenkl shell would have contained black powder but the Picket was unable to determine whether it still was present 160 years later. An EOD technician at the base who answered questions Tuesday about explosive ordnance said he did not have details on this shell.

The technician said if any black powder was present the item would have been carefully pressure washed and cleaned with a filtration system.

Hard to say which side had this particular round

Local officials believe the shell will be a great addition to Oct. 11 programming marking the 200^th anniversary of Liberia House. The 10 a.m.-4 p.m. event includes tours, music, 19th century games, a demonstration of quilting and storytelling.

Manassas, obviously, is associated with two major battles and numerous smaller operations and skirmishes.

The Schenkl was primarily used by Federal artillerymen in a variety of cannons, including the Parrott.

“As far as Federal vs. Confederate shell – it’s difficult to say,” said Dellinger (left in city Instagram post) of this example.

“We do know that during the Battle of Bull Run Bridge the 2^nd New York was stationed on the property (exact location unknown) and were firing at the Confederates at Fort Beauregard (located about ½ mile from Liberia). Because of the history of both sides being on the property during the war, it’s really hard to say which side left the shell behind.”

About 400,000 Schenkl shells were made during the Civil War. They came in several styles, including ones that contained case shot. It had a Papier-mache sabot.

Shell will make its public debut Oct. 11

The Prince William County property served as headquarters for Confederate and Union forces early in the war. Jefferson Davis (in 1861) and Abraham Lincoln (in 1862) came here to confer with their generals. “Proof of occupation is displayed as faded graffiti left by Union soldiers is visible on interior walls,” the city says.

Soldiers from both sides wrote graffiti in many structures in the region. Those surviving at Liberia Hall are Union.

Dellinger previously told the Picket past archaeological digs at Liberia yielded numerous Civil War-related pieces, among them buttons, bullets, small bits a pieces of metal that relate to horse equipage, other accoutrements and a sword -- “the coolest thing until this shell.”

Manassas touts its extensive Black history through a trail for residents and visitors. Liberia House tells the story of the enslaved people on the land at the time of the war.

Liberia House was built for William J. and Harriett Weir in 1825. Enslaved laborers did most of the construction on the two-story, Federal style brick home. They are believed to have crafted much of the stylish interior, too. Its 1,600 acres made Liberia a large working farm and plantation.

Dellinger said the birthday party will not have a Civil War focus but there will be come wartime components, including the debut of the Schenkl round.

”After that, I plan on leaving the shell at the house so when we have it open for public events it’s on hand for people to see.”

Marines keep busy with calls about ordnance

19th century photo of house shows men in fashionable clothing (Library of Congress)

Quantico routinely gets requests to handle possible explosive ordnance, including some dating to the Revolutionary War and Civil War. Calls come in from the National Park Service, museums and state and local governments, among other agencies.

The Quantico EOD technician told the Picket the team will try to render them safe if possible.

“Everybody has stockpiles they need certified, looked at, or inerted, on top of people finding (items) in their yards in Northern Virginia.”

Liberia House is located at 8601 Portner Ave., Manassas. The house is open for special events and tours and an annual bee festival. The grounds are open from sunrise to sunset. For more information, contact the Manassas Museum at 703-368-1873.

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)