Ball busters: Experts render safe ordnance recovered from CSS Georgia

A Dahlgren round is rendered inert (Photos by Jeremy Buddemeir, USACE)

While the Confederate ironclad CSS Georgia didn’t get to fire upon the enemy during the Civil War, her underwater graveyard was packed with potential peril for 150 years. That’s been remedied, thanks to a crew of technicians and engineers who rendered more than 100 artillery projectiles harmless after they were brought up by Navy divers.

Brooke shell will undergo conservation (USACE)

The 9-inch Dahlgren and 6.4-inch Brooke rifle rounds were recovered -- along with much of the scuttled ship’s wreckage -- from the Savannah River in Savannah, Ga.

The MuniRem Environmental crew used an array of technology and equipment to drill holes into each round and extract black powder, all the while ensuring they’d be safe during the “breaching” process. It used a chemical solution to flush black powder.

View from barrier with drill mechanism in background

The company said on its website: “Contrary to some expectations, less than 1% of the munitions had seawater seepage; the black powder main and primary charges were essentially dry and of high energetic hazard.”

By drilling a hole in the side of the munition, the crew was able to not disturb the fuze, the most hazardous part of the entire shell. “With the removal of the main charge the threat of a detonation and fragmentation of the munitions case was avoided,” the Georgia-based Muni Rem said. “The amount of explosives remaining within the projectile was contained within the fuze. Subsequently, the fuze was rendered safe by drilling directly though the fuze body to access and neutralize the explosives.”

A Dahlgren round resembles a bowling ball (USACE)

A fuze after removal from Brooke shell

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers district in Savannah has overseen the CSS Georgia recovery. The shells were sent to Texas A&M University’s Conservation Research Laboratory for conservation.

• More details of the delicate operation

A Dahlgren round is readied for breaching (USACE)

Explosives, hubcaps -- or something else?

Utility workers will soon begin searching a river in Columbia for possible Civil War-era ammunition left over from U.S. Gen. William T. Sherman's attack on the city in 1865. The State newspaper reports the contractors for South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. will begin digging up and removing 74 metallic objects found in the Congaree River. • Article

More ordnance coming up than expected at CSS Georgia site in Savannah

Spencer Puett prepares for dive (U.S. Navy)

A team of Navy divers has recovered about 100 pieces of unexploded ordnance and munitions on the bottom of the Savannah River at the CSS Georgia wreck site – a number higher than what archaeologists first expected.

Navy officials expect dozens more will be lifted from the Confederate ironclad’s grave in Savannah this month before they remove remaining cannon, pieces of casemate, the propeller and other components of the warship.

The recovery operation, which includes previous artifact removal by divers contracted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is part of a larger project to deepen the river channel to carry containers vessels to and from the Georgia city without being dependent on the tide.

“I’m just really proud of my sailors, and we are all very proud to work on this piece of history,” diving and salvage commander Chief Warrant Officer Jason Potts said in a Navy article.

The CSS Georgia was scuttled in December 1864 to prevent it from falling into Union hands.

Charleston Museum promises a 'blast'

Grahame Long, curator of history at The Charleston (S.C.) Museum, likens the unusual Quinlivan solid round to a deadly "iron drill bit."

Quinlivans and other projectiles riddled the ironclad USS Keokuk in the April 1863 Battle of Charleston Harbor, resulting in its sinking a day later off Morris Island.

A Quinlivan and 40 projectiles, shells, Minie balls and case shot from the museum's collection are featured in "Blasted: Assorted Projectiles and Explosives of the Civil War," which opened in the venue's lobby this week and continues through Sept. 10.

The city and surrounding islands tended to "mainly be on the receiving end" of explosives and projectiles, Long told the Picket. Charleston, he said, was the most-bombarded city in South during the conflict.

Most of the instruments of death were found in the Charleston area. They are evenly split between Confederate and Union uses.

After the heady weeks following the surrender of Fort Sumter, the Union fleet eventually tightened its noose on the city. Beginning in August 1863, troops threw Parrott and other shells at Charleston over a 567-day period, inducing a form of psyschological warfare. One of the weapons was dubbed the "Swamp Angel."

"This was indiscriminate bombing," said Long.

He points out technological innovations that made the business of killing or destruction, shall we say, a bit more efficient. "There were a thousand different ways to build a better mouse trap."

One example is the increased use of projectiles utilizing timed fuses. Previously, the energy of most artillery rounds were absorbed by walls or other structures.

"With the timed fuses, a lot of that energy was dispersed with full force," Long said.

The exhibit includes fired and unfired Minie balls, a type of rifled, muzzle-loaded bullet that increased effective ranges from 50 yards to about 250 yards. "Something so cheap and simple totally revolutionized how wars were fought," the curator said.

Weapons makers and individuals rushed into production all manner of projectiles. Many worked, others did not.

"War has always been a big business," Long said. "There was money to be made."

The exhibit features a 225-pound incendiary shell fired by Federals from Parrott guns. An exploding chamber in the front was accompanied by incendiary fluid -- coal tar, coal oil and petroleum -- in the rear.

"Blasted" is one of a series of Charleston Museum exhibits marking the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. The next will examine the role of militia units in Charleston.

Photos courtesy of The Charleston Museum, Charleston, S.C. Top image is a James Shell (Pattern 1) with slotted fuse plug. The second is a case shot with timed fuse plug. The third is a Schenkl shell, which provided increased range and accuracy.

• More information on the exhibit and other items at the Charleston Museum

Update on 42 Union artillery shells

I caught up with Henry County (Ga.) Civil War historian Mark Pollard on the status of the 42 Union artillery shells unearthed last year near Lovejoy.

As you may recall from a Picket article in October 2009, a contractor installing a new water line at a home made the discovery. The homeowner donated most of the Hotchkiss rounds to Nash Farm Battlefield, owned by Henry County.

Pollard told me at the B*ATL event in Atlanta this past weekend that the shells have been cleaned and are waiting to go into the farm's museum. The slow economy has hurt fund-raising efforts to make repairs and upgrades on the property below Atlanta. The museum did raise nearly $800 at a July 4 event and Nash Farm is planning the Simply Southern Jubilee and Re-enactment Battle in September.