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Thread: Small cannon balls

  1. #1
    dennyntx is offline
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    Small cannon balls

    I had a guy give me 3 small somewhat round looks like steel balls he said he dug them up in Bentonville Arkansas I don't know if it is like grape shot are what they are
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    If they are actually steel, a magnet will stick to them.

    Kids used to use steel ball bearings as sling shot ammo.

    Grape shot would be lead, I think.

    Steve

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    Jim Brady Knap's Battery is offline
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    Grape shot was not used much in field artillery. For field arty canister balls were usually iron while case shot contents were usually lead balls or even rifled musket bullets. I believe there are a very few exceptions but I'm too much into sitting with my cup of coffee to go dig out one of the books right now.
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    dennyntx is offline
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    Small cannon balls???

    I checked and a magnet does stick to these they are not perfectly round almost looks like they were poured

  5. #5
    MR. GADGET's Avatar
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    Looks like what was used in mortar balls and also shot inside 12 lb smoothbore CSA round.
    I have several also in my collection.
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    Chris Sweeney is offline
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    According to one wiki on CW artillery, case used in a 12-pounder Napoleon contained 78 balls, while canister had 27 and a 12 pounder grapeshot load was usually 9 balls
    Chris Sweeney

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    1861 Ordnance Manual gives gauge sizes of iron canister-shot for the 6-pdr gun as 1.14 and 1.17-inch diameter for the large and small gauge shot, and 1.05 and 1.08-inches for the large and small gauge diameters used with the 12-pdr field howitzer. These are the smallest listed. It also notes that grape and canister shot should be smooth and polished by rolling in a barrel for that purpose, but the manual lists no grape shot smaller than 3.54-inch in diameter. Of course, this assumes that the ordnance is American and not French or Spanish considering these were found in the old Missouri Territory.
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    Such items would not have been made of steel if they were made before 1866 because steel was so expensive to make, so if they are not made of iron, how do you propose they acquired all the rust? It might be worth having one ball assayed to determine their metallurgical composition but they are quite likely of an inferior grade of iron having been processed with the least effort to make the material as cheap as possible. I seem to recall that the Germans in WW2 even compressed the iron filing scraps off the floor to make bullets. Perhaps the composition of these balls may be similar. The Ordnance Manual noted that the iron was sand cast rather than made with iron molds hence the slight variation in diameters and why they were sieved.

    In fact, if when the metal is assayed for its chemical composition, that information can be used to determine the origin of the iron ore (where it was mined), and that may assist in determining whether it was Union or Confederate? We did a similar assay of Roman iron recovered from archaeological sites in Britain to determine whether the iron ore had been imported or mined locally, and found in most cases, the Romans were mining the iron ore in Britain because it had the same types of impurities.
    Last edited by R. McAuley 3014V; 10-21-2017 at 10:40 AM.
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  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eggman View Post
    I used to collect this stuff (still have the stuff at another house). Those things in the picture look like canister rounds. I have several badly deteriorated, look like they're badly rusted; but Steve says they're not iron (they're not lead Big Steve -- too light). I have a Bormann fused 12 lb. Napoleon round cut in half. The case shot are obviously lead (got that nice white oxidation). I miked them out years ago and as I recall they were standard .69 cal round balls. The business charge (black powder explosive) is amazingly small - just a narrow cavity thru the middle maybe an inch in diameter. The object was to get the round to burst in flight scattering the lead balls in the air; the forward velocity of the round would then provide the lethalness (this is a real word - Webster lies). The balls are packed in some yellow crap --- maybe sulfur.
    Yes, the musket balls are packed in a sulfur resin which was to hold them in place while the cylindrical forming tube for the powder charge could be cast, and latterly filled with powder for the fuze train. In the table for canister-shot, the Ordnance manual stipulates that the 12 pdr mountain howitzer, used .69 caliber musket balls. But also specifies that grape and canister shot should be made of soft, gray iron. Gray cast iron is a low carbon iron between white malleable iron and ductile iron, and tends to have a higher silicon content, hence the lighter weight. Whether this adds to the legality of the ordnance, it would certainly move much faster than one with a higher carbon-lower silicon content iron shot.
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  10. #10
    noonanda is offline
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    Quote Originally Posted by R. McAuley 3014V View Post
    Yes, the musket balls are packed in a sulfur resin which was to hold them in place while the cylindrical forming tube for the powder charge could be cast, and latterly filled with powder for the fuze train. In the table for canister-shot, the Ordnance manual stipulates that the 12 pdr mountain howitzer, used .69 caliber musket balls. But also specifies that grape and canister shot should be made of soft, gray iron. Gray cast iron is a low carbon iron between white malleable iron and ductile iron, and tends to have a higher silicon content, hence the lighter weight. Whether this adds to the legality of the ordnance, it would certainly move much faster than one with a higher carbon-lower silicon content iron shot.
    Union and Confederate case shot both were filled with "Nominally" .69 Cal round balls, with Confederates going to the Iron Case shot balls in Mid to Late 1862. Have found "Case shot of all different sizes (all roughly 60-69 Cal)" on a friends property on the East side of Chancellorsville. Have also found Confederate Iron Case shot of all different sizes as well. Their Iron Case shot seems to have not been held to the same standards.

    I would recommend running them through Electroysis, really simple to make a tank to do it. Based on the size I would think those are Cannister, or Mill Balls. If the balls are showing visible mold seams and such they are likely mill balls as they required the Cannister to be totally round and smooth as mentioned above.
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