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Re: Civil War Bullets



HOT SHOTS AND CHEAP SHOTS

Back in my days with the Corps of Engineers, when we were tracking down
ordnance old and new, we often heard of black powder munitions being found,
and sometimes found some ourselves. Cartridges and cannonballs would turn
up. We were looing in the ground, though, and paper cartridges would long
since have dissolved. Brass cartridges and cannonballs, however old, could
still go off if mistreated. We learned of cases where cartridges fired when
being placed in a vice and beaten with a hammer. We heard of cases where
people used cannonballs, or more sophisticated, modern ordnance, as
doorstops or andirons...seemingly the two favorite uses for such items.
Sudden bangs and heat being things one should avoid applying to an old
shell, this was generally in a report by someone else who had heard the
actual artifact from a considerable distance and rushed in to aid the wounded.

The oddest item turned up after I'd left the Corps: a live, and
radioactive, Civil War cannonball. It came, I think, from the grounds of
the Malinckrodt Plant, near St. Louis. No, it was not a tactical nuclear
weapon. It happended that cannonballs had been stored at a site taken over
by a company that works with nuclear materials. Some of nuclear waste got
dumped (Aren't you shocked?) on the spot where this cannonball lay buried.
In remediating the contaminated soil, the contractors found the cannonball.

"A lack of knowledge is no bar to submitting postings to this list."

Right. If ignorance is no bar to more important work, why get fussy here?
In both cases it can be fun watching reactions to terribly ill-informed
statements. Moreover, as with the doorstops and andirons, it can be
instructive. Think of the lessons learned here in examples of the latter.
As for the former, I was born way too late to see those notable duds Warren
"GathersBestMinds" Harding and Calvin "BusinessofAmerica" Coolidge in
action. I appreciate this reenactment. And if you can't stand the heat, or
the banging of the door against that shell, get out of the kitchen.

All the usual disclaimers,
Michael "Atheist in a foxhole" Tarabulski
Univsersity of Idaho

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