"America still has a problem with unexploded Civil War bombs" Topic

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Shortly after we were posted to Ft. Lee (on the Petersburg Battlefield in VA) in 1967 someone found an old shell and threw it in the back of his pick-up truck. Sooner or later a jolt caused to do what it was supposed to do 105 years earlier and he was killed. Any old military ordinance can be deadly and should be assumed as such.

There is a creek near Averasboro, in Harnett County, NC,
site of a small action in 1865.

Union batteries stationed there at war's end dumped their
ordnance along the creekbed for a mile or so. Most of it
was cleaned-up, but some shows up to this day, mostly
exploding shell rather than roundshot

They found a big stash of ACW ordnance in Houston about 20 years ago. Much was still viable and had to be detonated.

I remember in 2008 when the guy in Richmond tried to open up a shell and it blew him to kingdom come.

Fortunately he was smart enough to take it out into his driveway instead of opening it in his basement. That way his widow still had someplace to live.

But no place to park, what with the crater in his driveway and all.

True, but easier to charge admission to for the tour of one of Darwin's Children.

I remember a National Park Service ordnance expert telling a story about getting a phone call from a guy who had found a cannon ball and wanted some tips on how to make sure it was rendered harmless. He began by saying: "Okay, I have it secured on my drill-press here…"