Civil War Cannon

[Coastie04]

This is transcribed from Sea History magazine, as I thought it would be of great interest here. The picture is from another website.

A cannon from the wreck of a Civil War gunship nearly fired the final shot of the Civil War...100 years too late.  In 1863, the Union gunship USS Cairo was sent on a mission to seek out and destroy Confederate mines anchored in the Yazoo River near Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Instead of destroying the mines, however, the Cairo struck two of them simultaneously and sank in less than 15 minutes.  The hull of the gunship was uncovered in 1959, after having been buried for nearly 100 years on the muddy river bottom.  Salvors retrieved one of her well-preserved cannon and brought it to the Old Courthouse Museum in Vicksburg, where it was carefully cleaned, oiled, and put on display.  For more than ten years, thousands of visitors handled this time-traveling time bomb in the museum.  Then curators examining the cannon discovered that it was still loaded and ready to fire enough active black powder to blast a hole through the museum.

Luckily there's probably a 'no smoking' rule in the museum!

Coastie

[Deacon Frye]

Luckily there's probably a 'no smoking' rule in the museum!

Coastie

In 1969, I'm sure they'd have been gracious enough to supply ashtrays for those who wished to indulge.

[capnwilliam]

I once heard a story about someone's living room getting blown to smithereens - fortunately, no one was in the house at the time - by the explosion of a decorative old cannon ball that the guy kept by his fireplace as a decoration.

Seems he believed it to be sold iron; didn't realize until one day when it got too hot, and exploded, that it was hollow, and filled with black powder!

Capt. William

[Black Deacon]

Um, that goes down in the Ooops category. In the re-enacting world we always have a weapons check of everything you bring to the battlefield site. Ram rods are dropped and push rods are pushed to make sure your weapon is cleared. Seems the "Big Brains" at the museum need to get a clue.

[redhand]

Those ACW types of round shot were filled with powder

and had a timed fuse, and were designed to explode

over the heads of the enemy destroying rank & morale.

Many of these CW relics were found on the old battlefields

and were kept and used as door stops. Unbeknownst to the

person(s) that these little time bombs weren't solid round shot,

and woe be the person who came home and threw their door

open in a rage!

Cheers

Redhand

[capnwilliam]

Aye; when ye think about it...what good would a solid round canonball do ye, other than to sink a ship at the waterline, or as hot shot, to set a vessel on fire? Seems like explosive shot, or else grape or canister, would be the ammunition of choice, in a land battle.

Capt. William

[Coastie04]

Round shot's got range and is cheaper than the explosive type, and I'd presume much safer as well. Round shot still had quite an impact bouncing through the well-ordered ranks and wreaking havoc in the enemy lines. Just watch some of the battle scenes from The Patriot. If you've got the powder to keep a constant rate of fire on the enemy, then use round shot until they get into range of grape and canister.

Coastie

[redhand]

Aye! what Coastie said....

Then when they're in range, give 'em

the double cannister!!

Cheers

Redhand

[Longarm]

I was wondering if this cannon had been submerged under water for so long wouldn't the gunpowder have been ruined. I know wet gunpowder can be left out to dry if caught soon enough but, after being soaked long enough wouldn't some of the componets dissolve?