by Don Crane
June 9, 1863 began as a normal day at Fort Lyon in Virginia, one of the largest forts used in the defense of Washington, D.C. during the civil war. The daily routine of soldiers stationed at the fort probably began at 5:30 am and generally consisted of laboring on the earthworks, constructing barracks and other buildings, and drilling in the use of light and heavy artillery. By early afternoon on this day, some 26 soldiers had assembled into a work party to remove caked powder from inside shells, caused by moisture in the magazine.
[click to enlarge image]
Soldiers were initially instructed to use wooden spoons to pry at the powder, but their lieutenant, unsatisfied with the slowness of the work, provided priming wire to some of the men to facilitate removal of the caked powder, as described in the following account:
"Twenty six men and a lieutenant were detailed to remove the powder from some shells. The powder had become damp and caked...as the work did not proceed as fast as the lieutenant desired, he sent one of them for some priming wires...
"It is supposed that some... powder was ignited and exploded the shell...This explosion blew in the magazine door and the whole magazine went up. There were about eight tons of powder besides several thousand rounds of fixed ammunition in the magazine.
"Out of twenty six men, twenty-two were killed outright...In addition...fourteen were wounded. Three of these died the next day."
-- PRIVATE LEWIS BISSELL, JUNE 17, 1863
The account is further described by a lay observer who viewed the explosion from outside the fort:
"...about two o'clock today..we were startled by a most violent thundering explosion, followed by another, in quick succession, the earth shook and trembled... I was so frightened...a shell burst very near, for a little stream of blue smoke came in one door and passed out the other... I looked up at Fort Lyon, which at that moment went up with a tremendous shock...It...looked...like the pictures of Vesuvus [sic] during an eruption... Everything flew up from the center and seemed to stand still for a moment...then...pieces of steel, stones, and dirt, came rattling, and thundering down..."
-- ANNE S. FROBEL, JUNE 1863
The explosion, according to the National Park Service, is said to have included some 28,000 pounds of powder, about 18,000 pounds in barrels and roughly 10,000 pounds in various types of ammunition. Shells were found as far away as 2,500 yards. Tents and wooden buildings near the magazine were completely destroyed, but most of the garrison, in the bombproof about 75 feet away, was unharmed.
***
Fast forward some 145 years to February 2008. Sam White, a civil war relics collector was preparing to restore some cannonballs on a mild, winter afternoon. He had lined up some 18 cannonballs in the driveway of his suburban Richmond home, where, according to his web site, he would "disarm, clean, and preserve your Civil War period and earlier military ordinance" for about $35 apiece.
"I've done approximately 500 artillery projects and still have all my fingers," the site stated. "(I must be doing something right, knock on wood)!"
During the civil war, the North and South lobbed some 1,600 shells at each other. As many as one in five were duds.
Cannonballs found on the battlefield have frequently been defused naturally by time or decay.
Restoration of civil war cannonballs is generally a safe process. Shells are typically disarmed by drilling a hole into the chamber and wetting and removing the poweder inside. Once the powder inside the cavity is wet or removed, the shell is inert and represents no continuing danger. White's wife frequently stood alongside him as he restored such munitions in the driveway.
"You can't drop these things on the ground and make them go off," the Associated Press had quoted retired Col. John F. Biemeck, formerly of the Army Ordinance Corps, as having said.
But civil war munitions, if not handled properly, can still be lethal and sometimes even kill.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Army's Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit (E.O.D.) out of Fort Bragg was called to the house of Randy Moore, a collector from Dunn, North Carolina said to be in possession of a 60-pound cannonball. The only way to tell if a cannonball is loaded or not is to see if there is a hole where the cannonball has been defused, in which case you can see into the ball and see it is empty.
"We explained to him since there was no way to look into the cannonball, there was a 50/50 chance it was loaded," said SBI Special Agent Timothy Luper Jr, an explosives expert. "The danger is that the majority of older munitions were made with black powder and black powder doesn't go bad even after centuries. That black powder was as good as the day it was put in the cannonball."
Mr. Moore agreed to have the cannonball destroyed. The detonation left a 3-feet deep crater, 6 feet in diameter, Mr. Moore said.
"If it's sealed, it could be loaded and they need to have an explosive expert to check," he said. "Under no circumstances should anyone try to drill a hole in it themselves to defuse it."
White, experts speculate, was trying to disarm a 9-inch, 75-pound naval cannonball using either a drill or a grinder attached to a drill to remove grit from the cannonball. Naval cannonballs have a more complex fuse and many times the destructive power of those used by infantry artillery. The shower of sparks caused by the drilling is believed to have ignited the explosive.
The explosion was powerful enough to hurl a chunk of shrapnel through the front porch of a house one-quarter mile away.
The civil war may have ended 143 years ago but Sam White, who devoted his life to the collection of its relics, is now amongst the 618,000 people who lost their lives in that deadly conflict.
References
:: The Civil War Soldier: What was Life as a Soldier like in 1863?
:: Bugle Calls
:: Civil War cannonball kills relic collector
:: Agents Blow Up Still Loaded Civil War Artifact
:: Deadly Explosion Exposes Civil War Munitions Danger
:: One Man Dead Following Civil War Explosion
:: Civil War Relic Collector Killed While Disarming Shell
