The Virginian-Pilot
©
Fred Harrell knew the cannon ball was a piece of live ammunition. He could see the fuse.
"That was what made it so exciting to own," said Harrell, pointing to the spot in his home where the ball rested, until this week.
For 10 years, he'd occasionally pick up the Civil War munition, move it to his carpet, dust his fireplace hearth, and put the cannon ball back. But Wednesday morning, Harrell finally heeded a friend's warnings that any jostling might make the ball blow up.
Harrell called the FBI on himself. The FBI asked the Virginia Beach police to check it out.
Now, Harrell is 71, and he long ago joined the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He wears a big white beard to look the part and keeps the back room of his house as a mini-Civil War memorial. He has portraits of all the Civil War generals, a Robert E. Lee knife, the Confederate flags that recently adorned his mother's grave.
And a fireplace hearth outlined with projectiles: like a 10-inch, 87-pounder, a fragment of a 13-incher and the one that might blow up.
The cops took that one. Harrell asked whether they would bring it back if they found out it wasn't active.
"They said, 'There won't be nothing left to bring you back a souvenir,' " Harrell said.
He was disappointed about that. Martha Pinkerton, his girlfriend for the past 43 years, bought it for him for $20 in Fredericksburg.
Then the police saw two other things: a suspect mortar round and a World War II grenade that Harrell's uncle had given him.
"Look at this," Harrell heard an officer say of the grenade, "it still has the pin in it."
The police turned those two munitions over to the Navy.
Again, Harrell told them he hoped they would find the grenade harmless and return it.
"I doubt that will be the case," Harrell said. "They probably thought, 'He could live without that live grenade.' "
Lon Wagner, (757) 222-5119, lon.wagner@pilotonline.com
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ACW Spherical Case Shot, Bormann Fuzed;
I would like to make a friendly correction to the Air Force (EOD) posting. U.s. Civil War projectiles, of the explosive variety, contain black powder and not gun cotton. The presence of a Bormann powder train time fuse usually will predict the presence of case shot (shrapnel) type of explosive projectile. The hollow cast shell will contail numberous lead or iron balls with a central core of black powder to break open the casing when the fuse reaches its pre-set time of 0 to 5 seconds after the cannon is fired.
The Bormann fuse is most difficult to remove as it is made of soft zinc composition. A ACW soldier was killed attempting to unscrew the Bormann.It is dangerous to atempt its removal. Normally, local police bomb squads, ATF or FBI agents are not equipped or trained to render safe explosive ordnance. Rarely will a local military EOD unit have that capability, other than to dispose of it on their demolition range.
Under no circumstances should any individual attempt to drill a hole in ordnance to remove its powder charge. Two know persons have been killed and one was seriously injuredattempting this.
In the 50s and 60s, EOD Unit Two at Charleston, SC successf
Where's the common sense?
"Fred Harrell knew the cannon ball was a piece of live ammunition. He could see the fuse."
And he kept it on his fireplace? Hello! Fire + live ammunition = boom!
CW ordnance
Two comments. Disarming this old stuff is not as easy as it sounds. Yes, in the hands of a professional it can be done safely-- usually. Recently a collector and professional defuser was blown up and killed in the Richmond area. One large piece of the cannon ball went thru the porch roof and into the living room blocks away. And he had been doing it for years. A live shell "may" be safe, but in a house surrounded by other houses, that old, unstable stuff is way too dangerous to leave it lying around. And those old shells are not rare, as someone said people still find them around the state. It's not like they were blowing up a priceless relic. They had sentimental value, that's all.
Good thing he didn't call the ATF
It's a good thing he didn't call ATF. Those thugs would have thrown this old man in jail. The grenade, mortar, and cannonball are all National Firearms Act items. Unregistered NFA items normally get you jail time and fines. It was really nice of the VA Beach police to just dispose of the items for him.
Concur to the above
I have to agree completely with the above posters. I've been in the USAF, doing EOD work for going on nine years at this point, and any Civil War era ordnance is likely to pose little to no danger. The explosive shells that are from the 1850s to 1870s in America was Schönbein type nitrocellulose (aka "guncotton.") It oxidizes over time and was likely inert, but rather than detonating the round, they could have removed the fuse, extracted a sample, and put a match to it to see if it burns (nitrocellulose doesn't explode, it flares.) Or they could have submerged the shell in mineral oil, cored it and extracted the explosive (the same way that nitroglyceride explosives (eg, dynamite) are disposed of.)
Not the police
I really don't think the police staff the expertise needed to disarm and preserve something like that safely. They did just what they were supposed to in that situation.
Nothing wrong with this man or his treasures
I'm sure some are livid in fear... fear that never happened except in their own minds. Why? Utopians don't live in the hear and now. They live in false hopes and dreams, but mostly fear that is not rooted in any reality.
Shame the police didn't disarm the historic items and return them. That is actually very easy to do. Not to mention compassionate and honest.
In addition....
to the comment I made above...there are ways to disarm these shells without destroying them. This should have been the way that this shell was disarmed so that both parties (the police department and Mr. Harrell) would have been satisfied.
That's a REAL SHAME they took his cannonball
I know Mr. Harrell and he is one heck of a nice guy. Being a War between the States relic hunter and SCV member for many years, I can speak with experience and authority when I say that it is a real shame that this piece of history was taken and destroyed. Indeed we know that an armed shell can be dangerous but these shells are still dug up everyday by Civil War relic hunters and in our own communities we have many folks who as a hobby or a living, disarm these shells. Such a humbling and awesome piece of history is now gone for generations who may have enjoyed it in the future. Mr. Harrell should've just had it disarmed by Mr. Ridgeway, The Civil War Relic Man (http://www.relicman.com/) or any of the several other people who do it.
Mr. Harrell, don't worry however because you still have a fine collection Sir, a very museum worthy collection my friend!
Funny
I guess this is the follow-up (the real story this time) that the Pilot sensationalized yesterday with the headline, "Ordnance removed by FBI, VB Police" or something to that over-blown effect.
Hilarious!