Gunner & Co might be interested in this item I saw on a TV program today. It's a remarkable find from a Civil War battlefield in Virginia. At first glance it looks like a somewhat weathered lump of lead. On closer inspection it is clearly a Rebel musket ball and a Union Minne' bullet fused together, apparently as the result of a mid-air collision in the midst of what must have been a furious fire fight.
## Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. ## Cats have never forgotten this.
I would say that those were two lucky soldiers.
Along those lines I recently discovered a small graveyard along my commute into work - out in the middle of nowhere there's a small plot of land with a dozen or so gravestones, all of them marked as civil war veterans from NY.
Jim
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My favorite Civil War story is about a musket ball hits a soldier in a testicle and proceeds to hit a woman in her uterus thus impregnating her.
In 7th grade I was doing a report for Mr Erickson's American history class and I ran accross that bit of information and why I don't know but I included the info in my report. The reaction I heard from the class made me wish I had never uttered the words. Smarter now, Steve
"Tom Gardner" wrote in news:R4Mmc.495$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr33.news.prodigy.com:
And the inevitable ...
Supposedly, that story was a medically documented fact. It may have been an advance payment for the woman's pain of childbirth - it smarts a little just to think about it. As the story goes the couple in question were united in marriage after the dastardly details came to light.
Bob Swinney
A year or so ago, an explosive sniffing dog was retired from airport security duty. His owner took him with him on vacation to visit a civil war battlefield, among other destinations. He dug up a dud explosive shell, a la Major Shrapnel.
Al Moore
As a kid, we used to camp up in the New Mexico mountains. Way back in the area - where roads were dusty trails.
We were down on the river - there was a local dam (for a distant race track city :-) ) and bingo - I came up with two steel balls in 20 minutes. The first one put me off skipping rocks and fishing.
THe big one, was a 6" size with a charge hole down one side. I guess it didn't blow up this time. The smaller one was a 2" or maybe 1 1/2 - round ball.
All I could figure was army vs. Indians or Spanish vs. Indians. It was Apache homeland area.
Martin [ wondering of how many bullets hit head-on - in all of the wars. Hummm ]
I live on a Civil War battleground, on the site of an old house that was used as a field hospital during the battle that was fought here over a 3 day period. Some of the trenches they dug are still existing in the surrounding area, even to this day. There were 23,000 soldiers in the engagement. I sometimes find projectiles just laying on the ground in my yard, or in the surrounding farmland. Whenever I have to dig in the yard, it always crosses my mind as to WHAT I might find, considering how much amputation went on during such battles.
RJ
"You're just jealous because the voices are talking to me, instead of to you."
I'd be out there with a metal detector when I'm burnt out on doing other things. Like now. At least to see what is most commonly found and the big beeps.
My favourite sniffer-dog story has to be the guy that got done for fraud after selling drug-sniffer dogs that couldn't actually find drugs.
I saw a photo a few years back of a rifle with an exploded breach. From a bullet that came down the barrel and hit the bullet just out of the chamber a moment after it was fired.
The photo showed blown up chamber with two bullets stuck nose to nose and pieces of the brass cartridge. IIRC the reversed bullet was still protruding partway into the remaining bore.
The rifle was WW1 or II (might have been an Enfield?), and at the time of destruction, it was being fired from behind a protective plate. Sniper on the other side tried to put a bullet into the hole the rifle was protruding from and actually tagged the muzzle.
The guy behind the plate wasn't severely hurt.
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