"Cannon Ball" Unearthed by Gardener Turns Out To Be Old Fence Post Finial

Police in Fort Smith, Arkansas say a man puttering in his garden was surprised to find a Civil War era cannonball in his garden. Only the "cannonball" turned out to the top of an old fencepost.

Proving that even experts can be fooled when it comes to dirty, crusty old things the four-inch round chunk of metal was "touched off" by sympathetic detonation later today and later x-rayed - when it was determined to be decorative and not combative.

There were a number of Civil War engagements in and around Fort Smith, including the Battle of Massard Prairie.

A Cannon Shot Comes Home... 150 Years Later

One of the really nice things about we do is the fact that we get to reunite pieces with their original owners from time to time.

This happened again this week.

We've had this nice lantern slide image of a battle-torn tree on the Sherfey Farm property on the Gettysburg, Pa. site for a little while. It has a handwritten description of the image and depicts several cannon shot lodged in the tree, obviously sent their by counter-battery fire.

A couple of days ago a descendant of the family inquired about the slide and then bought it, identifying the slide as a family favorite of the tree in the family's yard but unusual in that someone has placed protective chickenwire over the battle scars to keep scavengers from digging the shot out.

And then, to add to the "small world" aspect of this whole thing, we find out in talking with the very nice man who bought the slide that he used to live within a mile and half of our home, during a stay in the Bay Area.

So there you have it. Not quite "the cannon shot heard 'round the world," but close.

Glad it's "going home."

Antiqueswest.com