Unexploded Munitions

Hi.

While watching TV the other evening I came across a programme which dealt with the aftermath of war and the cleaning up of unexploded weapons (UXOs), explosives, gas shells, among other things. One part of the programme dealt with the ongoing clean-up of World War 1 era weapons in France and it was mentioned that each year dozens of people are killed in incidents involving WW1 UXOs. It was also mentioned that the clean-up operation could take hundreds of years to complete and the weapons could be dangerous centuries from now.

Later I was reading through some Civil War material and I got to thinking about UXOs and the Civil War, and a few questions came to mind. I presume that there would have been a great deal of unexploded shells etc. left behind on CW battle fields so was there an official clean-up operation mounted to remove these? Were there any cases of civilians being killed by UXOs in later years. I know that explosive technology had advanced a lot by 1914-18 and the explosives of the CW wouldn't last as long but how long would Civil War UXOs have remained dangerous after use?

Many thanks.

In the late 1960s when I was at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fl, Civil War munitions were found buried on the front lawn of the administration building. They were considered dangerous. During the Civil war, FSU was known as the West Florida Military Seminary.

When I lived in the Atlanta area, an old shell would occasionally turn up. If mis-handled, it could lead to some harm. IIRC, one was found in the early '80's.

JFE

James F. Epperson http://members.aol.com/jfepperson/causes.html

A student who changes the course of history is usually taking an exam

During the 1920's CCC workers at Vicksburg uncovered large amounts of unexploded ordnance in the park. They buried it in a pit somewhere within the park, but no one can recall where. Just this summer during work on the Louisiana monument, a parrot shell was uncovered. The bomb squad was called in to take charge of it, and they hauled it away. During the raising of the USS Cairo, an ordnance demolition team set up a temporary bunker near the site to destroy the tons of ordnance removed from the ships bunkers. Much of it was still live. Interestingly, relic hunters have found quite a few WWI artillery shells in the area around Kennesaw Mountain. As it turns out there was an artillery range near the mountain during WWI. The only known fatalities occured after a period of heavy rain. To keep the artillery pieces from bogging down in the mud, the trainees placed shipping palets under the wheels. One of the arty pieces slipped off during firing and overshot their target hitting a home on the other side of Little Kennesaw Mountain. I've heard legends of people being killed by unexploded ordnance but I am not sure of the veracity of such rumors. One account claims soldiers at a US Army base found a parrot shell and were tossing it around when it exploded. The other, though no fatalities were involved, tells of a little old lady who used a shell for a firedog in her fireplace. It supposedly exploded and blew her chimney apart. That being said, one of the more nervous moments I have experienced with Civil War history was when I was helping an old man identify a shell he plowed up in his garden in Calhoun, Georgia. While we were chatting he began absent mindedly digging into the lead fuse with his pocket knife. I put a stop to that immediately.

There is a small church and cemetery just west of the Chancellorsville Visitors' Center. Wandering around it a few years ago, I noted a grave of someone who was on TWA Flight 800.

And another which recorded a couple of children killed in the fall of 1865 when unexploded artillery rounds they were using as toys blew up.

Of course one of the great UXB Civil War stories concerns the artillery piece of Battery B, 1st Rhode Island Artillery. It was struck in the muzzle during the battle of Gettysburg by a Confederate cannon ball. When the crew attempted to ram down a round, the Union ball jammed in the muzzle's mouth.

After the battle, the cannon went to Providence, where it sits on display in the state house. A few years back it occurred to someone that the powder is placed in the barrel before the cannon ball! Ordnance specialists were called who carefully drilled out the base of the barrel and removed the 100+ year old powder!

Take care,

Bob

Judy and Bob Huddleston 10643 Sperry Street Northglenn, CO 80234-3612 303.451.6376 This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it