An antique cannonball filled with explosive black powder prompted evacuations in Habersham County on Tuesday after it was discovered in a garage, authorities said.
The ordeal began around 11:45 a.m. when a resident alerted deputies that the “basketball-size device” he had recently been given might be hazardous, Habersham Sheriff’s Office spokesman Rob Moore said.
“This was simply something the resident was collecting. He did not know it was potentially live, but notified law enforcement quickly after realizing it potentially was a hazard,” Moore explained. “There was never any ill intent on the part of the resident in possession of it.”
Moore described the cannonball as weighing around 100 pounds. Although officials could not determine its exact age, the resident who received it believed it dated to the Civil War era.
Moore confirmed that it contained black powder, which is explosive.
Credit: Habersham County Sheriff's Office
Credit: Habersham County Sheriff's Office
“This was an explosive-type cannonball used during the Civil War era, said to be very volatile even back in those days, and even a spark could cause an explosion,” Moore said.
GBI bomb technicians were called to the scene to remove the cannonball for safe detonation, the sheriff’s office said. The process included burying it in a “safe bunker” before detonation, Moore added.
A section of Wheeler Road near Garrett Road and Ga. 115 was temporarily closed “out of an abundance of caution,” according to the sheriff’s office. The home where the cannonball was found and several neighboring homes were evacuated.
About five hours later, Wheeler Road reopened. The area is located near Demorest and Clarkesville.
A decade ago, a cannonball was unearthed by construction workers as they were building the College Football Hall of Fame in downtown Atlanta. Atlanta police said they contacted military personnel who went to a secure location in July 2013 to examine the cannonball, which contained black powder and small ball bearings. The Air Force then took possession of the remains of the cannonball because it was military property.
“It turns out it was filled with black powder and small ball bearings and (is) considered a live round,” police said at the time.
In March 2022, an unexploded Civil War shell was found in the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield, where it was removed by the Cobb County bomb squad. The Union parrot shell had been there for nearly 160 years.
The use of black powder makes Civil War shells much more likely to be inactive than ordnance manufactured later.
The Cobb bomb squad also removed a cannonball-sized device from a home in December that led Marietta police to close Barnes Mill Road from Wallace Road to Souring Drive, authorities said. The homeowner found the “Civil War-era unexploded ordnance” in her backyard, 11Alive reported. It’s a term for an explosive weapon that has yet to go off.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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