The American Civil War Claims Another Victim:

[bicentennial_baby]

CHESTER, Va. - Like many boys in the South, Sam White got hooked on the Civil War early, digging up rusting bullets and military buttons in the battle-scarred earth of his hometown.

As an adult, he crisscrossed the Virginia countryside in search of wartime relics — weapons, battle flags, even artillery shells buried in the red clay. He sometimes put on diving gear to feel for treasures hidden in the black muck of river bottoms.

But in February, White's hobby cost him his life: A cannonball he was restoring exploded, killing him in his driveway.

More than 140 years after Lee surrendered to Grant, the cannonball was still powerful enough to send a chunk of shrapnel through the front porch of a house a quarter-mile from White's home in this leafy Richmond suburb.

White's death shook the close-knit fraternity of relic collectors and raised concerns about the dangers of other Civil War munitions that lay buried beneath old battlefields. Explosives experts said the fatal blast defied extraordinary odds.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080502/ap_on_re_us/cannonball_death

[bbinacan]

1. Very sad. n/t

[FARAFIELD]

2. Geeze, so he goes in the books

He beats the farmer in Gettysburg that hit that cannonball 40 years ago. Damn that war just keeps getting more trivia questions to answer.

[sniffa]

14. I loves me some Civil War trivia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmer_McLean

[Tangerine LaBamba]

3. I read this earlier today

And it's just further proof that when your number's up, it's up.

[FARAFIELD]

5. of course the "number" for the "restoring cannonball demographic"

Has got to be higher than the normal persons

[Tangerine LaBamba]

8. Civil War reenactment

I've always been amused by the guys - I live in Virginia - who love to get dressed up in the uniforms and go out there, pretending to be in an historic battle. My stance is that, without live ammunition, it's not a genuine reenactment.

[sniffa]

4. Which roll should he be added to?

I'm guessing the Confederacy, but he may have been a sympathetic Unionist.

[FARAFIELD]

6. Copperhead for sure.

Actually he would be a civilian death they have a whole other thing for them.

[Bright Eyes]

7. I have one of those cannonballs.

It's almost certainly solid shot (wouldn't explode), but I don't think I'll be picking it up anytime soon.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

9. You can pick it up

Just don't use an electric drill on it.

[Faygo Kid]

10. OK, now this is a bizarre way to go. Wish Bruce Catton was alive to write of it.

Still the most achingly true writer on the Civil War, and one of the greatest American writers, period.

I met David McCullough and told him I put him in the same league with Bruce Catton, and he was stunned - immediately knew just how high a compliment that was.

[Poll_Blind]

11. Weird, because just today a guy not far from where Iive was injured trying to...

...take apart a WW I 30mm shell. Blew up in his...lap. (shudder) He had found the munition and was trying to separate the projectile from the brass shell. The news said he was hoping to sell the brass for scrap.

  I ain't never gonna be smart enough to defuse WW I artillery shells. If I ever am smart enough to do it, I hope I'm intelligent enough to realize I should be doing something less dangerous with my time.

PB

[bicentennial_baby]

13. Especially in one's lap!

:o

[FARAFIELD]

17. Did he do a Napoleon Dynamite?

And writhe on the ground about his "PACK"

[Rosemary2205]

12. Canonballs have explosive in them?????

I thought they were all solid balls of metal?????

[enlightenment]

15. I suspect that it was a canister round, not round shot

They were using canister during the Napoleonic War. I'm sure they used it during the Civil War. So much more effective at maiming large numbers . . .

[theoldman]

16. Another Darwin award.