An authentic Civil War 12-pound cannon ball from an unknown battle between 1861 and 1865. Civil War cannonballs were mostly made of cast-iron and in rare cases from lead. Metals such as steel and copper are common in modern military artillery but were not used at that time. There are casting markers on each cannon ball, such as a faint line around the center known as the mold seam, where the two halves met. In addition, there is a hole in the cannon ball where the fuse would be set. This cannon ball is empty and contains no fuse.   

During the Civil War, two main types of cannons were used: the smoothbore and the rifled. Although smoothbore was common, the rifled was preferred because it was more accurate and could fire at farther distances. This was due to the inside of a rifled cannon having grooves, which caused the cannon balls to rotate when fired. An efficient group would be able to aim and fire the cannon twice in one minute. 

⚠WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals including lead and dinitrotoluene, which are known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov, will open in a new window..

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