Musket ball found where revolutionary war action was

Thebigd81

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Went to the field where I found a 1774 1/2 real last week and found a musket ball... The area had troops march through it during the revolutionary war
 

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Many thousands more balls fired for hunting and target practice in the USA than fired in battle. All sites in this country where battles were present had hunting going on before and after battles. Patina on shown ball could easily be 75 years or two hundred years, no way to tell. All that can be said about it is that it is a round ball. Musket is a military arm and non-musket muzzle loaders used the same balls depending on caliber. Could easily have been fired at a deer and missed, no positive ID will ever be possible.
 
Rev war balls were the big boys . And it could very well be , or maybe a 69 cal. which could be from that period or CW era, either way it takes over a 100 yrs. to get that nice white patina , so all I can say is nice find and for sure one of those two periods for sure . Congrats on a nice round ball.
 
Nice find :thumbsup:
After a lot i still love to find those.

Looks good! And maybe dropped? Seems to still have it's shape

If it hits nothing it will also keep it's shape.
And a lot didn't hit anything, as aiming with such black powder guns was very hard.

A small selection of those i've found.

musketkogels.jpg
 
Rev war balls were the big boys . And it could very well be , or maybe a 69 cal. which could be from that period or CW era, either way it takes over a 100 yrs. to get that nice white patina , so all I can say is nice find and for sure one of those two periods for sure . Congrats on a nice round ball.

It most certainly does not take over a hundred years to get a similar lead oxide coating on a lead item. It does depend somewhat on soil condition but I have some minies around here that I cast about fifty years ago and they already have the white patina. I have also dug post WW1 lead toys with a thick white patina or lead oxide coating. Regarding caliber and whence it came, in reality conjecture is useless, could have been fired from a myriad of possible muzzle loaders. Measuring with a caliper would give an accurate caliber but still would not identify what it was fired from. Also, all the muzzle loading guns from the civil war were sold off as surplus after the war and many were used for hunting right into the early 1900s.
 
Also, all the muzzle loading guns from the civil war were sold off as surplus after the war and many were used for hunting right into the early 1900s.

The same overhere.
Most i've found of which from some i showed in the image are found on spots were never anything happend. For farmers a by accident passing by dear simply was good extra meat. The gun was always within reach.

But at places with history they always come with many friends.
I love that! If you find enough you can almost tell were both parties were positioned.
Then you can almost reconstruct the battle :sissyfight: and with that information and knowing how those battles took place you can find new hotspots. :sweet: :clapping: :sweet:
Learn to 'read' the location!


TIP:
Look slightly beyond the edges of the battlefield. Cannonballs and such often deviate. Camps were a bit away from the battlefields, as also the command posts and lookouts and field hostpitals were.
I've found cannonballs and more nice stuff next to battlefields. :sweet: I once found a WWII field hospital no one ever new about some away from the battlefield, and that much object that i can state no one ever found it before.
 
It most certainly does not take over a hundred years to get a similar lead oxide coating on a lead item. It does depend somewhat on soil condition but I have some minies around here that I cast about fifty years ago and they already have the white patina. I have also dug post WW1 lead toys with a thick white patina or lead oxide coating. Regarding caliber and whence it came, in reality conjecture is useless, could have been fired from a myriad of possible muzzle loaders. Measuring with a caliper would give an accurate caliber but still would not identify what it was fired from. Also, all the muzzle loading guns from the civil war were sold off as surplus after the war and many were used for hunting right into the early 1900s.

I'm afraid Gunsil is correct here. With the plethora of muzzle loaders that were around, finding a ball, regardless of caliber, dropped or shot, you can't definitively prove when it ended up on the ground and for what reason, by whom.
Even if the ball was found in context. I'm a case in point. I was very fortunate to gain permission to hunt a privately owned property that WAS a battle field in the Battle of Brandywine. 13,000 brits collided with 10,000 Americans on a rolling hill. The possession of that hill changed hands through the day a half dozen times. On that hill, we found flat buttons, pewter buttons, bayonet frogs, musket parts, period coins including spanish silvers and a total of about 100 white patina covered balls. Shot and dropped. Even some monster 3/4 inch brown bess balls. But, you know what, there's no definitive proof that any of them were part of that battle. I certainly believe they were, but, prove it.
It's an unfortunate fact of this hobby.
 
Well I'm just a country boy born in raised in the southeren part of Va. Now living on the boarder of KC Mo. and Kansas. I'm tickled to see that after nearly 30 yrs. of digging colonial and CW relics we have a couple experts on the forum that think round balls turn white over night . And by the way the size of a round ball since there is such a variety will also put you in the general century it may have been used. But do appreciate the your input .
 
Well I'm just a country boy born in raised in the southeren part of Va. Now living on the boarder of KC Mo. and Kansas. I'm tickled to see that after nearly 30 yrs. of digging colonial and CW relics we have a couple experts on the forum that think round balls turn white over night . And by the way the size of a round ball since there is such a variety will also put you in the general century it may have been used. But do appreciate the your input .

Don't think anyone is saying it isn't old, just can't prove it was dropped during the Rev or Civ for that matter. Or had any connection whatsoever to military.
 
Don't think anyone is saying it isn't old, just can't prove it was dropped during the Rev or Civ for that matter. Or had any connection whatsoever to military.

Of course it can't be proven when it was dropped but revolutionary war troops marched through the area and a battle took place not far from where it was found, a 1773 1/2 reale was found 25 feet away, and buddy found one close by so chances are better than not it is revolutionary era
 
Just stated it is probably a period piece of lead , could have been fired at anything. War related or not we will never know. But I do believe it has some age to it.
 
100 years ago now was 1920. I have found many more modern .32 and .44 cal slugs with the white coating and they were for sure less than a hundred years old. I also have many minies I cast myself thirty years ago and they were coated in an old formula of mutton tallow and beeswax as was used as bullet lube in the 19th century and those now have white coating on them. It is not time that makes the white oxide coating on lead, it is the chemicals in the soil and those chemicals are different in different areas. 30 years, so what? I have been at it 50 years and found hundreds of old balls and bullets, even full cannister and complete Parrot shells, found old round balls in a creek near a rev war battlefield that had almost no white oxide. It is chemicals not time that make the coating. Yes, OP ball has some age to it but it could be a lot newer than civil war.
 
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