Man Killed When 140-Year-Old Cannonball Explodes

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.

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This story I found interesting. Would Sam Right be listed as a casualty of the US Civil War? This is a tragic and a blessing. A tragic because a life was lost, and a blessing the cannonball wasnt sitting in some museum with school children on a field trip.

I doubt it would have made it to a museum without first being inspected for just such dangers. This is a tragic illustration of people not knowing what they're dealing with.