Mammoth mortar ball donated to Duke
♦ But military museum is currently closed for remodeling
It took three men to maneuver one of the newest artifacts into place at the Duke Museum of Military History, 110 E. Eighth Ave.
Leslie Duke estimates the Civil War era mortar ball weighs close to 250 pounds and is 38-inches in circumference. The item will be one of the featured items when Duke re-opens the museum after a remodel of the interior.
Called a “siege mortar ball,” it was donated to the museum by a man who actually found the artifact in Chattooga County. Duke said he did not want to identify the finder.
“When we went to the residence of the family that donated it to us, it had sat behind their shed for approximately ten years,” Duke said. “It was about four inches down into the ground under its own weight. It took three fullsized adults to pick it up and move it.”
The founder of the military museum has done considerable research on the ball since he got it and said that the device would have been used during the war to destroy buildings.
“These particular mortars were so heavy that they were mounted on rail cars. It’s a short, stubby little mortar, and had a 20-pound charge of black powder with a range of about 4,000 yards,” Duke said. “Can you imagine that crashing through a building?”
At this time, Duke can only speculate when the ball was fired, but said there was doubt in his mind that it was a Union artillery piece.
One of the largest battles in Chattooga County took place Sept. 15, 1863. Known as the first Battle of Trion Factory, it occurred five days prior to the deadly Battle of Chickamauga.
The ball could have also been fired earlier that same year in May as
Union troops under the direction of Colonel Abel Streight were tasked with taking out sections of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. The rail was a major supply line for Confederate troops in and around Rome.
The mortar also could have been fired during Sherman’s campaign through Georgia. Sherman, himself traveled through Chattooga County in October of 1864, when the second Battle of Trion Factory was fought.
At numerous points during Sherman’s campaign, he issued orders to destroy foundries, warehouses, railroad depots and other buildings not needed by the Union invaders. A device such as the siege mortar would have been particularly useful during that kind of activity.
Duke is completely remodeling the museum because, “there doesn’t a day go by that somebody doesn’t bring us something.” The Civil War exhibit is being doubled in space. We doubled the size of World War I, we tripled the size of World War II and we tripled Iraq and Afghanistan,” Duke said.
A date for his re-opening has not been set.