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Civil War enthusiast killed by 140-year-old cannon ball

  2. joshuaheller
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Sam White, was restoring a Civil War era cannon ball when it 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 Virginia.

This brings the US Civil War casualty count to 700,001.
joshuaheller

10 responses // Civil War enthusiast killed by 140-year-old cannon ball

  • He became part of the war he loved so much, irony at its finest.
    phillyharper
  • He died doing what he loved. Who knew that the cannonball could still work after this long period of time.
    Ice_cream_Man
  • It makes me wonder what other 'fun stuff' is waiting for us to stumble upon one day. What is the fascination men have with war? It's bad enough that it happened in the first place and there are groups all over the world 'reinacting' them. It's just nuts.
    patsarts
  • A shame. Why do we dwell on these items...melt them into plow shares...or something...
    jimmyp
  • I had a neighbor, who passed away two years ago. His name was Don. He was a Korean war vet and a marine. He fought at Porkchop hill and nearly lost his leg at the battle due to shrapnel from an enemy grenade, thrown while he was pinned down below a machine gun nest. He kept the leg then, but some of the shrapnel stayed in, and fifty years later his wound became infected and he lost his leg and later his life. Fifty years later and the Korean war took a toll. To anyone advocating a long duration war, a hundred year war as has been trumpeted by McCain and Bush in Iraq, is a damned fool. War is terrible and its reach echoes through the decades. This is tragic and ironic all at once, but at any rate its proof of the long reaching spectre of conflict. The Civil War still represents the largest loss of American lives in any conflict.
    ocanada
  • Death is so damn inventive...we can only sit and watch.
    24French
  • The most ironic way to die: at the hands of your hobbie. At least he died doing something he enjoyed.
    x_darkly_charming_x
  • Any idea on the munitions country of origin ?

    They make them good there.
    Purdey
  • I wonder what the sound was like from the explosion. He did die doing what he loved and that is the good thing to come out of this. But I bet no one touches his other cannonballs he has. The house that is a quarter mile away has just become historical.
    J_Jammer
  • That's unexpected....
    uroborus8

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