2008 - The Yankees Kill Another Southerner 140 years after the war in Virginia.

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Trooper W. Leak, Retired

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" America Bless God and He Will Bless Us "

Civil War cannonball kills relic collector

Associated Press

Published on: 05/02/08

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.

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Steve Helber/AP

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White, widow of Civil War Relics collector Sam White, looks over

cases filled with Civil War artifacts in their home in Chester, Va.

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eath_VAS.html)

AP

_(ENLARGE)_

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eath_VAS.html)

Family photo of Sam Whhite, who was killed in February when a cannonball he

was restoring in his driveway exploded.

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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.

White's death shook the close-knit fraternity of relic collectors and raised

concerns about the dangers of other Civil War munitions that lay buried

beneath old battlefields. Explosives experts said the fatal blast defied

extraordinary odds.

" You can't drop these things on the ground and make them go off, " said

retired Col. F. Biemeck, formerly of the Army Ordnance Corps.

White, 53, was one of thousands of hobbyists who comb former battlegrounds

for artifacts using metal detectors, pickaxes, shovels and trowels.

" There just aren't many areas in the South in which battlefields aren't

located. They're literally under your feet, " said Harry Ridgeway, a former

relic

hunter who has amassed a vast collection. " It's just a huge thrill to pull

even a mundane relic out of the ground. "

After growing up in sburg, White went to college, served on his local

police force, then worked for 25 years as a deliveryman for _UPS_

(http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/topcompanies/index.html?cxntlid=li\

nkr) . He

retired in 1998 and devoted most of his time to relic hunting.

He was an avid reader, a Civil War raconteur and an amateur historian who

watched History Channel programs over and over, to the mild annoyance of his

wife.

" I used to laugh at him and say, 'Why do you watch this? You know how it

turned out. It's not going to be any different,' " White said.

She didn't share her husband's devotion, but she was understanding of his

interest.

" True relic hunters who have this passion, they don't live that way

vicariously, like if you were a sports fanatic, " she said. " Finding a treasure

is

their touchdown, even if it's two, three bullets. "

Union and Confederate troops lobbed an estimated 1.5 million artillery

shells and cannonballs at each other from 1861 to 1865. As many as one in five

were duds.

Some of the weapons remain buried in the ground or river bottoms. In late

March, a 44-pound, 8-inch mortar shell was uncovered at sburg National

Battlefield, the site of an epic 292-day battle. The shell was taken to the

city

landfill and detonated.

Black powder provided the destructive force for cannonballs and artillery

shells. The combination of sulfur, potassium nitrate and finely ground charcoal

requires a high temperature — 572 degrees Fahrenheit — and friction to

ignite.

White estimated he had worked on about 1,600 shells for collectors and

museums. On the day he died, he had 18 cannonballs lined up in his driveway to

restore.

White's efforts seldom raised safety concerns. His wife and son

sometimes stood in the driveway as he worked.

" Sam knew his stuff, no doubt about it, " said Jimmy Blankenship,

historian-curator at the sburg battleground. " He did know Civil War

ordnance. "

An investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms will not be

complete until the end of May, but police who responded to the blast and

examined shrapnel concluded that it came from a Civil War explosive.

Experts suspect White was killed while trying to disarm a 9-inch, 75-pound

naval cannonball, a particularly potent explosive with a more complex fuse and

many times the destructive power of those used by infantry artillery.

Biemeck and , co-author of a book on Civil War ordnance, believe

White was using either a drill or a grinder attached to a drill to remove

grit from the cannonball, causing a shower of sparks.

Because of the fuse design, it may have appeared as though the weapon's

powder had already been removed, leading even a veteran like White to conclude

mistakenly that the ball was inert.

The weapon also had to be waterproof because it was designed to skip over

the water at 600 mph to strike at the waterline of an enemy ship. The

protection against moisture meant the ball could have remained potent longer

than an

infantry shell.

White is convinced her husband was working on a flawed cannonball,

and no amount of caution could have prevented his death.

" He had already disarmed the shell, " she said. " From what I was told, there

was absolutely nothing he had done wrong, that there was a manufacturing

defect that no one would have known was there. "

After White's death, about two dozen homes were evacuated for two days while

explosives experts collected pieces from his collection and detonated them.

Today, there is little evidence of the Feb. 18 blast. The garage where White

did most of his work is still crammed with his discoveries, many

painstakingly restored and mounted. Rusted horseshoes are piled high in the

crook of a

small tree.

White's digging partner, Fred Lange, hasn't had the heart to return to his

relic hunting.

" I truly miss him, " Lange said. " Not a day that goes by that I don't think

of him. "

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