geology question has history answer

[johnco]

The question I had asked and no one knew the answer has been answered. Turns out these are homemade bullets made by tumbling rocks to round them off, then they were graded into different sizes and used when lead was in short supply. the black oily beads were actually seeds the stones were stored in to keep them from getting saturated but still keep an oil film on them. the area was a staging ground for local units. now I wish I had saved a barrel or two of them. might dig a hole and recover more.

[71T Targa]

Very cool John. Good find.

[johnco]

this college professor/civil war expert is all excited about inspecting the scene and knew exactly the area when he was told about my find. damn shame I covered it all up 6 ft down. might have to take out the post hole digger

[azasadny]

Very cool!

[masraum]

wow, that's very cool. I remember your previous post. This is much cooler than the post that suggested they were natural "marbles" or whatever it said.
We may have an amatuer archeologist in our midst now.
Thanks for posting your findings.

[Joeaksa]

Interesting piece of history. Might be worth saving some of these for the future.

Where did you find this out?

[ckissick]

I guess I was on the right track with the ball-bearings. You said it looked like a natural deposit, but looks can be deceiving sometimes, can't they? I actually thought of bullets, but didn't think they'd be round. I was reminded of a time when I came across thousands of bullets on the beach below Fort Funston in San Francisco after a big storm had washed away the sand. There was an old shooting range there.

[johnco]

found this out from an old guy who's great grandfather fought in the war. he knows history buffs and collectors. also this college prof. knew about these and said they were used for other things also. he picked up a few to bring to BR to have them checked. he's all excited and wants to examine the site. too bad the pool is in the ground and the hole filled. there's 9 ft between the pool and the building so we might just have to dig back down. there were thousands of them if anyone would like a few. I've moved the dirt 3 times I dug out with a bunch of them and now most of it is backfill for the bulkhead. about 15 minutes of searching and I found 20-30 more in the pile of dirt. there's still many many more there.

[johnco]

A little more history.. the man who dredged the area 30 or so years ago says they found remnants of a fort right here. wagon wheels, personal items and crates of these things. they kept the artifacts and buried the stuff I found on the bank while dredging. Also, a short search on Goggle and I learned the 11th Regiment infantry formed in 1861 in Wisconsin was in this area (Bayou Long) and surrounding areas in 1864. The Prof. I gave samples to works at a Civil War museum and will let me know later this week anything else he can find. Masraum, it's going out in the mail today.