Treasure Hunting

Several months ago we reported about the Civil War relic collector who died as a result of poorly handled artillery that is still active, but we’re still not entirely convinced that old shells and cannon balls should be destroyed when found.

Several weeks ago Dave Sink found a piece of history in the creek bank that his 2 year old daughter plays in. “I wasn’t sure what I had, she was stomping in the creek and next to her was what looked like an old tin can that had been in the water for awhile. When I picked it up, I realized it wasn’t a can. I carried it up to the library and everybody just kind of stared at me. They said ‘Why don’t you call 911?’ ”

So that’s what Sink did. And the Knox County SHeriff’s deputies took the shell and “finished the job a Union Army cannon started nearly 145 years ago. They blew it up.”

“It was full of black powder,” said KCSO Assistant Chief Deputy Robert Sexton, who oversees the Special Hazards Team. “We rendered it safe. We collected the pieces and will dispose of them safely. There is no more shell.”

Local relic-hunters say such shells still turn up from time to time. The Battle of Campbell Station near what’s now Farragut on Nov. 16, 1863, left shells scattered around the area when troops under Confederate Gen. James Longstreet tried and failed to cut off Union Gen. Ambrose Burnside’s retreat to Knoxville.

“There was probably more artillery fired in that battle than in any battle in East Tennessee,” said Dewey Beard, a local historian and longtime relic hunter.

The shell that Sink and his daughter found was classified as a 10lb Parrott shell. It was most likely fired by a Union artillery crew and is named after inventor Robert Parker Parrott. Shells like this relied on the heat from the cannon blast to ignite a fuse in its tip. Relic hunters argue that this fuse would have gone dead long, long ago.

“If it didn’t go off then, it probably won’t go off now,” said Gerald Augustus, a retired Loudon County educator. “Unless it’s near a very hot fire, the biggest danger would be if you dropped it on your toe.”

Of course, veteran collector Sam White who tragically died in February is recalled after a shell exploded in his Virginia home as he was trying to disarm it. But still, historians say that there is a very slim chance of danger with these relics.

The local Sheriff’s office assistant chief says he understands the historical value of such an item, but doesn’t want anyone to have the chance of getting hurt by something that was designed to explode.

Meanwhile, Sink is thinking of buying a metal detector for relic hunts of his own.

We wish him luck, and of course we encourage any artillery to be properly handled - be it in a glass case, far from heat, or destroyed to prevent future injury… we’re just not sure which tactic we favor more.

- Shaun

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