Rare Civil War-era Cannonball on Display

The Lincoln Memorial Shrine has received a nine-pound cannonball, originating from the years 1861 to 1865, to add to its collection of Civil War era artifacts and history. While the cannonball will not be the first piece of artillery ammunition to be added to the Lincoln Memorial Shrine, the plug, size and weight of the cannonball led the staff at Lincoln Memorial Shrine to believe that it is an explosive cannonball, the first of its kind to be put on display at the shrine. The cannonball was discovered in San Joaquin Valley and its donation to the shrine was orchestrated by Doug Westfall, who has been instrumental in the collection of other artifacts for the Lincoln Memorial Shrine, including a German-American manuscript from a soldier in the Civil War. Don McQue, director of the Lincoln Memorial Shrine and the A.K. Smiley Library, will be leading research on the cannonball alongside A.K. Smiley Library Archivist Maria Castillo. McQue believes that the cannonball was “lost in transport” on the way from a Civil War fort in either San Diego or the Drum Barracks in Wilmington to a San Bernardino outpost. McQue will also be reaching out to the California State Library and the California Military Museum to help solve the mystery of the cannonball’s presence, in the hope that it could help tell the untold story of California’s involvement in the Civil War and its divided history. Part of that history, according to the American Civil War Society, was San Bernardino County’s dense population of relocated southerners who did little to hide their loyalties to the south. The presence of the southern sympathizers in California strengthened the secessionist movement as a whole. Military troops from the Drum Barracks however, had the responsibility of keeping California in the Union and protecting a large portion of the southern California population during the war, according to the Drum Barracks Civil War Museum. The cannonball will be on display alongside the shrine’s other Civil War weapons, ammo and military artifacts. For more information, please visit www.lincolnshrine.org. [END] Housed at the Lincoln Memorial Shrine, with other Civil War artifacts and history. The base in San Bernardino was used mostly for Calvary and infantry, not for artillery. It was a nine-pound cannonball. This could help tell the tale of California's involvement in the Civil War. Wilmington, CA - Drum Barracks, from the Drum Barracks' official website, "The Civil War was a pivotal event in the history of the United States, but few realize California’s important role in that conflict. Troops from the Drum Barracks had the important responsibility of keeping California in the Union, protecting the local citizenry, the Wilmington Harbor and much of southern California and securing the territory that is now Arizona and New Mexico for the Union." http://www.drumbarracks.org/index.php/en/history/californias-role-in-the-civil-war American Civil War Society - Little is it known that California was often very divided on the issue of secession during the Civil War. San Bernardino County was a hotbed of re-located Southerners who were active in the gold rush of the 1860's. Most were settlers in Holcomb Valley whose loyalties were often well known. These southern sympathizers were joined by the dissatisfied Mormons living in the County since the 1850's whose relatives had experienced the threat of federal troops in 1858 in Utah. With this coalition, the secessionist movement now found added strength. Fortunately, this local belligerence finally ended in nothing more than a few barn burnings, reminiscent of "Burning Kansas" a decade earlier.