Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe CHARLESTON, S.C., June 13 (UPI) -- What appears to be a Civil War-era cannonball was sucked up by a dredge this week off South Carolina and landed in a gated community. Workers on a beach re-nourishment project found the ball Thursday morning in Wild Dunes, the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier reported. Advertisement State and county explosives experts quickly determined that the cannonball no longer presents much of a threat. Any explosives in it have dissipated over the decades. Richard Hatcher, a National Parks Service historian at the Fort Sumter National Monument, said that thousands of cannonballs may have been fired in the area during the Civil War. Charleston withstood a 600-day siege by Union forces. He said the one that turned up this week was probably fired from a 10-inch Columbiad cannon. Lt. Ray Wright of the Isle of Palms police said that the cannonball was probably sucked up by a dredge around 2 ½ miles off the beach.
