Chimney Sweep Finds 'Live' Cannonball in Georgetown Fireplace

PHOTO: This is NOT the cannonball found in Georgetown on Wednesday, but a similarly sized cannonball, pictured from the Web site: CivilWarTalk.com. Google map shows approximate location of home where cannonball was found.

UPDATE Thursday 9:45 a.m.: A gunpowder-filled Civil War-era cannonball found in the chimney of a Georgetown home was ”live” and detonated last night by Fort Belvoir’s 55th Ordnance Company (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) in Northern Virginia at the Fort Belvoir base, according to Joseph Richard, Fort Belvoir spokesman.

Officers with the Metropolitan Police Department and DC Fire Department blocked off streets in Georgetown Wednesday night to recover the cannonball found in a chimney during a renovation, according to DC Police spokesman Paul Metcalf.

Police were called to the 3000 block of Cambridge Place (see map above) in Georgetown; that was followed by a call to the DC Fire Department, said fire department spokesman Timothy Wilson. The fire department was called in, just in case the cannonball exploded, he said.

Homeowner John Norregaard told WUSA-9 that the cannonball was 4 to 5 inches wide and was found last month by a chimney sweep during a home renovation.

A military bomb squad was eventually called in to take the cannonball away, police spokesman Metcalf said. NBC-4 reported that police called the bomb squad after they determined that the cannonball was filled with gunpowder.

The 1600 block of Avon Place and the 3000 block of Cambridge Place NW reopened shortly around 6:30 p.m., according to police.

During the Civil War, Confederate and Union troops lobbed an estimated 1.5 million shells and cannonballs at each other from 1861 to 1865.

In Georgetown, the first troops arrived in late April 1861 and were part of the Irish Brigade, the 69th New York, according to the National Park Service, which offers a Civil War-themed walking tour of Georgtown. They stayed on the grounds of Georgetown College (now University). “They were quiet and well behaved,” the park service noted. “The 79th New York Highlanders followed them. Unlike their predecessors, they displayed drunken behavior and damaged college property.”

Read more here about Georgetown’s Civil War history.

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