First, April 12 marked the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. And, village Manager Josh Rice had discovered a lesser theft of other cannon balls just before the disappearance of the remaining cannon balls and had made plans to weld them together to prevent further theft.
Believed to have been installed in 1909 to honor those who served and died in the war, the cannon balls were situated between two display cannons atop Soldier’s Mound at the South Chillicothe Street (Ohio 41) cemetery. What initially began as a large pyramid of about 30 to 40 cannon balls was slowly been reduced over a century of theft, Smith said.
The hollowed out cannon balls weighing between 32- to 40-pounds and from 6- to 8-inches in diameter each would have during the Civil War been filled with gun powder and a fuse inserted in rectangular holes, causing it to explode.
“They were designed to kill people,” Berkhofer said. “It’s hard to see why (a thief) couldn’t recognize the suffering of those people” who would have been killed by similar ordnance during the Civil War, he said. “It’s bad enough that someone would steal them for resale as a historical artifact, but even worse that someone might steal them as a prank.”
Police did not have a motive for the theft midday Tuesday. Smith said their disappearance could be due to a number of reasons, including for sale on the Internet, for scrap or as a prank. “Obviously, we can rule out their use as actual cannon balls,” Smith said.
Berkhofer described the theft as not horrible, but very sad. “The village could get other (Civil War-era) cannonballs, but it’s not the same as given at least 100 years ago,” he said.
Anyone with information about the whereabouts of the cannon balls are asked to call South Charleston Police at (937) 462-8822.
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