Booneville Cannonball Site Draws State Archaeologists

The Booneville cannonball site off Highway 45, where more than 200 Civil War-era cannonballs turned up this summer, is now on the state’s radar. Staff from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) visited the Prentiss County property on Tuesday, Nov. 10, and say the next step is giving it an official archaeological site number.

State Rep. Tracy Arnold confirmed the visit, WTVA reported. Arnold and state archaeologists hope the find can shed light on a battle that historians have never pinned to an exact spot, and maybe become a tourist draw for Booneville.

How the Booneville Cannonball Site Was Found

The cannonballs were found in late July while landowner Harold Knight’s property near Highway 45 was being prepared for commercial development. It started with a single cannonball lying on the surface. Digging turned up more than 200.

Small fossilized teeth were found at the site too, but they were too small to identify.

What State Archaeologists Plan Next

Cindy Davis of MDAH said the first step is to assign the property an archaeological site number, which formally records it with the state. From there, Davis said she plans to:

• Work with Knight on possibly having the site declared a landmark
• Contact the National Park Service
• Reach out to the American Battlefield Trust, the nonprofit that works to preserve Civil War battlefields

Davis said the property could be a Civil War encampment as well as a geological site. She noted that armies on the move often cached ammunition along their routes, and the line between Blackland and Booneville was one of those routes. The Knight property, which is flat and sits near a creek, fits that pattern.

“There’s not a lot of research on the Battle of the Booneville that’s been published,” Davis told WTVA.

The Battle of Booneville

The Battle of Booneville took place on July 1, 1862, a few weeks after Confederate forces pulled out of Corinth, the key rail crossroads to the north. Union cavalry under Col. Philip Sheridan fought off a larger Confederate cavalry force led by Brig. Gen. James R. Chalmers. Sheridan’s success that day helped earn him a promotion to brigadier general, and he went on to become one of the Union’s best-known commanders.

Davis said the battle’s exact location has never been defined. If the cannonballs can be tied to the fighting or to troop camps around it, the Prentiss County find could help fill in a little-studied part of the Civil War story in Northeast Mississippi. That story already draws visitors to the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center and Shiloh National Military Park.

A Possible Tourism Boost for Booneville

Arnold said he hopes the pieces can come together into something visitors can see. “Hopefully, we can bring all these elements together and create a tourism attraction here,” he said.

No timeline has been announced for a landmark designation or for further digging. Knight’s property remains private land, so the public should not visit the site or look for artifacts there without permission. Anyone who finds old ordnance should leave it alone and call local authorities, because Civil War shells can still be dangerous.

For more on the area’s Civil War history, see our story on the Shiloh Veterans Day bus tour, and read more Prentiss County news, including the latest from Northeast Mississippi Community College in Booneville.

Source: WTVA