https://archive.triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-allegheny/pittsburgh-police-remove-civil-war-cannonballs-get-a-horse-in-return/
Pittsburgh police remove Civil War cannonballs, get a horse in return
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Milhaus Ventures donated Cannonball, a draft horse, to the Pittsburgh police mounted unit as a thank you for removing cannonballs unearthed from a site where Milhaus is building apartments in Lawrenceville.
Pittsburgh police last year removed hundreds of Civil War cannonballs from a Lawrenceville construction site, and the development company was so grateful that it gave the police bureau a horse.
Indianapolis-based Milhaus Ventures, which is building an apartment complex on a portion of a former federal arsenal along Butler Street, uncovered the cannonballs early last year. The Pittsburgh Police Bomb Squad subsequently found more than 800 cannonballs.
The city was not authorized to remove them from the old Allegheny Arsenal grounds because they remained property of the federal government. Police stored them in a climate-controlled trailer on site, and officers stood guard over them for months until the city received authorization from the U.S. Department of Defense to remove them. Milhaus paid for the security detail.
“We transported them to a military base, and they disposed of them,” said Pittsburgh police Cmdr. Ed Trapp, who heads the Special Deployment Division.
Several cannonballs went to the Senator John Heinz History Center in the Strip District, but the rest were destroyed because of public safety concerns, city officials said.
The find touched off a debate among preservationists who argued for keeping them, but many of the cannonballs contained black powder and city officials feared they could explode.
Milhaus wanted to express its appreciation, so company Vice President Thomas Bost approached Trapp, who also heads Pittsburgh's newly created mounted unit.
“It was one of those things where I said half-jokingly, ‘Well, you can buy us a horse,' ” Trapp said.
The company took that to heart and donated a draft horse to Pittsburgh. The horse is named Cannonball and has joined the city's five other mounts at stables in South Park, Trapp said.
Milhaus' Arsenal 201 housing project, which includes 625 apartments and luxury amenities, is scheduled to be finished in June.
The 38-acre Allegheny Arsenal was established in 1814 and served as a major supplier of the Union Army during the Civil War. The property was sold at public auction in 1926.
The worst civilian disaster of the Civil War occurred there on Sept. 17, 1862, when an explosion killed 78 women and girls working at the arsenal. Many others were injured.
Bob Bauder is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-765-2312, bbauder@tribweb.com or via Twitter @bobbauder.
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