This is not the first time the deputy chief has come across a stray cannonball on a Virginia property. In the past six years, this is his second Civil War-era projectile encounter, he said.

Even though the Civil War has been thoroughly studied for over 160 years, new discoveries are still being made. Last spring, a Civil War-era cannonball was found in the backyard of a Virginia home.

A large part of the war was fought on Virginia soil, from Manassas to Chancellorsville, Petersburg and finally Appomattox. Major battles were mainly in the Shenandoah Valley and eastern Virginia.