BATON ROUGE – A Civil War bullet was found buried in the ball park at Sacred Heart of Jesus Thursday.

The church parish posted a picture of the artifact on Facebook.

“You never know what you might find,” the post read, and reported the bullet was a Minié Ball, a muzzle-loading rifle bullet that was first used during the Civil War. The find came as Sacred Heart was doing renovations to the ball park at the northeast corner of N. 22nd and Florida Boulevard – within eye-shot of one of the largest clashes between Union and Confederate soldiers during the Battle of Baton Rouge in 1862.

In an attempt to recapture Baton Rouge from its Union stronghold, Confederate soldiers advanced from the Comite River toward downtown, meeting with Union soldiers in the area around Magnolia Cemetery. Magnolia Cemetery is directly across the street from Sacred Heart.

The August 5 battle left 849 soldiers dead – 371 from the Union force; 478 Confederates.

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