In my 42 years, I don't believe that I have never done the research on this.
Cannon balls DO NOT explode, as much as Hollywood insist's that they do. Or do they?
I saw "The Patriot" a few years back, and I was quite amazed at the "reality" of the movie. For all of it's war violence, it was very elegantly directed. One of the minor items from this movie that was pigeon-holed into the back of my brain was the fact that the cannon balls didn't explode. In the movie, the cannon projectiles "mowed down" the opposition. They never exploded.
It was one of those minor things that I didn't dwell on, but never obsessed over either.
Several weeks ago, I saw "Gods And Generals" on HBO. It was the first time I saw the movie. An aspect of the movie, that once again got "filed away" into the dark recesses of my brain was that in this movie, the cannon balls DID explode.
Over the past week, I have seen HBO previews for both "Master and Commander" and "Pirates Of The Caribbean" (Johnny Depp), and suddenly this cannon ball mystery has risen to the surface!
Oddly, there isn't a lot of information about this on the Internet. Ballistics person, I am not. Nor am I a historian for the Revolutionary War, the Civil War or the war of 1812. As far as I know about history, WWI was the first appearence of long range shells that exploded on impact.
The only information I found regarding the Hollywood myth about exploding cannon balls is here:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040423.html
Any information that you could provide on this subject would be greatly appreciated.
LLS