From the Richmond Daily Dispatch December 15, 1864:
Accident from fire-arms.
–Yesterday afternoon, a little free negro boy, named Lewis Harris, was seriously injured in one of his hands by the explosion of a Yankee exploding ball, in the Second Market. He had the missile in his hand and was pecking carelessly against a fire-plug, when the accident occurred, making a noise equal to that of a heavy musket discharge, and creating much alarm in the neighborhood.
This sounds like it might be something like a hand grenade, which made History’s list of “8 Unusual Civil War Weapons”. Buffalo’s William F. Ketchum patented a dart-like design, which you can see at the Smithsonian
explosion at Second Market (Marshall and 6th)
