Still around, just busy

I have a wonderment 'bout sumthin.

A local fellow who is big into Civil War relics was injured pretty badly earlier this week when a CW era shell he was trying to defuse exploded.

I have met the guy, but I don't really know him that well. From what I can gather part of his livelihood was defusing shells for relic hunters. Some of the CW buffs around here are raising mortal hell about the Sheriff's department seizing his property and then turning it over to the army to be blown up.

The Army says that technically the ordnance is still theirs... I'm not even getting into the middle of this. I can see both sides, but truth to tell, I'm leaning towards the relic hunters side.

But anyway, that leads me to my question; What if the aforementioned ordnance was Confederate? Does the Army still have a claim on it then?