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| Ho preso in prestito da questo bel sito questo articolo, corredato da foto interessanti, per iniziare un discorso sulle palle Miniè.
Eight rare, dropped French, triangular-based minie balls.
Author's collection
In response to our recent story about the Gettysburg Witness Tree bullets, a number of you in the Washington metro/Northern Virginia area wondered how you might--if you spotted something peculiar in your garden--identify real civil war bullets from more modern projectiles. In response, we offer this small tutorial on the deadly lead Yankees and Confederates fired at each other.
Three-ring Union and two-ring Gardner (Confederate) minie balls.
Author's collection
First, the vast majority of civil war bullets were cast from molten lead. Second, 150 year old bullets will come out of the ground with a corrosive lead oxide coating that gives an authentic civil war projectile its typical white patina. So called “dropped bullets” are unfired, typically undamaged examples as in the images at left. High-powered impact will surely distort and disfigure. Even non-military activity—farmers’ plows, horse and mule shoes, etc.,--damages soft lead bullets.
Early in the war, both sides accessed what was already in their arsenals, in many cases .69 caliber round balls fired from smoothbore muskets. Smaller versions--.58, .54, etc.,--exist, but this larger caliber carried the day, just as it had during the American Revolution. But accurate only to about 100 yards, the round balls were soon replaced by the notorious minie ball, a conical bullet designed by Captain Claude-Etienne Minie of France. This bullet possessed a hollow base, usually conical in shape that permitted the hot gases of exploding black powder to expand the bullet’s base, forcing the soft lead outsides of the bullet into the rifled rings of the musket’s bore as it sped from the gun, thus spinning the bullet from the muzzle with a deadly accuracy exceeding 400 yards!
Field finds over the last century and a half have documented hundreds of different examples from the Civil War, from the common three-ringed minie ball--typically bringing a few dollars each at battlefield souvenir shops--to the highly collectible French or triangular-based minie that was used by only a few Union regiments. Two-ring bullets with an inserted, conical, hollow base are called Gardner bullets and are exclusively Confederate.
Should you get the civil war relic fever and go out and purchase a metal detector, know first and foremost that it is against the law to use or even possess a detector on any National Park property. That said, first secure a property owner’s permission, fill in all holes, and share your “finds” with the owner afterwards. The Golden Rule definitely applies here.
We close with a slide show of typical finds from the Washington metro area…including a bullet hammered into a poker chip and eight stellar examples of those rare French minies!
Three civil war pistol bullets compared to a standard Union minie ball. (Author's collection)
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