I can play "hypothetical" - Our subject for this story, "Billy", was assigned to his turn at guard duty at a Pickett Post. Because the soldiers didn't really care whether they fired a Minie Ball, or a Williams Cleaner, the next cartridge out of "Billy's" cartridge box just happened to be a Williams Cleaner. As our dutiful guard loaded his musket he looked at the bullet and thought "Oh well, it's just another bullet to me!" After a peaceful night on pickett duty, with nothing other than a few cat-calls from the other side, "Hey, are you Boys still over there?"' Billy exchanged pleasantries with his replacement and told him the Rebel with the high-pitched squeaky voice was still teasing them. Upon return to camp the gate sentry reminded Billy, whose eyelids were now thick with thoughts of impending sleep, that he had to unload his musket before entering camp. There were two choices, either draw the ball and dump the powder out, or fire it into a huge pile of sawdust left by the Engineers when the built the fortified front of the camp. It didn't take Billy long to decide that he'd fire into the sawdust and clean his musket later, rather than take the time to draw the ball. The pile of sawdust was twice head high, so Billy shouldered his musket and fired straight into the pile, "BANG!", nodded to the guard, and went straight to his tent where sweet dreams of his girl friend back home awaited his much needed slumber. The Williams Cleaner, being fired straight into the soft pile of sawdust, merely flattened the nose. Said bullet lay in the sawdust pile long after the Armies moved on until it decayed into the ground, where it was discovered some 150 years later. When, upon being added to a collection of bullets, it became the subject of much discussion on how it came to be so slightly deformed!
J.