Ammo Bite the bullet

[Ethan S.]

Several comments on this thread about how hard a bullet is. Actually, a lead bullet isn't that hard. It's a soft metal. And it's soft for a reason.
The REAL danger to humans biting lead might be the danger of getting lead poison. Of course, they didn't know about such things during the ACW.
Lead was a superior art medium for carving, whittling and mashing into poker chips, I.D. disks, etc.
I'm sure there were stone soldiers that chewed on them as well...for whatever reason. Heck, in my generation, I knew people that would chew tree sap like you would a piece of gum. Not that I tried but it was fairly common.
Just my thoughts.

I've tried carving lead before (It was terrible, I suck), and it was not as easy to carve as I thought. I tried this so called "pain bullet" before, (DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME KIDS!!!) by taking a cast lead round, okay, blob ball, and biting it. I barely made a dent, let alone chew marks.Trust me, you'd break your teeth before you'd make marks like that.

 

[Tom Hughes]

Several comments on this thread about how hard a bullet is. Actually, a lead bullet isn't that hard. It's a soft metal. And it's soft for a reason.
The REAL danger to humans biting lead might be the danger of getting lead poison. Of course, they didn't know about such things during the ACW.
Lead was a superior art medium for carving, whittling and mashing into poker chips, I.D. disks, etc.
I'm sure there were stone soldiers that chewed on them as well...for whatever reason. Heck, in my generation, I knew people that would chew tree sap like you would a piece of gum. Not that I tried but it was fairly common.
Just my thoughts.

I've tried carving lead before (It was terrible, I suck), and it was not as easy to carve as I thought. I tried this so called "pain bullet" before, (DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME KIDS!!!) by taking a cast lead round, okay, blob ball, and biting it. I barely made a dent, let alone chew marks.Trust me, you'd break your teeth before you'd make marks like that.

Personally, I don't think soldiers spent time chewing lead. They'd rather be chewing Southern tobacco! haha
But it is interesting that the surgical application of "biting the bullet" has made it through the pages of history and it's still believed to this day.

 

[FiremarshalBill]

This whole "hospital bullet" thing makes a great story, but in all likelyhood, it simply didn't happen. Years ago my buddys and I were on one of our many weekend digs from Memphis to Corinth, MS and we decided to look for the Davis Bridge battlefield near Pocahontas, TN along our route. We stopped at an old farmhouse to ask directions and the owner said that some of the battle had actually taken place on and around his farm. We were all standing and talking outside his hog pen next to his barn and I watched his hogs rooting around for acorns under a big oak tree. Several times I watched as a hog would root up an acorn, chew it a bit, and then spit it out and move on rooting for another. After watching several hogs pick up and spit out the same acorn, I asked the farmer if I could climb the fence and pick it up. Turns out the "acorn" was a chewed up .58 caliber (Confederate?) Minie'. Considering the many thousands of rounds fired or dropped, on hundreds of farms situated on ACW battlefields, and the hundreds of thousands of hogs raised on those farms between 1861 and today, I'm surprised there aren't more "hospital bullets" out there.