Ammo Confederate Bullet Spill

Tom Hughes

Sergeant Major
Joined
May 27, 2019
Location
Mississippi
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"How many bullets have you ever found in one hole?" I was asked by a relic hunter years ago.
"Just one", was my reply.
That remained true until 2015, when @alan polk called me over to a hole he'd been digging at a battlefield site where we had shared permission to search for civil war artifacts.
The hole we dug was deep and wide, as we kept pulling bullets from the dirt. I remember we dug almost waist deep as our metal detectors kept giving off readings of more small metal targets. In that hole, we found numerous dropped .69 calibre musket balls as well as buckshot balls. Alan found more than me, but I did manage to recover these 12 balls. For display purposes, I glued the buckshot balls to the main .69 calibre ball as a reconstruction of what the original cartridge would have looked like.
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This is an image of what the complete cartridge would've looked like in its paper combustible paper cartridge.
It more than likely was ammunition for the 1842 model conversion musket.

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Buck-n-Ball black powder cartridges consisted of a .69 calibre lead ball topped with 3 small buckshot balls to enhance their killing capacity. The paper has obviously deteriorated over time, leaving only the lead balls.

Why would Confederate troops dump their valuable ammunition?
We think that maybe this was an area where Confederate troops surrendered and dumped their ammo enmasse.
We'll never know for sure.
What is obvious is that they emptied their cartridges boxes full of complete ammo, leaving a time capsule of smoothbore ammunition for us to discover 150+ years in the future.
 
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I have found 40 3 ringers in one hole on 2 different occasion. You have to remember that if they got wet they were useless. So they would just dump them out.
 
View attachment 341218
"How many bullets have you ever found in one hole?" I was asked by a relic hunter years ago.
"Just one", was my reply.
That remained true until 2015, when @alan polk called me over to a hole he'd been digging at a battlefield site where we had shared permission to search for civil war artifacts.
The hole we dug was deep and wide, as we kept pulling bullets from the dirt. I remember we dug almost waist deep as our metal detectors kept giving off readings of more small metal targets. In that hole, we found numerous dropped .69 calibre musket balls as well as buckshot balls. Alan found more than me, but I did manage to recover these 12 balls. For display purposes, I glued the buckshot balls to the main .69 calibre ball as a reconstruction of what the original cartridge would have looked like.
View attachment 341219
This is an image of what the complete cartridge would've looked like in its paper combustible paper cartridge.
It more than likely was ammunition for the 1842 model conversion musket.

View attachment 341221

Buck-n-Ball black powder cartridges consisted of a .69 calibre lead ball topped with 3 small buckshot balls to enhance their killing capacity. The paper has obviously deteriorated over time, leaving only the lead balls.

Why would Confederate troops dump their valuable ammunition?
We think that maybe this was an area where Confederate troops surrendered and dumped their ammo enmasse.
We'll never know for sure.
What is obvious is that they emptied their cartridges boxes full of complete ammo, leaving a time capsule of smoothbore ammunition for us to discover 150+ years in the future.
Just curious, why do you think it is Confederate? due to location?
 
I have found 40 3 ringers in one hole on 2 different occasion. You have to remember that if they got wet they were useless. So they would just dump them out.
Or you found the remains of a cartridge box that was fully loaded, keep in mind that many Southern boxes were completely sewn without rivet construction. Various boxes were worn on the waist belt and as such, sling buckles could be other purposed. The telltale would of course be the finding of the finial.

A couple of friends of mine found three such Federal boxes around Gettysburg, but the soil was such that some of the leather survived particularly around the rivets. The rounds in one box were lined up with powder stained residue beneath, the tins of course were long gone. I might have a picture of the find.....
 
View attachment 341218
"How many bullets have you ever found in one hole?" I was asked by a relic hunter years ago.
"Just one", was my reply.
That remained true until 2015, when @alan polk called me over to a hole he'd been digging at a battlefield site where we had shared permission to search for civil war artifacts.
The hole we dug was deep and wide, as we kept pulling bullets from the dirt. I remember we dug almost waist deep as our metal detectors kept giving off readings of more small metal targets. In that hole, we found numerous dropped .69 calibre musket balls as well as buckshot balls. Alan found more than me, but I did manage to recover these 12 balls. For display purposes, I glued the buckshot balls to the main .69 calibre ball as a reconstruction of what the original cartridge would have looked like.
View attachment 341219
This is an image of what the complete cartridge would've looked like in its paper combustible paper cartridge.
It more than likely was ammunition for the 1842 model conversion musket.

View attachment 341221

Buck-n-Ball black powder cartridges consisted of a .69 calibre lead ball topped with 3 small buckshot balls to enhance their killing capacity. The paper has obviously deteriorated over time, leaving only the lead balls.

Why would Confederate troops dump their valuable ammunition?
We think that maybe this was an area where Confederate troops surrendered and dumped their ammo enmasse.
We'll never know for sure.
What is obvious is that they emptied their cartridges boxes full of complete ammo, leaving a time capsule of smoothbore ammunition for us to discover 150+ years in the future.

And the other thing I remember from that hunt was the amount of grimy powder residue smeared into the soil and on many of the bullets recovered.
 
Or you found the remains of a cartridge box that was fully loaded, keep in mind that many Southern boxes were completely sewn without rivet construction. Various boxes were worn on the waist belt and as such, sling buckles could be other purposed. The telltale would of course be the finding of the finial.

A couple of friends of mine found three such Federal boxes around Gettysburg, but the soil was such that some of the leather survived particularly around the rivets. The rounds in one box were lined up with powder stained residue beneath, the tins of course were long gone. I might have a picture of the find.....
I also remember, I think it was a Federal soldier's story of Monocacy, where they were running as fast as they could go, from Early's men, stripping themselves of every accouterment on their person in the high grass around the grist mill.
 
Or you found the remains of a cartridge box that was fully loaded, keep in mind that many Southern boxes were completely sewn without rivet construction. Various boxes were worn on the waist belt and as such, sling buckles could be other purposed. The telltale would of course be the finding of the finial.

A couple of friends of mine found three such Federal boxes around Gettysburg, but the soil was such that some of the leather survived particularly around the rivets. The rounds in one box were lined up with powder stained residue beneath, the tins of course were long gone. I might have a picture of the find.....
Good point!
 
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