Question I've Always Pondered

[banderse]

Hey all, like many of you, I thoroughly enjoy collecting original memorabilia from the CW. I have a bunch of bullets some from the western theater and many of them are dropped but I also have a handful of fired ones especially from Gettysburg (paid a premium for those with documentation). I know this sounds morbid, but maybe some of you have wondered the same: what do you think the odds are that some of these fired bullets either killed or injured a soldier? I just picture many instances of bodies gone except the skeletons, but the bullets are still found that used to be lodged in them or nearby.

 

[Package4]

Hey all, like many of you, I thoroughly enjoy collecting original memorabilia from the CW. I have a bunch of bullets some from the western theater and many of them are dropped but I also have a handful of fired ones especially from Gettysburg (paid a premium for those with documentation). I know this sounds morbid, but maybe some of you have wondered the same: what do you think the odds are that some of these fired bullets either killed or injured a soldier? I just picture many instances of bodies gone except the skeletons, but the bullets are still found that used to be lodged in them or nearby.

As a rule of thumb, one had to fire "the weight of a man in lead to acquire one hit", that said if a bullet hit a soldier in the torso or appendages there should be the impression of the cloth pushed into the wound. Ground action years later may have worn away the imprint, but I have seen bullets found near hospital sites, with the uniform weave still, on their mushroomed face.

These bullets will be exceptionally rare as actual wounds in casualty rates were fairly small compared to the number of estimated rounds fired. Casualty rates include captured and missing, not just wounded and KIA.

 

[major bill]

I never knew uniform weave could in imprinted on a bullet. I guess I lean new things every day.

 

[Rusk County Avengers]

As a rule of thumb, one had to fire "the weight of a man in lead to acquire one hit", that said if a bullet hit a soldier in the torso or appendages there should be the impression of the cloth pushed into the wound. Ground action years later may have worn away the imprint, but I have seen bullets found near hospital sites, with the uniform weave still, on their mushroomed face.

These bullets will be exceptionally rare as actual wounds in casualty rates were fairly small compared to the number of estimated rounds fired. Casualty rates include captured and missing, not just wounded and KIA.

Now I got to check out a bunch of bullets I have...

 

[UCVRelics]

We had a thread on these awhile back and I believe someone posted a photo of bullets with the cloth weave.

 

[DixieRifles]

I believe someone posted a photo of bullets with the cloth weave.

I want to see.

Everyone refers to a bullet with a "pristine" appearance as a dropped bullet. I can't imagine that many bullets being dropped. Instead, I believe that many were fired but overshot their target and managed to fall to the ground without significant damage. Maybe they passed through foliage. Any minor damage would be erased after 100+ years in the soil.
Also, I know that modern copper jacketed bullets can hit a target yet come out with little witness marks. Example: the "miracle bullet" in the President J F Kennedy assassination.
On the other hand, Civil War bullets are softer and should be dented in some manner if it hit anything in its path.

 

[relichound]

Once long ago I found, at the Wilderness, a really nice Enfield bullet. Looked perfect. I would call it dropped.
I placed it in my jacket pocket, and out of habit I swept the area again with my detector. Another
signal, and I kept on digging more of the same type of bullet out of that hole, until I had eleven of them.
The most I ever found in one small area. They were all near perfect condition. I still have one of them.
Then maybe 6 feet away came the Cartridge box plate, also near perfect. It was in a part of the field fought over.

I thought to myself...
Did a Southern soldier pick up a Yank cartridge box here, and rip the plate off the box, and then throw away
his own cruddy box with his Enfield bullets in it, and use the Yank box with the bullets that were in it?
.58 Springfield and .577 Enfield bullets are interchangeable are they not? I still wonder if that is what happened.
Did he perhaps take it from a body? Those bullets, of course, were dropped.

 

[Package4]

I want to see.

Everyone refers to a bullet with a "pristine" appearance as a dropped bullet. I can't imagine that many bullets being dropped. Instead, I believe that many were fired but overshot their target and managed to fall to the ground without significant damage. Maybe they passed through foliage. Any minor damage would be erased after 100+ years in the soil.
Also, I know that modern copper jacketed bullets can hit a target yet come out with little witness marks. Example: the "miracle bullet" in the President J F Kennedy assassination.
On the other hand, Civil War bullets are softer and should be dented in some manner if it hit anything in its path.

You would be surprised at how many were dropped, if you have ever hunted (with a detector) you can tell the difference from a fired and dropped bullet. Even reenacting there are many "rounds" dropped and no one is slinging lead at you...….

 

[Phil McBride]

You would be surprised at how many were dropped, if you have ever hunted (with a detector) you can tell the difference from a fired and dropped bullet. Even reenacting there are many "rounds" dropped and no one is slinging lead at you...….

Let's clarify that a dropped 'round' in reenacting contains no lead bullet, only paper and black powder.

 

[UCVRelics]

I want to see.

Everyone refers to a bullet with a "pristine" appearance as a dropped bullet. I can't imagine that many bullets being dropped. Instead, I believe that many were fired but overshot their target and managed to fall to the ground without significant damage. Maybe they passed through foliage. Any minor damage would be erased after 100+ years in the soil.
Also, I know that modern copper jacketed bullets can hit a target yet come out with little witness marks. Example: the "miracle bullet" in the President J F Kennedy assassination.
On the other hand, Civil War bullets are softer and should be dented in some manner if it hit anything in its path.

I will go back and search the treads. You can always tell a fired from a drop as the fired will always have rifling marks on them and of course the drops don't. The yankee camps I have dug have produced MANY dropped bullets as there was not a battle no where around.

 

[Package4]

I will go back and search the treads. You can always tell a fired from a drop as the fired will always have rifling marks on them and of course the drops don't. The yankee camps I have dug have produced MANY dropped bullets as there was not a battle no where around.

Not only that, but the basic premise of the Burton Ball was to have a thin skirt with grooves cut into it to act as almost an one way accordion effect that would compress and flare the skirt, so that the ball would engage the rifling. Many fired three ringers will show not only the rifling, but the thinner compressed grooves. Enfield bullets show the rifling a little better due to their smooth nature and lack of a vertical seam.

 

[Package4]

Visuals, I believe, are the best, in explaining these things. Here are a three ringer both dropped and fired, as well as a hard impact Enfield and a drop. You can see the rifling on both fired bullets and on the three ringer you can also see the compressed rings, that are now little more than a pencil line. The compression and friction both cause this effect when fired from a rifled barrel.

You can easily see the rifling on the Enfield and can see where the skirt has flared a bit on both.

These were just examples I had on my desk and easy to demonstrate the differences. Other rounds will be different, such as breech loaded carbine bullets as they were better fitted to the barrel and will usually demonstrate better rifling groove markings on fired rounds.

 

[Adam1stVa]

I want to see.

Everyone refers to a bullet with a "pristine" appearance as a dropped bullet. I can't imagine that many bullets being dropped. Instead, I believe that many were fired but overshot their target and managed to fall to the ground without significant damage. Maybe they passed through foliage. Any minor damage would be erased after 100+ years in the soil.
Also, I know that modern copper jacketed bullets can hit a target yet come out with little witness marks. Example: the "miracle bullet" in the President J F Kennedy assassination.
On the other hand, Civil War bullets are softer and should be dented in some manner if it hit anything in its path.

If you can't understand all the dropped bullets, think about loading the way they had to in the middle of a firefight.