A Real Civil War Minie Ball:

Shooting mate 'Ja' and his lady recently returned from an American road trip exploring ROUTE 66 - knowing my interest he gave me a genuine chunk of hardcore from the original road - and a civil war mini-ball bullet picked-up from a nearby battle field.

Valued Souvenirs of Route 66.

The US Civil war Minie Ball was something of a combined UK-USA-France design effort starting in UK with Captain John Norton & William Greener .. France with  French Army Captains Montgomery and Henri-Gustave Delvigne & Tamisier (who designed the grease grooves) - with Claude-Etienne Minie who invented the Minie Rifle ... and American James Burton - who "added lightness" in 1855 with a deep conical hollow base that helped the 'skirt' to expand and seal the gasses.

Burton's Harper's Ferry .58" caliber ammunition was used in paper cartridges rammed home by 'ram-rod' and the slugs weighed as much as two ounces ... that's a serious lump of lead that delivered terrible injuries when fired from either Springfield or the Enfield made Minie rifle at around 1,100 feet per second ...

Springfield Model 1855 rifle.

The shocking casualty rates of the civil war - 200,000 killed and more than 400,000 wounded are mainly down to the use by both sides - of rifled muskets firing this Minie Ball bullet design.

Marty K.