Lead Balls

A little back history of the Civil War that you don't often hear about, although you see  its effect in many photographs:

 

Pictured here are several Minié balls. The Minié ball was invented in France in 1848 and turned out to be one of those inventions that has a much larger effect on humanity than you might think.

 

The Minié ball caused untold suffering in the Civil War for two reasons:

 

1. It was a rifling shell that far exceeded the accuracy and range of the loose-fitting smooth-bore muskets used in all previous US wars. For this reason it made the close-in firing line form of attack used in the Revolutionary War completely obsolete, and especially dangerous. Unfortunately it took many tens of thousands of deaths for military tactics to adapt to this new longer range.

 

2. It was a very large caliber bullet traveling relatively slowly (950 feet /second) - a bad combination. It produced horrible wounds when it struck and made a sickening crack, shattering bone and bringing bacteria-laden clothing and leather inside the body. This is why the amputation rate was so high in the Civil War...typical wounds were severe and quickly went septic. 75% of all surgical operations performed in the Civil War were amputations, which themselves carried a 25% mortality rate. In Mississippi, in 1866, one-fifth of the state’s revenue was spent on artificial limbs.

 

Widespread deployment of the Minié ball is generally blamed for dramatically increasing the pain and suffering in the Civil War. But there’s no going back in warfare.

 

There is an interesting story about the last civil war combat death. He was a Union soldier wounded in one of the last Civil War battles. He survived the war, but later died of complications from an infection caused by the Confederate Minié ball still lodged in his body. I forget the exact year he died but it was somewhere around  1911!