The DEADLY DESIGN of Civil War Bullets | American Artifact Episode 24
Vložit
- čas přidán 1. 06. 2024
- The Civil War was the bloodiest conflict that the U.S. has ever been involved in. That is due largely in part to the advances in military technology clashing with the styles of combat that were used in the mid-1800s. One of the most lethal new pieces of technology was the Minie ball. In this episode of American Artifact, we're joining Erik Dorr of The Gettysburg Museum of History to dive deep into the many different varieties of projectiles that were used in the Civil War.
This episode was produced in partnership with The Gettysburg Museum of History. See how you can support history education & artifact preservation by visiting their website & store at www.gettysburgmuseumofhistory...
Get your History Underground MERCH at www.thehistoryundergroundstore.com
Set yourself up with a 10% DISCOUNT on all Origin gear and nutritional products by entering the code "history10" at www.originmaine.com!
Other episodes that you might enjoy:
- The Bullet That Killed Lincoln!!! | History Traveler Episode 15: • The Bullet That Killed...
The Verdun of the EASTERN FRONT at Przemysl Fortress in WWI | History Traveler Episode 207: • The Verdun of the EAST...
- The 12th SS Massacre of the Canadians in Normandy | History Traveler Episode 195: • The 12th SS Massacre o...
- Holdy Battery: The Sister Gun Battery of Brecourt Manor | History Traveler Episode 187: • Holdy Battery: The Sis...
- German Bunkers of UTAH BEACH (D-Day!!!) | History Traveler Episode 190: • German Bunkers of UTAH...
- The Private Collection of Major Dick Winters (EP 151): • The Private Collection...
Support the effort to expand history education on PATREON: / historyunderground
Facebook: / thehistoryunderground
Instagram: @the_history_underground
If you've watched a few episodes and feel like I've earned it, be sure to subscribe so that you don't miss any new content when it comes out.
Also be sure to check out The Gettysburg Museum of History and their store at www.gettysburgmuseumofhistory.com. Thanks!
The civil war medical history is such an important part of understanding why this is the bloodiest war the USA ever fought
Done.
Not when it's wrong, mate.
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111
Any one with even a basic grasp of history knows there was never an "American Civil War". That's typical northern revisionism.
The War for Southern Independence was not a Civil War. A civil war is what you see in africa with multiple groups vying for power for control of a country. The south never tried to take over or rule the country. They just wanted to keep what they ALREADY had and were legally entitled to. They LEGALLY seceded after all and they didn't try to take over Washington d.c. and the nation. In fact it was the other way around. 90% of the War did occur in the south after all because THEY were the ones invaded. A civil war is also a war between the citizens of ONE country. The War for Southern independence however was a war between two legal and SEPARATE and 2 DIFFERENT countries, with 2 DIFFERENT presidents, 2 different flags, 2 different armies, 2 different national anthems, 2 different constitutions, etc.
The word "civil war" is an attempt to obfuscate the souths FULLY LEGAL and righteous cause of self determination and independence as highlighted in the declaration of independence and other writings of the proud southerner Thomas Jefferson, who also would have been a Confederate supporter himself.
So stop calling it "the civil war." That's typical northern historical revisionist history.
The most devastating thing on the battlefield wasn't the bullets used but the outdated tactics used. The Minie ball made Napoleaonic era formations obselete but the Generals didn't understand that. Just line the men up like in the old days and let them get mown down from 300 yards. Simply horrific.
Yes!! Exactly!! I tried to say something similar, but you added so much more detail and such!
Oh, I don’t know about that. How about surgery without anesthetic or and sanitizing of instruments and dressings whatsoever?
More soldiers died of infection than any other causes.
@@Frankie5Angels150 You're wrong about the anesthesia. Civil War doctors had barrels of chloroform and ether at their disposal - it wasn't expensive or rare. Surgeries were conducted under the lowest level of anesthesia so they didn't stop a weak patient's breathing and kill the guy - there were no respirator machines back then for deep anesthesia. A lot of guys reported being dimly aware of their surgery but unable to feel any pain or sensations. Others thrashed and moaned but later reported no memory of the surgery. This was considered a vast improvement over the alternative either way. Morphine and opium was available by the bushel and prescribed liberally for post-surgical pain (and everything else), but was not used for surgery.
The one thing they needed that they didn't have was antibiotics... since nobody yet agreed that bacteria even existed.
A buddy of mine did re-enacting for years. I finally went to one in Cedar Creek (VA). According to him, it was the only re-enactment permitted on the actual battlefield. Can't remember exactly why, other than the Park Service owns a lot of these battlefields--maybe the land where they fought Cedar Creek was privately owned. In any case, the opposing ranks of guys where only about 60 yards apart in the open iirc. I just thought at the time how friggin' CRAZY it was that they would still be doing that, and how massive the casualties would have been. Balls of steel to do that, knowing what was coming.
@@Frankie5Angels150 Infections from wounds sustained on the battlefield. Change formations and include cover as part of tactics and the number of soldiers being wounded and requiring medical aid, and hence infections, is reduced. The medical treatment is an effect, not a cause.
Back in 1981, a friend of mine with his wife & kids RENTED a very old house in Guntersville Alabama, to live in. The house was an official historic landmark. The reason, is about 6.5 feet above the floor, there was an original cannon ball still lodged in the kitchen wall, with a wooden frame with a hinged door built around it. You reached up to open the little wooden door, to see the hole in the wall, along with written information inside the frame, stating the cannon ball that was lodged in a wall stud, was fired during the civil war.
There's a tree, I believe, on Mobile Bay, that had a 6" cannon ba lodged in it.
@@828enigma6 I bet there is indeed. Probably a bunch of old trees & any structures still standing have cannon balls lodged in em.
thats freakin awesome
Cool!
@@howabouthetruth2157 They say that at the battle of the Wilderness, in Virginia the trees still bear numerous bullets still today.
I am 7 minutes into this and already learned 3 things I didn’t know…JD, your videos NEVER disappoint!
Awesome! I learned a lot on this one too.
Lisa is ignorant
Haha..learning
If you want some detailed info on this stuff check paper cartridges. Great channel.
Love this video!
I was walking on a dirt path on East Cemetery Hill in Gettysburg one morning after a night of hard rain and found a Confederate Gardner-pattern (two-ring) bullet that had impacted a rock during flight and embedded in the ground. It has the same striations on one side as Eric’s bullet.
It was an amazing feeling to think the last person to have touched it was a Confederate soldier 141 years before the rain washed it to the surface and I picked it up. I always wonder if that man survived the battle & the war. I hope he did.
Wow!
It may very well have been a Union soldier who was the last person to touch it if it passed through him before striking the rock. Who knows? Lucky find and great story.
Would’ve given me chills.
I found a civil war era bullet when I was a kid. I was walking through a freshly plowed field looking for arrow heads. My grandpa told me what it was and that it was probably from a hunter who was a veteran of the war that used his battle rifle, because there were no known battle fields in the area (southern Indiana). I don’t have a clue what I did with it, as it was well over 30 years ago.
Good story: About a month ago my best friend and I were hunting Jack Rabbits in Northern Utah along the Promontory Rail Line and he looked down and found a Henry 44 Rimfire case. Cool to think that about 120 + years ago there was somebody in the same spot as him shooting at, probably a rabbit, just like us.
Wow!
I doubt a .44 cal would be used to hunt rabbits. Buffalo, perhaps. Or people…
@@Frankie5Angels150 120 years ago you may only be able to afford one firearm. It had to take any animal from deer to rabbit's to get food on the table.
I've read stories of old timers using a 30 WCF (30-30) on everything from grouse to moose to feed their families.
Did that cartridge case have 2 firing pin dents and a big "H" on it?
And yes, a .44 rimfire Henry or maybe Winchester 1866 .44 rimfire would have been just fine for taking rabbits if that's all you had. Also, a lot of those Civil War and even post civil war guns stayed in service for decades after they were built. And there are people today that use guns much bigger than is typical for taking small game sometimes. Especially handguns.
My mom was a 6th grade teacher she died in 2017 at 92 but each summer we as a family took two weeks of vacation one to the beach in south Carolina the other to historic sites in the south. She tough this to her students. I'm 67 now but I loved her adventures
2:34 And now you know why it was in paint. Lead miners used to have a lot of lead oxide laying around, turned it into very cheap white paint, also helps other paints dry faster.
I own a reproduction 1861 Springfield. I've taken it target shooting a few times and the damage that a .58 caliber Minie bullet does is unfathomable.
50 is no slouch either.
Just curious as to what you are using as a target where you can determine the damage that is being done by the bullet. Most targets I am familiar with only register a hole and there is no way to determine damage. This may sound like a smart a$$ question but it is not intended to be at all. Thanks!
@@vanhattfield8292 probably shooting water jugs or large coke bottles... Ballistic gel etc etc
@@mickeydee3595 or ballistic torsos
@@vanhattfield8292 I would not do it today. Because it is so expensive. But years ago I used a 5lb ham as a target for a .50cal mine ball. 25yds it destroyed the ham.
My 2 Greats Grandpa lost half a leg due to a Minnie ball, just after Gettysburg. He recovered in a US Army Hospital, located in Central Park, NYC, NY
Was one of them, by chance, commissioned as a lieutenant? I think the name was dan.
@@bman2617 No. Amos Hall was my grandpa’s name and three of his brothers served with him in the New York 9th Volunteer Cavalry. One of these brothers ran into a small troop of Confederates near Gettysburg and were the first to alert thee Union Army as to their presence. My Gramps actually survived Gettysburg and was shot after the battle on patrol south of there. One of the brothers did become an officer before the end of the war.
Great show. I have an 1859 Sharps saddle carbine converted by RS Lawrence to 45/70 Government 1863. This weapon was a US issue before and after the conversion. I had 20 rounds made by a gunsmith years back. I have shot it 10 times, and its accuracy was astonishing, and it devastates red bricks. I do understand these wounds.
I have had the weapon evaluated several times, but it can't be verified if used in the civil war.
I love hiking at Kennesaw Battlefield here in Ga. It's a very long hike through forests that open up into various battlefields. You can feel the energy from this place as thousands upon thousands were killed on both sides.
If you hike up Kennesaw Mountain there are still cannons sitting in their same positions. There is a huge area of large rocks and boulders and all along is trenches and you can see right where they were laying. They would roll dozens of these boulders and rocks down onto the Union soldiers trying to make their way up.
You can see damage and the warped tops of the old oak trees that were blown to pieces. There's graves along the way where people were buried where they fell. The battle of Cheatam Hill was brutal as they were fighting each other within 20ft. They even had a truce one day where they all stopped shooting each other, gathered their dead or dying off the field and then went right back to killing each other. The Union soldiers became so desperate to dislodge the Confederates from the top of Cheatam Hill, they dug a tunnel through the hill to place large amounts of black powder in to blow them up.Eventually, the Union army backed off and basically circled around the mountain and went straight into Atlanta. They burned everything to the ground.
Been there before, nice place
I remember as a kid visiting Gettysburg. No matter where you went people were selling Civil War bullets, dirt cheap. It wasn't uncommon to see baskets in shops filled with them and I distinctly remember seeing several that had collided in mid air thinking, "oh that's neat" ........then NOT getting any. Insert sad face here....
Probably haunted anyways
This is the some of the best CZcams content I've ever seen. I'm Canadian and still find this absolutely fascinating. These museums are far away from where I live and I probably won't get a chance to visit many of them. Keep up the good work bud. I'll be watching.
Thanks 🙏🏼
The mini ball ammo used during the American Civil War absolutely boggles my mind. They were obviously very different and much heavier than the standard 62 grain (M855) 5.56x45mm green tip NATO cartridges, that we use today.
My Captain I worked for in the Texas State Prison. He did Civil War Reenactment. I once told him I would rather be hit with a Russian 7.62x39 or U.S. 5.56 over a soft .58cal mini all. I've seen the results of being hit by CW rounds on the web. I know being hit by a modern round is bad. But OMG on a 58.
The two hundred year old bullets were different? “Obviously” didn’t need to tell us that
Wow! Different? Amazing!
One day I was at Gettysburg and we were near Little Round top. There was a British couple there and we were talking. Suddenly we heard a series of thumping sounds coming towards us, horse hooves galloping, it got louder and louder and the sound passed right past us. We saw a shimmer go by. The British guy looked at me with wide eyes and said “PLEASE TELL ME YOU BLOODY HEARD AND SAW THAT!” The wives were already high steeping it back the way we came ……
Was it a ghost?
@@nelsonx5326 I’m not sure. In a sense I think so. If you can imagine horses galloping towards you and then passing right in from of you that’s what it sounded like. There was a shimmer when the sound was the loudest. Right in front of us. It was a shimmer like looking down a hot road in the summer with the heat rising up. The British guys wife said “It was a ghost” I was to dumbfounded to say anything…..it was astonishing
@@nelsonx5326 ghost or an ice cream truck!
@@eshelly4205 reinforcements for the 20th Maine?
@@audieconrad8995 yes I was in the area of the Maine. How did you know?
Just as a relatable comparison, a .69 caliber Minie is about the same diameter as a 16 gauge shotgun bore, but weighs 1.5 to 1.7 ounces, which is much heavier than 12 gauge slugs. Despite leaving the muzzle at only 900 feet per second, their inertia and diameter made them devastating on fleshy targets.
And the possibility of getting two or three of the enemy with a single projectile.
You two guys are a great team. I'm looking forward to going back to Gettysburg and watching these videos while I'm back at the battlefield. Thanks for posting this.
Thanks so much! Love Gettysburg.
This was very interesting to see the different style of bullets used during the civil war.thank you.
Going to Gettysburg was one of the things that I will never forget. Being on. Little round top and looking down on the revel position. And hear gunshots, from the north and south, and no one was there was haunting, and made you think about lose of life at that bloody battle.
Went as a kid and it was amazing. Would love to go back now that I’m grown and can appreciate the history a bit more.
MY Great Grandfather and Great Uncle were CSA Soldier's. I would have worn the Grey with them. I am a Vietnam Vet; I thank GOD I Missed the Civil War....
Years ago I had a friend claim he had found a bullet stuck in a big rock, which unfortunately I don’t remember the battle field now; Strange things happen in war. As for all those types of bullets used, had I been in that war, I think dying from gunshot would be the lesser worry, instead being horribly wounded. And no matter how many times I see the skull of the soldier from the 54th, it was one of the more devastating things one can see from that war; poor guy probably was dead on his feet instantly. Props to Eric for his knowledge 👍
Definitely learned a lot while filming this episode. Hope that others get something out of it as well!
Awesome collection really, specially those explosive rounds. But the holy grail of bullets is missing to complete the collection. The Whitworth's first sniper rifle's hexagonal bullet.
👍🏻
Check out the Forgotten Weapons channel; Ian (Gun Jesus) reviewed a nice example of a Whitworth sniper rifle from the Civil War.
That was actually very interesting, I never knew that they developed exploding bullets back then amazing.
The exploding bullet was a new one on me too.
The cleaning bullet was a brilliant idea. Anyone who has used a black powder rifle knows how quickly the barrel gets full of soot. The powder they used back then was even worse. Imagine the frustration if you had to stop to clean your rifle in the middle of the battle. Many people are also surprised by the caliber of the rounds used back then. They think the 50cal rifle is a modern size. There is a huge difference between a black powder 50cal and a modern 50cal. Still, the 59 and 69cal rounds used then were massive hunks of lead to be hit with.
An infantryman witnessed on July 1, 1863 another infantryman standing on the field convulsing and shaking as he was hit in the front, back and right side by Minnie Balls and once he fell counted 23 Minnie Ball holes in his body and wasn't sure if he was hit by Confederate Minnie Balls or if his cartridge box carrying exploding bullets was hit igniting them off into the man.
Cannon shells yes but small arms bullets no. Quite interesting. The Germans and Russians in WW2 had exploding rifle bullets, in 8x57 Mauser and 7.62x54 Russian. They're very rare today as not many were made. Mostly used by snipers to maximize wounds. I've seen one test session and they are nasty.
I'm a man, I cry maybe once every 6 years (average).....has anyone else cried over these young boys who suffered so horribly (and families)?
As important as the bullets, the fact that most long guns were rifled made a huge difference.
Not true. Roughly half of all of the guns used in the Civil war were smoothbore-John in Texas
@@TheGearhead222 but half were. Much more that either the revolutionary war or war of 1812. And those that were rifled were far easier to load and fire due to minie' balls, thus increasing rate of fire.
@@armorer94 that isn't true. The paper catridges used for military smoothbore were every bit as fast to reload. Accuracy at longer range was the benefit.
The cleaner bullet details are a myth.
They where truly intended to replace the mini ball. The Plat at the bottom forced the base to expand when rammed in, meaning their was no gas blowby as the round expanded during firing. Resulting in slightly higher velocity and accuracy, the fact it caused less blackpowder fouling was an unintended byproduct.
Soldiers hated them because they where basically impossible to extract after picket(forward guard)duty.
can you please explain that further? why were they hard to extract? from what?
@@binalith4898 It's a muzzleloader. To unload the gun, you can either fire it, or pull the bullet out the entire length of the barrel. Firing the gun would necessitate cleaning because black powder residue is corrosive.
They should have just swapped their loaded rifle for the unloaded rifle of whomever came to relieve them.
Lucky enough to live only be 3 hours from Gettyburg, been there more weekends than I care to count over the past decade. If you're able to make a visit to Gettysburg you won't regret it, great town to visit with tons of history, monuments etc. The museum featured in the video is a great place to go, we always learn something new there. There are also many small shops/museums scattered all over town. There is one that has a section of a tree that is absolutly peppered with lead from both sides. Crazy to think that much was lead just flying all around the soldiers. A stroll through the National Cemetary there is a real eye opener when you see the small markers with just body counts. Was a tragic and brutal battle.
The first time we went we took a guided tour bus, I can't really recommend them. Going to the little museums and the one in this video is far more educational. People there are friendly and real civil war buffs, so they are great to chat with. Made many friends down that way over the years, look forward to heading back soon.
I'm an australian, this is so awesome to see this kind of video, thks alot, so much to learn here, i 've always been intrieged about the gettysburg fight and others like it, I'm 55 now always something new around the corner..
👍🏻
I'm glad CZcams's algorithm gave me your/this particular video. I have always been interested in the civil war. I went on a field trip in elementary school to Gettysburg, but was too damn young to truly appreciate it. One of these weeks vacation, I'm going to go back and respect and appreciate properly, as a 54 or 55 yr old man.
Thanks for sparking a forgotten interest!
🙏🏼
Absolutely love this channel. I always learn something new. I’ve always loved history. I am unable to do a lot of thing’s because of a back injury. History is my escape. And your channel always helps me escape. Thank you
Thanks for the kind words. So glad that channel is serving you in some small way.
It truly does. The content is always good and you have an awesome way of telling us about it. Your love for history truly shows through and inspires others
When I was a kid my mom and stepdad did an Adirondack theme in our house. We had a bunch of rough sawn and themed the bathroom downstairs to look like a giant outhouse inside. While fitting the walls with wood they noticed on the edges of the wood, some had chunks of lead where someone had shot a tree and the saw cut the bullet in half. Neat stuff.
Thank you so much for persevering our history. What a cool thing to own. I have stuff like this in my man cave but wish I had a whole house to fill. How cool. Thanks again
I drive for a living, I pass through Gettysburg on a regular basis on us 15. I don’t park there at night, seen some questionable things.
how’s this guy not famous. the information he provides is very professional and on a different level. education is a must and he nails it.
Probably has something to do with the face and that ratty ball cap that he won’t throw away. 😄
But thanks for the kind words. Hopefully the channel is sparking an interest in history & giving people something to share with others.
The Surgeons Museum in Edinburgh has medical drawings of the wounds suffered by Waterloo veterans. Brutal wouldn't be in it. Its amazing how by the US Civil War technology had moved on but the tactics were still very much rooted in the times of Waterloo 50 odd years earlier.
Wow! I would love to see that.
I highly recommend the Gettysburg Museum of History. The last time I was in Gettysburg, I visited there. They have so many artifacts that just fascinating, and the owner of museum, shown in the video is an extremely nice and knowledgeable man. It's a must see!
The damage to the body that these Minie bullets would cause was absolutely horrific.
Here's a great video about the effects on minie bullets (and other era diseases): czcams.com/video/uvV7zUVL18k/video.html
Jump to 1.10 for the minie balls.
Here's another great one, with 3d explanations and such:
czcams.com/video/eMvHpWLeT-U/video.html
Oh boy! I buckled up Let’s do this!
Ha!
The .577 caliber Minie ball was fired from the British Enfield Rifled Musket. My Great Great Grandfather, who fought at the battle of Shilo, used a Enfield Rifle, and he was in the Union Army. So the British sold to both sides. Where as a .69 or .75 caliber smooth bore musket might have a range out to say 100 yards. The new Minie Bullet would kill out to 300 yards. So yeah, very deadly. .577 caliber minie balls could easily be loaded into a Springfield .58 caliber rifled musket. But the .575 caliber minie ball used in the Springfield Rifled musket, was an extremely tight fit in the Enfield .577. So much so, that it was rarely done. Especially after a few rounds and fouling would build up in the barrel. And yes, I do shoot black powder firearms, and I've had both the Enfield 1858 Rifled Musket in .577 and the 1862 Springfield Rifled Musket in .58 caliber.
As a longtime shooter of black powder firearms and someone very interested in history, I greatly enjoyed this video. I'm a Westerner who grew up in the geographic center of the fur trade. I have multiple black powder muzzleloading rifles and pistols, cap and ball pistols and a beautiful breech loading Sharpe's .45-70 rifle. I even designed custom molds for my .45-70 and then commissioned a machinist to machine my molds. I say all these things to let you know of my experience and how I recognize the great knowledge and experience of Eric the curator. Eric knows his business. The only things I will add is the black powder bullets traveled much slower than modern smokeless bullets, had less power, and followed a "rainbow" trajectory. The designers of these bullets made up for these shortcomings by using much heavier bullets than we use today. In comparison, today's M-4/M-16 bullets usually weigh 55 to 62 grains, M-14 bullets weigh 147 grains, and WWII-era M-1 bullets weigh 150 grains. The .58 caliber Minie balls weighed an average of 500 grains! Also, modern military projectiles are normally Full Metal Jacket and punch through a person with little expansion. A lead bullet with no metal jacket, quickly expands causing much more damage. Think of a hole of .223 or .308 inch compared to one of .58 inches that rapidly expands to utterly destroy bone and organs! Thank you.
This is hands down my favorite history channel . Keep up the good work.
👊🏻
Awesome!! I have it on my wish list to buy a bullet from the Museum. I always wanted a piece of history from Gettysburg. It’s nice to know I can get one from someone I can trust. This was a great video as always.😁👍
Nice! They have all kinds of options on their website.
I can sell you all the .69 bullets you want.....they're like brand new....haha
I saw this episode and had to chuckle. My son picked out a perfect present for me this year... a small collection of minie balls from a collection from Antietam.
Nice!
I'm from the uk and find this so interesting. Thank you.
This was an excellent presentation on civil war bullets. Thank you very much for this detailed discussion.
Thanks!
I always learn so much from this channel, thanks for all the hard work you put into these videos.
👍🏻
I love Anything to do with the civil war especially Gettysburg. I have been to Gettysburg I don't know how many times my husband and just love it and we, are so fascinated with that in particular battle. I get so lost in that whole Mayhem of the battles fought at Gettysburg. I believe that I am from that time of our blue and gray coats and the great battle of our nation!
Also here in Savannah was the first engagement with a new technology called rifled artillery. It obliterated a impregnable brick Fort Pulaski in 24 hours. Live rounds are still stuck in the walls.
Definitely need to hit that spot.
I have two lead balls that my mother found at wounded knee.
It’s part of my collection of Japanese ceramic grenades, grenade shrapnel from battle of the bulge. Spent 7.7
I found in the dirt near the mouth of Pearl Harbor (actually in the dirt of the Navy house we lived) and a piece of the USS Arizona.
😯
I am a collector of things also but if you believe you have a genuine piece of the USS Arizona you should contact the proper department or organization to return that solemn relic. It would be the right thing to do.
My late father picked up a piece of a Japanese Zero that missed him by a few yards, and I have the Japanese submarine steering wheel that he took off a surrendered sub, right after the war.
@@srf2112
You are absolutely right. I picked it up when I was young, stupid and 10.
Hi JD. Great run through of the different bullets used in the various Civil War battles. When you started with the bone fractures, I was really expecting you to review how the evolving bullet designs caused shifts in the battle-lines distances, due to the increasing accuracy of Minié balls. Maybe you can do/confirm this for another episode with Mr Dorr.
I read that poor the round-ball accuracy had meant that the opposing soldiers meant that they usually lined up to shoot at 100m distances. When the Minié balls 'suddenly' appeared in the ranks, this accuracy distance quadrupled which took a while to be realised by the officers and men - hence combined with the extra bullet weight, shooting Minié balls at 100m was almost like shooting at point-blank range, resulting in increasing flesh carnage, bone devastation and amputations (if the victims survived). Perhaps the shift was realised before the Gettysburg battlelines and that's why you didn't allude to it. Anyway I hope at a later date, you'll look at battle-line distances in relation to accelerating evolutions of the munitions technology (which all wars tend to provoke).
Very much enjoyed the revellations in this episode. All the best.
As always a great video on Civil War ammo. Someday when you have time, if you indeed do, a video on carved minie balls. I've dug many over 40+ years of detecting and they always amaze me. Tks for your great educational videos...
I absolutely love your videos! I hve been to Gettysburg many times and still learn every time I turn around. Thank you
God bless museums and people behind them. Great video and explanations, thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I have fired a .58 caliber civil war rifle. It kicked like a mule. I don't know how they fired those things so many times in a battle. The raid that the confederate leader Morgan took into Ohio went past the farm I grew up on. They stopped on a part of the property and I found some of those mini balls growing up there.
Mine doesn't kick very hard and I use standard Civil War loads, or higher.
Favorite piece is the collided bullets. Neat artifact of battle; nice amulet of luck - but mostly, an interesting testament of our common use of space and how we are forced into improbable intersections of intents.
Yeah, I thought that was pretty dang cool too.
When I was a kid I saw a picture of a Civil War rifle where a bullet fired from the other side entered the muzzle of the rifle just as it was fired. The bullet meet and burst the barrel. Who knows if that's what really happened.
Interesting.
1 very important thing left out about the mini balls is they were made hollow so they could expand because it made them easy to load shot after shot. If they were solid you'd only be able to shoot twice because you'd never get another bullet in the barrel until it cooled down.
Barrel should expand as it heats up
It does but the mini ball is made so that even if it gets hot and expands you can still load it relatively fast. I hunted with a .58 caliber muzzle loader and a .45 caliber. The .45 used a solid bullet and after you shot it you had the hit the ramrod on a tree to get the bullet down the barrel. The .58 was as easy as the 1st time to load shot after shot.
@@spannaspinna also when it expands it goes in and out.
The heat of the barrel has nothing to do with it. It has to do with the buildup of black powder residue. If you had to hit the ramrod against a tree to load a second round in a .45 caliber rifle you are seriously doing something wrong.
@@spannaspinna he has no idea what he's talking about.
“Ach du lieber, mein schatz”! Wonderful & educational video! I’m 82 now, but over the past many many years/decades, I’ve fired a great many .58 “Minnie Balls” in my Enfield rifles (2 band & Musketoon). Cast my own too. The best description I’ve ever read about getting hit by a Minnie Ball, from an old Lyman reloading manual I believe, was “getting hit by a .58 Minnie Ball was like getting hit with the flat side of an ax by a 7 foot Swede!!! I’ll bet that Swede had LUTEFISK to eat too!!! Think too of the terrible effect of getting hit by a Minnie Ball that was loaded BACKWARDS, hollow base forward!!! A giant “hollow point bullet”! Even more so if it was in .69 caliber! I used to love to do penetration tests with all my calibers to see the great expansions! I still have a couple of .58 Minnie Balls that expanded to about 1 1/4” or more! How about that for a self defense gun?! Of course one could always “bludgeon” the poor “perpetrator” to a horrible death with the butt end of his gun! WOW, what horrible stories could be told! The worst “torture” though was being forced to eat a big plate of LUTEFISK plain, no mustard! “A PAIN BEYOND BELIEF”!!! “Gesundheit”!
I spent 2 Christmases on Norwegian vessels, all the lutefisk you can eat. I starved on those days. I mistook fish gravy for custard, ruined my dessert too.
What a fantastic channel, thanks so very much for the chat and artefacts shown here, so very interesting to any ACW buffs and what a phenomenal collection of items from this very sad war, with families fighting each other depending on their beliefs.
RIP dear Folks from either side.
Very interesting indeed, I was aware that the most common calibre used was .58, but a .69 soft lead bullet, what a horrible way to die being hit by that.
Pretty devastating wounds came from these large caliber lead projectiles. I'm sure many victims died almost instantly, and many more expired within minutes from blood loss. Even though velocity of a lot of these were more on par with modern handgun speeds and power factors, the bore sizes were very large by modern standards. They closely compare to shotgun bores in many instances. And in the case of the buck and ball loads mentioned being fired from smooth bore muskets were essentially single shot shotguns in practice.
@@johnnorman7708 I'm not sure what the velocity is on them,but even at say handgun velocity do you realize how much energy is behind a .69 miniball?
We have 2 .69 rifles,one is a repo and the other is a orig. that was turned into a shotgun sometime after the war.It's been about two decades since we really shot,but have shot the repo. and a lot of other blackpowder guns a lot,my stepfather used to competition shoot with blackpowder and we also pour our own bullets.The .69 miniball is 700+ grains (I forget what I weighed it at exactly at a few decades ago).Your normal (or most popular) deer rifle,say a 30-06 or .308 bullet weight is 160grain.
The modern rifles may travel 2-3x faster but that energy behind "that slow" 700+gr. is carrying a lot of energy.
There is a formula to calculate what the energy would be for bullets traveling at so and so velocity and so an so weight of bullet.
Being shot with a shotgun slug (not buckshot) would be pretty close to what there rifles would do.
@@rider660r Quick research showed .69 caliber minie ball at about 730-750 grains and a velocity of 900-1000 feet per second with typical charges of 60-70 grains of black powder. That is non magnum handgun speeds throwing bullets nearly identical to 12ga shotgun slug diameter and weights. So except for speed, the comparison is valid. And I would expect the wounds to be very similar in a general sense. Big holes completely through any part of the human body being the usual. Major bones struck are shattered and cracked. That was why amputation was the usual civil war treatment for arm and leg wounds involving bones. No reconstructive medical science to handle that in 1861. But yes, devastating mostly unsurvivable wounds if delivered to the torso. Even with the medical technology today, a shooting victim would be in serious danger of expiring before or during transport to a trauma center. Man's ability to destroy his fellow man was well advanced 150 years ago.
@@johnnorman7708 Ahhhh,it's so nice when someone finally does a lil research instead of just thinking something is impossible,photoshopped,or whatever.
Like I said IDK what the numbers are for the energy....now know the aprox. velocity.I do know it's huge as one day we were just screwing around was shooting target.Applied a target to a solid Red Oak log with a diameter of about 22-24" and 24" long.At about 35-40yds when I shot that log went flipping and rolling back about 20-25'.
Arent paintballs of nearly the same caliber, .68? It helps visualizing how large such a caliber actually is.
Great episode, a lot of good information and education. Having been to The Gettysburg Museum of History and seeing these things in person, hearing the background stories really helps bring this history to life.
Glad you enjoyed it! Lots of cool stuff there.
The Whitworth rifles bullet did horrific damage to flesh due to its speed and length. I hunt deer with it and the bullet goes in straight and then keyholes out and causes massive blood loss.
My cousin is a dedicated relic hunter of civil war artifacts. He has quite the collection of bullets, buckles and the like. I asked about bullet calibers after seeing the bullet holes from your Jenni Wade video. He showed me one of his .69 caliber rounds he found. This is bigger than a quarter. That explains the size of the holes and the damage.
The American Civil war is the last war inwhich (if i had to choose) would want to be shot in... damn those bullets are scary
Soft lead deforming and tumbling through the body......awful.
Erik really warming up on videos now . Good cause all that knowledge can get passed.
Love being able to share all of this information. Feel free to pass it along!
After working a 24 hour shift, I slept a bit and woke up to this. Thanks JD love your channel and it’s content, and of course they way it’s presented
Awesome! Thank you!
Very cool. I just came back from Gettysburg , I had but one day so I didn’t make it to this museum but - thanks to you - I got the virtual tour!
👍🏻
Anyone heard of the “battle of the bees?” Around Hollywood Arkansas. I was told there was a battle that stirred up a huge bee hive and both sides went running!
Ever look it up? Just curious.
Informative as always. Thank you gentlemen.
👊🏻
Thanks JD! Entertaining AND educational all at the same time... and ya just can't beat that combination!
Thank you for this video. Hugs from Brazil.
The William's "cleaner" bullets were not meant to be used to give a field expedient barrel cleaning to clear out fouling. They were labeled as cleaner bullets because they actually were designed to shoot cleaner and have less fouling between shots. Karl Kasarda from InRangeTV channel did a vid on these about a year ago and busted the myth, which I believed because that's what all the metal detector channels told me. Good luck and God bless.
you need to do a bit more resurch of the sharps rifle .
@@paulsouth4794 The cleaner bullets I was referring to were for the muzzleloading guns used during the war. I wasn't aware that the Sharps used the cleaner bullets; I'll definitely need to research that. Thanks, good luck and God bless.
Wow; this is great stuff. I just started collecting Civil War bullets and have found the information given here very helpful. Thank you 😊
There are some really cool examples of WW1 rifle rounds colliding in mid air as well. Amazing
Those bullets made up some pretty heavy ammo boxes I bet. All these civil war videos have been so interesting. Thank you.
Imagine hauling all of that gear in wool uniforms in the middle of July.
Holy smokes. You had me at the title!
Pretty interesting stuff.
@@TheHistoryUnderground one could say as much about pretty much everything I've seen on this channel. Thank you for sharing experience and knowledge!
Again, I learn more through this than I did in high school. Great work, JD. I'm not sure what's more gruesome, bullets' from the Civil War or the modern day......
Don’t think that I’d want to be on the receiving end of either one 😅
@@TheHistoryUnderground I'd have to second that. Also, if you can, take a trip to the Chicamauga Battlefields in Northwest G.A. It's not as big but, still a large area to explore. I have a few friends there. There's cabins (some open & some not), statues and lots of monuments & cannon's. I bought a few pieces from the museum there and they too, have a couple pieces of trees on display with a cannon ball in one and musket balls in another. There's also a single grave (marked) with a black, short fence around it. A 16 yr old boy was shot & buried there.
The Civil War has always been one of my favorite subjects, and I haven't been to Gettysburg in years. I live about an hour away from the museum. I might have to plan a road trip this summer.
Absolutely!
The "rings" of these cast lead bullets were called lube grooves. The grooves were filled with a lubricant to counteract the friction of the bullet traveling down the bore. They also would provide material displaced by the rifling some place to go. (bullets are made slightly larger than the internal size of the barrel) As the bullet is propelled down the barrel rifling they eat into the grooves of the barrel which puts a spin on it , the bullet, allowing them to fly true. Additionally the lubricant served to reduce the chance of leading or lead fouling and buildup in the barrel.
Had the pleasure of meeting Eric @gettysburgmuseumofhjstory last month on my third visit. Bought his books and several bullets. Yep I now own pieces of history. Thanks to you both!
Awesome! 👊🏻
I have a pair of dice carved from 69 cal balls found them just out side the Pea Ridge battle field federal park in Arkansas. About 20 years ago metal detecting. My friend found a bugle off the top of a cap. And a broken sword hilt. I found a brass tip off of a sword scabbard. And a broken bayonet spike was gone only the part that attached to the rifle mussel was left. We both found alot of bullet drops unfired this was a camp site. He found a mini with a hole it looked like a fishing sinker.
Wow!
Thank you, having visited the Gettysburg battlefield, I love you videos that give me extra info….all wars are terrible but civil wars are worse, my thoughts go out to all the brave men who fought and died at these terrible places.
Shout out to Eric and the Gettysburg museum of history.
The best!
Great video, it's amazing how far we have come with battlefield triage. From just chopping off the limb, to saving limbs from blasts. What a stark contrast in historical context.
Definitely. Awful what the soft chunk of lead would do when it entered human flesh.
Three major changes were on the horizon after the U.S. Civil War that aided in the survival of the wounded:
1. The development of metal casings and smaller caliber rifle rounds. No more limb destroying big musket and Minie ball ammo. (But rate of fire increased dramatically)
2. IV,3 of the Hague Convention of 1899. The prohibition of expanding bullets. Non lead bullets, or in military parlance, ball ammo, became the norm.
3. The introduction of sulfonamides and penicillin.
I find it so interesting when you are actually on-site at Gettysburg Museum of History looking at artifacts.
Me too!
My great great grandfather William C Huyler served in the 27th NJ Vols and was mustered out and then re-enlisted and served in the 12th NJ Vols. The Buck and Balls! I guess ol’ Bill wasn’t done fighting! Can’t wait to visit here. Awesome history!
Man that is an awesome video. Excellent job putting it together and thank-you for doing so.
You said the Civil war was the bloodiest conflict in which the US has ever been involved and I looked up some figures. Officially between 600k to 1M people perished. As if that isn't jaw-dropping, imagine the population of the US at the time was only about 20M people. There wasn't a single person this war didn't affect. If a small child didn't lose their father for the better part of 4 years, he didn't come home at all. Considering most families were rural subsistence farmers at the time, there must have been scores of women left alone to care for an entire family farm and a generation of children by themselves. The stakes weren't just combatants risking their own death but everyone who relies on them, mostly women and children. If only everyone mongering war these days would think about the fact war is a punctuated snap in time compared to the suffering and hardships in its wake.
Imagine the evil in the hearts of those men who decided a million Americans should die so Africans can be treated as equals to their masters.
I just watched that episode a few days ago.
That episode at the National Health and Medicine Museum is probably one of the most horrifying and fascinating places that I've ever been.
@@TheHistoryUnderground I can imagine why. But thank you for taking me there with you!
Love this! Your stuff is always great but the Gettysburg museum is also a favorite of mine. Can't wait to go back and visit again.
👍🏻
I love the idea of an educator being able to bring something like this to show kids. I know I would have loved it but honestly that day has come and gone. You can’t bring in spent blank cartridges from a ww2 reenactment without getting in school suspension.
All bullets of the 19th Century are fundamentally deadly. Bullets weren't designed to kiss you, or wake you up from a deep sleep, they were meant to kill as quickly and efficiently as possible. And these heavy, wide, and slow-moving bullets were perfectly capable of doing that. I was a medic in the US Army, and was trained to treat gunshot wounds. I was also a competitive shooter, and know somewhat of the history of military firearms. There are some interesting facts about military rifles and bullets which many people aren't aware of.
First, bullets designed for war are different from bullets designed for hunting, even though both kinds of bullets can be used interchangeably in the same rifle. Hunting bullets are made of soft lead with a soft point and a copper jacket, this allows the bulllet to expand to several times its original size. This increases the lethality of the bullet, making it more "humane," so animals shot with such a bullet die qucikly, without suffering. Military bullets are fully-jacketed, they do not have a soft point, they do not expand when they hit a target. This makes them significantly less lethal. The Geneva Convention of the 20th Century prohibited military use of soft point bullets.
Second, in the 1960's new studies showed that using less lethal bullets were more strategically effective in warfare. It was determined that the time and expense of evacuating and treating wounded soldiers was far more than burying dead ones. Medical support logistics for combat are complex and expensive. An injured soldier is not only taken off the opposing team, but those who must evacuate and treat him must also be discounted from the team.
The later military rifles, like the Armalite, AK74, and allied copies used smaller-caliber, less lethal ammunition. There were several logical points, the main being the one I described in the previous paragraph, the others being that if bullets were made smaller and lighter, more of them could be carried, and a smaller-caliber rifle is easier to fire more accurately than a large-caliber rifle. My grandfather often complained that the 30-06 Springfield rifle used by the Army in his day kicked like a horse (he as a Cavalryman who knew what being kicked by a horse felt like), and when shooting at targets while laying on an earthen hill, each shot pushed the solders a little bit down the hill, so after every few shots, they had to climb back up so they could see the targets.
When we trained with an M16, our drill sergeants said not to be afraid of it, that it was easy to shoot, and had no kick. The demonstrated this by placing the butt stock against their chins and even against their crotches while firing live ammunition.
The rifles of the Civil War for the most part weren't much more advanced than the rifles of the 18th Century, Natty Bumpo's ("Hawkeye" from "Last of the Mohicans") "Killdeer" rifle was a .54 caliber, blackpowder flintlock, and was every bit as deadly (and more) as your common Civil War trooper's. But the Civil War introduced the repeating rifle, like the Spencer and Henry, leading to more efficient mayhem and carnage. Knowing what I do about arms and bullets, I would much prefer to be shot by a modern AR15 or M4 than any garden-variety rifle of the 18th or 19th centuries. Those old guns killed or dismembered their targets with ruthless efficiency. The only positive thing to come about during the Civil War was the great advance in medical science, fueled by the huge numbers of war casualties.
As a surgeon I have, unfortunately, had numerous occasions to attempt to repair bone and soft tissue injuries created by firearms projectiles. No matter what one feels about gun control the US is a fertile environment for gaining experience treating gunshot injuries. Im not a ballistics expert but the complexity of the fracture is more a function of the velocity of the projectile as opposed to the mass. With a fast moving bullet the transfer of the kinetic energy from projectile to bone is more abrupt creating a greater number of smaller bone fragments. A larger slow round will certainly fracture bone but the resulting fragments will be larger and easier to piece back together.
Very interesting. Thanks for that insight.
I was there today at the museum and met Eric. Been to Gettsyburg 12 times told Eric I was there for the first time because of you.
Nice! Thank you.
Thanks Kindly for a Great piece of history! I live 65mi. East of Gettysburg and have been there many times. But the next time I’ll be stopping at the museum and buy some bullets,,,,,after seeing this amazing collection of history! Peace and Joy of Being! DaveyJO in Pennsylvania
The next time I'm at Gettysburg I'm going to see if I can locate the hill where one of my relatives was killed. He's buried somewhere there. I look at this video and wonder if some of those yankee bullets were fired at him and did he kill the yankee who fired some of them. The war was horrible for both sides.
Do yourself a favor and leave that one alone.
I never knew that the Southern States actually left the Union, voted to reincorporate as a separate nation and then faced invasion from a foreign nation - the United States. It wasn’t a “Civil War”. The Confederate states were already a separate nation. Thanks for your channel!
This is absolutely spectacular... Thank you very much.
I have discovered recently that I have four relatives from my family that fought at Gettysburg with the 151st Pennsylvania....that may be why I have always been drawn to this battle above others....and one is listed on the Pennsylvania memorial there.,
Very informative & educational. Thank you gentleman.