What were bullets made of in the time of the civil war?

Question

also the shape, and how they were made

Answer 1

Thi8s site is selling civil war bullets. Also has pictures of must types of bullets used during the civil war

Answer 2

The first bullets

The history of bullets parallels the history of firearms. Advances in one either resulted from or precipitated advances in the other. Originally, bullets were round metallic or stone balls placed in front of an explosive charge of gun powder at the end of a closed tube. As firearms became more technologically advanced, from 1500 to 1800, the bullets changed little. They remained simple round lead balls, differing only in their size.

The development of the hand culverin and matchlock arquebus brought about the use of cast lead balls as projectiles. "Bullet" is derived from the French word "boulette" which roughly means "little ball". The original musket bullet was a spherical lead ball two sizes smaller than the bore, wrapped in a loosely fitting paper patch which formed a tight seal so the full pressure of the expanding gas would propel the bullet. The loading was, therefore, easy with the old smooth-bore Brown Bess and similar military muskets. The original muzzle-loading rifle, on the other hand, with a closely fitting ball to take the rifling grooves, was loaded with difficulty, particularly when foul, and for this reason was not generally used for military purposes. Even with the advent of rifling the bullet itself didn't change, but was wrapped in a cloth patch to grip the rifling grooves.

The first half of the nineteenth century saw a distinct change in the shape and function of the bullet. In 1826 Delirque, a French infantry officer, invented a breech with abrupt shoulders on which a spherical bullet was rammed down until it caught the rifling grooves. Delirque's method, however, deformed the bullet and was inaccurate.

The period of and just prior to the US Civil War saw a great many changes in small arms ammunition. Rifled weapons truly came into their own during this period. Before, with the use of smoothbore weapons, it was common place to see soldiers line up just 30-75 paces apart firing muskets at one another and not hitting. For example, the British Brown Bess had a range of 125 yards or less and accuracy that was poor at any range. A soldier was completely safe at distances from 200-300 years. After the addition of the rifle, this safe gap would slowly disappear and warfare tactics would never be the same.

Smoothbore weapons have been around for a long time. Their use began in the 1500's well before the rifle's invention. They are relatively simple and involve a smooth barrel with a ball smaller than the bore (diameter) of the barrel. The space between the ball and the barrel is termed windage. This space often filled with dirt or fouled. This affected the ability for the ball to take a straight path and created increasing inaccuracy between cleanings. Smoothbore weapons had a range of about 50 yards and troops were often comfortably safe at ranges of 75 to 100 yards. Nonetheless, they were continually used until early in the US Civil War (muskets), and continue to be used by primitive black powder hunters today.

Although there were other ingenious systems, these are the major ones that led to most of the bullets that were used during the US Civil War.

Answer 3

Bullets at the time of the Civil War were made of lead. Most were shaped in the traditional "bullet shape": cylindrical, tapering at the top to a dull point, bigger around than today's bullets. Some bullets (or "balls") were spherical. Molten lead, which has a relatively low melting point, was poured into molds to make bullets.

Answer 4

the bullets most common in the civil war were conical in shape and were called " Minnie Balls " after their French inventor. these bullets were conical in shape and were made to fit a .58 or .69 caliber rifle. the .58 caliber bullet weighed 460 grains and had a 60 grain black powder charge to propel the same.

Answer 5

Someone has answered with many references and is accurate enough but I would like to mention you could see for yourself on line at www.history.com and get pics and audio as well. Also if you rent the movie "Patriot", (Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger) you will see him making the bullets that went into his pistol, the process is accurate. I made some with my Grandpa and also shot gun shells, it was interesting.

Answer 6

Lead. However, sometimes there was not enough lead available, especially in the South, and clay balls were encased in lead.