The Minié Ball
"In an era before antisepsis and antibiotics, the devastating effects of a new weapon of destruction called the Minie Ball resulted in more than 55,000 amputations."
~Litchfield History Museum
~Litchfield History Museum
Before the invention of the Minie Ball, reloading muskets was a very long and tedious process that warranted many mistakes and mechanical malfunctions. However, with the invention of the Minie Ball, the range of rifles, rate of fire, and power were all increased greatly.
The Minie Ball was invented in 1849 by a French army officer named Claude-Etienne Minié. The bullet he invented was cylindrical in shape and had a cone on top. The base was hollow and made out of iron. The way this revolutionary bullet functioned was that when the Ball was rammed into the charge, the heat caused the bullet to expand in the grooves of the spiraled rifle causing it to spin at incredible speeds.
The Minie Ball was also infamous for the incredible damage it dealt to the human bodies. Upon entering the body, the ball would shatter completely destroying bones and everything else in its vicinity. Because the bone could not heal itself after sustaining such an injury, the limb affected was very commonly amputated. If the patient did not die from the amputation itself, he would almost certainly fall to infection whose likely-hood was incredibly high in the unsanitary conditions of Civil War field hospitals.
The Minie Ball was also infamous for the incredible damage it dealt to the human bodies. Upon entering the body, the ball would shatter completely destroying bones and everything else in its vicinity. Because the bone could not heal itself after sustaining such an injury, the limb affected was very commonly amputated. If the patient did not die from the amputation itself, he would almost certainly fall to infection whose likely-hood was incredibly high in the unsanitary conditions of Civil War field hospitals.
"The effects are truly terrible; bones are ground almost to powder, muscles, ligaments, and tendons torn away, and the parts otherwise so mutilated, that loss of life, certainly of limb, is almost an inevitable consequence. None but those who have had occasion to witness the effects produced upon the body by these missiles, projected from the appropriate gun, can have any idea of the horrible laceration that ensues. The wound is often from four to eight times as large as the diameter of the base of the ball, and the laceration so terrible that mortification [gangrene] almost inevitably results."
~A System of Surgery by William Todd Helmuth
~A System of Surgery by William Todd Helmuth
Soldiers armed with a minié-loaded rifle could hide behind trees or blockades and take down approaching forces before they could get close enough to cause any damage. Weapons of an earlier age, such as the bayonet, became almost obsolete in this new kind of warfare, and the role of cavalry and field artillery was greatly reduced. Casualty figures for the American Civil War reached staggering proportions, with more than 200,000 soldiers killed and more than 400,000 wounded. The rifle-musket and the Minié bullet are thought to account for around 90 percent of these casualties.
~History.com
~History.com