Minié ball
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The Minié ball, or Minie ball, is a type of hollow-based bullet designed by Claude-Étienne Minié for muzzle-loaded, rifled muskets. Invented in 1849 shortly followed by the Minié rifle, the Minié ball
Various types of Minié balls. The four on the right are provided with Tamisier ball grooves for holding grease.
James H. Burton's 1855 Minié ball design (.58 caliber, 500 grains) from the Harpers Ferry Armory
Gunshot fracture of the left femur by a Minié ball, 1863
Private Milton E. Wallen of Company C, 1st Kentucky Cavalry, wounded by a Minié ball, while in prison at Richmond, July 4, 1863, being treated for gangrene
Smoothbore
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A smoothbore weapon has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars. Some examples of smoothbore weapons are muskets, blunderbu
A smooth-bore, cast-iron ship's cannon, from the Grand Turk, a replica of a mid-18th century three-masted frigate
Replica of "Twin Sisters" smoothbores used in the Battle of San Jacinto (1836)
USS Monitor (1862) with the muzzle of one of its two 11-inch smoothbore Dahlgren guns showing
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