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
Pattern 1853 Enfield
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The Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle-musket was a.577 calibre Minié-type muzzle-loading rifled musket, used by the British Empire from 1853 to 1867; after which many were replaced in service by the cartridg
Minié ball
…it was found to inflict significantly more serious wounds than earlier round musket balls. Both the American Springfield Model 1861 and the British Pattern 1853 Enfield rifled muskets, the most common weapons found during the American Civil War, used the Minié ball. Rifling, the addition of spiral grooves inside a gun…
An engraving titled Sepoy Indian troops dividing the spoils after their mutiny against British rule, which include a number of muskets
Confederate dead after the Second Battle of Fredericksburg on May 3, 1863. A number of Enfield 1853 rifled muskets are visible.