✅ SOLVED Civil war bullet ?

[Swordarm4]

It also looks to have teeth marks any help on what side,(union or confederate) and caliber? This is my first significant find.

 

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[Red James Cash]

To know the caliber you need to use a micrometer.Theres a lot of different calibers. .22 to .69

 

[Swordarm4]

That's the same thing my brother said. I found it in Nc at a supposed camp site . Thanks!

 

[Red James Cash]

no problem

 

[relic nut]

Looks like a Williams cleaner. What does the bottom look like?

 

[relic nut]

Look at the one on the right.

 

[Yak1366]

Welcome to TNet!!

 

[Carolina Tom]

Welcome to Tnet. I believe Relic Nut is all over it.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Relic Nut is correct. More specifically, it is a civil war yankee .58-caliber Williams' Patent Type 3 "Bore-cleaner" bullet, unfired, but missing its inserted "thumbtack" base (also called the base-disc) and the very thin saucer-shaped zinc washer which was in betweeen the "thumbtack" and the bullet's main body. The teeth-marks are mose likely from the soldier pulling the "thumbtack" out to use it for some other purpose.

Corroded remnants of the zinc washer are visible just above the thumbtack/base-disc in the photo posted by Relic Nut.

The Williams TYpe 3 "Bore-cleaner" bullet first shows up on civil war battlefields in late summer 1863. (Despite what some sellers on Ebay claim, it was not issued to troops in time to be used at the batle of Gettysburg, July 1863). Do NOT buy a Williams Type 2 which is said to have been dug at Gettysburg.

I've put quotation-marks around "Bore-cleaner" because Mr. Williams' patent does not mention the bullet having a bore-cleaning function. Firing the bullet caused the thin saucer-shaped zinc washer to be compressed outward into the gunbarrel's rifling-grooves, giving the bullet the desired gyroscopic spin which tripled its accuracy. When the compression happened, the washer's edge scraped burnt gunpowder-ash out of the rifling-grooves, which was discovered as a happy side-effect of using the bullet after the Patent was issued.

I should mention, wartime reports say the soldiers deeply disliked the WIlliams "Bore-cleaner" bullets, for the following very understandable reason. If was often necessary to unload the rifle without firing the bullet. To do that, the soldier would attach a "bulletworm" (also called a bullet-puller) to the back end of the rifle's ramrod, and insert it down the gunbarrel's muzzle to the bottom. When you pushed down on the ramrod and twisted it around-and-around, the corkscrew-shaped bulletworm's point would dig deeply into the soft lead bullet's nose, allowing you to "pull" the bullet up and out of the barrel. When you did that to a Williams Bore-cleaner bullet, oftentimes the thumbtack/base-disc would get stuck and come out of the bullet's base deep inside the barrel. The rifle could not be used until you managed to dislodge the stuck thumbtack/base-disc... which usually required taking the barrel off of the rifle's wooden stock and unscrewing its breech-plug (which closed the barrel's back end). So, the soldiers tended to surreptitously throw away the Williams Bore-cleaner bullets. That's why it seems like we dig more unfired ones than fired ones.

The photo below shows several Type 3 Williams, some with the "thumbtack" separated from the bullet's main body. The thumbtack's stem fit into a very deep hole which was about .2-inch in diameter. Swordarm4, that's what the hole in the base of your bullet was for.

 

[Swordarm4]

That’s the bottom, the site I was at , the owner said it was either Cornwallis or Sherman who camped there , I was hoping Cornwallis but the bullet was all we found.

 

[smokeythecat]

Welcome, and agreed as above!

 

[Swordarm4]

Wow thanks for the history of it , I was wondering about the bite marks. I was thinking maybe medical reasons.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

We know with certainty that Sherman's army had a huge quantity of Williams Type 3 Bore-cleaner bullets on its march from Chattanooga TN down through Georgia to Atlanta and Savannah, and then up through the Carolinas. Cornwallis was a Revolutionary War army commander, and there were no cylindrical-bodied bullets in the Revolutionary War... just round ball ammunition. So you've got your 100%-certain answer for who had that bullet.

I see you are a brand-new member (6 posts)... so, welcome to TreasureNet's "What Is It?" forum... the best place on the internet to get unknown objects CORRECTLY identified.

 

[Davers]

We know with certainty that Sherman's army had a huge quantity of Williams Type 3 Bore-cleaner bullets on its march from Chattanooga TN down through Georgia to Atlanta and Savannah, and then up through the Carolinas. Cornwallis was a Revolutionary War army commander, and there were no cylindrical-bodied bullets in the Revolutionary War... just round ball ammunition. So you've got your 100%-certain answer for who had that bullet.

I see you are a brand-new member (6 posts)... so, welcome to TreasureNet's "What Is It?" forum... the best place on the internet to get unknown objects CORRECTLY identified.

Still learning here , I had thought the 'thumbtack' was the only bottom piece of the Williams type 3 , Now I think I recall seeing little pieces of badly corroded washer looking pieces in my pouch or on the ground making my PP -Beep.

Mr Sherman sure did have a-lot of these as he passed through , actually my first Civil War Find was the Top of a T-3 Cleaner.

Good Job OP , hope you find many more & Welcome to the site.