Help a teacher?

[dejapooh]

Hey all.

I teach U.S. History in Southern California. There are not many Civil War Battle Sites for me to hunt out here (plus, I don't have a MD yet)... I was wondering (hoping) someone would be willing to contribute a couple of Mini-balls from the Civil War Era (one shot, one not shot), so I can show my kids what they look like and how they worked. We talk about how war becomes more and more deadly as time goes on, and how the Mini ball was a contributing factor in how deadly the Civil war was.

Please PM me if you have an old ball or two that you would be willing to contribute to the cause.

Daniel

 

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[kcm]

One "very big" contributing factor as to why the CW was so up-close-and-personal dangerous is due in large fact to the inaccuracy of guns from that era. When people were shot, it was quite often from what would now be considered very close range. It wasn't until firearms were using rifled barrels that ranges began to increase drastically.

Another major factor from back then is the lack of medical knowledge and lack of medical facilities then. For example, nobody knew how to treat gangrene, so they would cut off a limb. Often times that would be too little too late and the patient would die anyhow.