Re: Getting nailed from Way Far Away (tm)

on 5/30/01 10:56, agoodall@canada.com wrote:

>> I rather doubt the sharpshooter was using balls, more than likely it
>> was	a bullet.  :)
> 
> It was a minie ball fired from a rifled musket. *S* I wasn't accurate,
but I
> believe they weren't called bullets during the Civil War. (Not sure
when
> "bullet" came into general use, though it's probably after the
Franco-Prussian
> war, "bullet" being French...).

Maybe shell is more appropriate although that usually relates to an
artillery piece shot with an explosive charge IIRC.  With the
introduction
of the repeating rifle and carbine during the American Civil War and
that
some officers carried personal side-arms that were a type of revolver
there
I believe they had a combined bullet and powder cartridge.  Hmmm...maybe
I
should dig out some of my reference materials on this war and see what
they
were called...
;-)

Kevin Walker