The Samuel Gardiner "Musket Shell"

[Johan Steele]

Great TomH now I'm going to have to start digging.  Glass bullets, in the form of round balls have supposedly been around for a while.  I don't see how they would hold any advantage over lead but they do make a rather vicous wound w/ the bullet being very difficult to extract.

Over the years I've come across several references (half dozen maybe) to their use, always by US troops on the receiving end; the men on the receiving end seemed to think they were sent by CS sharpshooters but looking at units involved I'm doubtful of that and more thinking it was likely militia.  The two I've actually seen were in .54 and in .69 or bigger.  As to catching the rifling I suppose a paper maiche sabot or "patch band" as used in the Baker might have done the job but I don't know.  In .54 an M1841 or older M1814 or 1817 might be feasible.  But a .69 round ball.... that's mostly a smoothbore, so why .69 at all?  I don't see it as a buck n ball combo but then again ammo is not my forte. Who knows, some creative experiment by an over enthusiastic ordnance Sgt somewhere?

I have wondered why use glass at all, there's no ballistic advantage over lead that I can think of. It makes no sense other than the vicious wound and I question how widespread that knowledge might really have been.  But w/ the CS, they used what they had.

[leadhead]

Shane,

As I'm sure that you know, by the ACW round projectiles were only used in smoothbores, as individual bullets, buck and ball or buckshot, so rifling would not have been an issue for a glass spherical projectile. As far as a sabot or added band, that would involve casting the glass shere with a groove to secure the sabot to. That's a whole lot of extra work to produce something that would, in my opinion, have less effect than the lead equivalent.

Please send me any references that you come up with. I'm intrigued.

TomH