"Chewed musket balls" Topic

I visited the Garst Museum in Greenville Ohio last weekend. They had a really nice diorama of the fort that Wayne's Legion camped in while there. Along with a few Legion buttons and other uniform parts on display were 4-5 chewed musket balls. The War of 1812 fort, Fort Meigs, in Perrysburg Ohio also displays a couple of these and puts forth the theory that they were used but the soldiers in the summer months to carry in their mouths to help retain saliva. I'm curious if anyone has heard any scholarly discussion on this topic. I think I've seen it referenced in the Revolution but whatever they were doing didn't seem to carry over as far as the American Civil War.

Many, if not all, "chewed" musket balls are the result of rooting hogs. Not as nice of an explanation but far more practical.

I've also heard that wounded men would chew them when they were worked on as in an amputation.

Mmmmmm. Lead.

"I've also heard that wounded men would chew them when they were worked on as in an amputation."

That is a common myth. By the ACW, ether and chloroform were in general usage. Before these anesthetics, other pain killers such as opium were used during major surgery. A bullet is a poor choice to give to a patient undergoing an operation. If such a thing were to happen, the patient would be kicking, screaming and, gasping for breath. That bullet would have a high chance of being swallowed and
therefore a be choking risk. "Chewed" bullets, "pain" bullets, "hospital" bullets or whichever modern term used, are generaly the result of the hogs that Man of Few Words mentioned, or, hit by farmers' plows over the years.

One further explanation for chewed bullets and musket balls I have seen put forth is that this was done to increase the damage done by a wounding ball. The tooth marks gave an irregular surface that would tear and rip.

Curiously those putting forward this theory fail to mention the negative effects on accuracy and quite possibly loading as well.

A small pebble under the tongue is just as effective as a musket ball at generating saliva and a musket ball is really pretty big to carry in your mouth, not mention it would take a lot of chewing force to leave significant marks in one.

The phrase "bite the bullet" often said to originate in pain bullets more likely comes from biting off the end of the paper cartridge that muskets were loaded from.

Ever heard of someone carrying a round or two in their mouth as they loaded and fired? (I saw that in some movie, or read about it. Creeks, maybe?

Who's a angling enthusiast?

Biting lead split shot sinkers to crimp them, and holding the lead weights of one side of a cast net in your mouth while you throw it are SOP.

I recall my freind Duffin in Arkansas chewed on .38 slugs. He was either making them fit into shell casings, or trying to pry them off the casing with his teeth.

But then he started smoking, using a Mountain Dew can for an ashtray, and using the ashtray to dump excess gunpowder into (he made a mess when he reloaded). And he had several containers of different gunpowders on the table, with the lids off, within arms reach.

Kept dumping ashes in the can, dumping gunpowder in the ashtray.. Marlboro going from hand to mouth, right over the table. (he was emptying .357 shells he loaded wrong (idiot filled them with so much powder, the bullets wouldn't seat all the way, so he was re doing them))

You don't need three guesses as to what happened.

I've read a reference to chewed bullets being used in 1648. I always thought it meant they were 'damaged' to cause more terrible wounds but that they were considered contrary to the rules of war.

"I've also heard that wounded men would chew them when they were worked on as in an amputation."

That is a common myth. By the ACW, ether and chloroform were in general usage. Before these anesthetics, other pain killers such as opium were used during major surgery. A bullet is a poor choice to give to a patient undergoing an operation. If such a thing were to happen, the patient would be kicking, screaming and, gasping for breath. That bullet would have a high chance of being swallowed and
therefore a be choking risk. "Chewed" bullets, "pain" bullets, "hospital" bullets or whichever modern term used, are generaly the result of the hogs that Man of Few Words mentioned, or, hit by farmers' plows over the years.

I think it would probably be a mistake to assume that anesthetics were as widely available as the medical corps (or the unfortunate surgical cases) on either side would have liked. I suspect that all too often expedients had to be found in their absence. However, I agree that a bullet would be a damned poor choice for biting upon during surgery … I believe I read somewhere that the typical item used for this purpose was a strip of leather.

Doug

Chewing a musket ball would be a poor way of increasing mushroom/tissue damage.

Why, when you could just notch it with a knife?

I don't think chewing wood do anything but scuff the ball, and you don't need to be Phil Niekro to know what a scuffed sphere does in flight. :)

It would be crushed and mishapen, anbd would have to get worse when you start it down the barrel (well, if you dropping it down a larger caliber barrel with wadding, maybe not.)

Anyway, the "plug" on the ball (from casting) was usually clipped off roughly, and that had to be more destabilizing to the ball than chewing.

(ever chew lead? It's soft, but you will break a tooth before causing much damage, see my "Split Shot" fishing sinker reference. Crushing it down to crimp the fishing line rarely marred the surface.)

"I think it would probably be a mistake to assume that anesthetics were as widely available as the medical corps (or the unfortunate surgical cases) on either side would have liked. I suspect that all too often expedients had to be found in their absence. However, I agree that a bullet would be a damned poor choice for biting upon during surgery … I believe I read somewhere that the typical item used for this purpose was a strip of leather."

According to the "Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion," 95% of operations were done under general anesthesia. In many of the remaining 5%, anesthesia was witheld on purpose.

The North produced its ether and chloroform in government labratories in Philadelphia and Astoria, NY. They also purchased large quantities from suppliers such as E.R. Squibb, and T. Morris Perot. The Confederacy had its own labs sprinkled throughout the South. Add this to what was run through the blackade and captured from the Union, the CSA was fairly well supplied with anesthetics.

See "Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs" by Dr. Alfred Jay Bollet, and "Medicines for the Union Army," by George Winston Smith.