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US Civil War - Union Williams "Cleaner" Bullets
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- Опубліковано 14 чер 2020
- The two most commonly issued bullets for the Union during the Civil War was the Burton Minié and the Williams Improved Type 2. In this video we discuss the origins of the American minié, explain how it and he Williams bullets work, but also dispel the myth that the Williams Improved bullet was intended to clean a fouled bore.
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During the Civil War, it was not allowed to merely fire your rifled-musket to unload it after guard (picket) duty. As a result, unloading was done with a bullet puller or worm, and thus the issue with the Williams bullet manifested.
Firing a gun was used as alarm for the rest of the camp, doing so would absolutely give away location if that was an issue at the moment, as well as it would also mean having to go through the entire cleaning process which no one wants to do.
Cool! Never thought about having to unload a musket without firing before.
Why didn’t they just hand the loaded rifle from guard to guard at the change of duty? Oh yeah, good ideas were and still are forbidden in the military 😂
Seems almost like they could have issued a smaller number with just the old Williams-Minnié for picket duty, allowing for faster and easier unloading, and then if shooting starts they'd continue it with the piston bullets.
It makes you wonder how weapons were assigned to the individual and whether or not you could simply pass the loaded musket off to the next guy on duty.
@@veteranironoutdoors8320 Soldiers were obligated to account for their equipment to try and reduce little issues like soldiers selling their Government Issue to unscrupulous persons or recklessly losing it. If you had soldiers able to freely pass guns around, then you made it harder to find who was losing or selling their weapons. Rifles were not the most plentiful of tools on either side of the conflict, especially for the Confederacy, so they took pains to try and keep attrition and corruption as low as possible.
Ah, the use of a bayonnet as a pointer. True man of culture.
Ah yes, very distinguished I see
my teeth are itching at the state of the tip though
No falling asleep in class! or you'll get the pointer!
Renaissance man.
Out in the creosote looks like home.
my 58 cal.zuave was very accurate.
How has he not already acquired a patented pokey stick?
It's impressive that even in the 1860s they could make bullets and bores to the thousandth and maintain that tolerance over a massive production run.
nice pfp
Nine out of ten men avoid “premature expansion” unloading their rifle, with THIS easy trick!
Buy Burton.
mkfreel Doctors hate them!
I just wish I had expansion, I don't care if it is premature ot latient. 😉
Karl: "We got Burton's 0.574" projectile here, and Williams which comes as 0.570". Of course, the bore on a 61 musket is 0.58", so you have a little bit of the idea with the clearance you have with a Burton ball vs a Williams ball."
Me, a European: "Alright then, keep your secrets"
Just kidding. Awesome content, as always!
Thousandths of an inch is just poorly executed metric. ;)
One thou(sandth of an inch) is right about 25 microns.
Which is, I believe, 3 to 4 hairs?
In the "close enough" category (I mean, not usually, but for something like this it might be) 4 thousandths is .1mm (.1mm is actually 3.94 thou, but like I said, close enough for this application)
I guess it makes sense that in fully metric countries that teaching the conversion rate wouldn't be seen as necessary.
Karl: Love the presentation, learned lots. My father gave me two Civil War-era projectiles, one a "cleaner bullet". He was told the fable about the "cleaner" projectile by a battle site docent. The explanation given to him was exactly what you stated. You just brought two old pieces of memorabilia to life for me and made me smart(er). Thank you so much. For me, this is a huge chunk of information, but it is important to me also for the emotional component. I had ancestors on both sides of the conflict. Kurt
Karl, you have surpassed yourself, this segment was fascinating, thank you so much.....more please,
That was fascinating; somehow I had never heard of "Cleaner" bullets before. Thank you for this!
The English language strikes again!
@@stevecolley6750 you know, a cleaner cleaner bullet? Not having heard of a cleaner bullet because of the homonym. Maybe my joke just sucked haha.
@@stevecolley6750 did you watch the whole thing?
@@stevecolley6750 Watch the video again. It is explained there.
We will never know for sure but I think it's possible the Williams bullet being used as a bore cleaning bullet may have been Introduced by the "Brass" as way to keep the common solider from disposabling of what he felt was an inferior bullet.
Thanks for teaching me about the cleaner bullets, but moreso, thanks for correcting incorrect common misconception between minie and minie bullets.
It's episodes like this that make me subscribe to InRange. Thank you Karl.
As much as I love you guys talking more modern stuff, it's videos like this one that I absolutely love about this channel. Good solid history.
If the troops knew that the improved slug was a pain to extract after picket duty , why didn't the just use the standard minie ball whilst on picket , extract it after the watch and simply use the improved "cleaner" bullet when in combat ? . Aghhh the benefit of hindsight and excellent education from InRange and others Forgotten Weapons etc. Thanks Guys , Stay Safe & Stay Well .
As always with InRange, I learned a whole bunch of new stuff before I even finsished my first cup of Coffee. Great stuff. Cheers!
I've been curious about how long firefights actually lasted in the black powder days, since after just a few shots the battlefield is covered in smoke and everyone's musket is too fouled to keep shooting.
A few shots? no.
These types of videos are one of the main reasons I toss you guys a few bucks every month. Interesting, unique and as unbiased as possible.
Karl - When this whole 2020 thing is over you should take a trip up to Western and Northwestern Canada. It's said to be our wild West and is chalked full of good interesting history that you might be interested in.
Still hope to see a section on sharps / rolling blocks as ante litteram DMRs ....
One thing that struck me while watching this video - when viewing the Burton bullet up close and thinking about the expansion during firing it seems to me that the "grease" grooves might also help with the expansion of the bullet, i.e. they make some space so the bullet can expand easier. I bought my first Civil War bullets from the gift shop at Lee's Headquarters (Gettysburg) back in the early 70s (still got 'em) , shot several weapons live, and reenacted for many, many years and the idea of this just hit me. Great video.
I didn't know the original Minie ball had that iron plug/piston until this video. 90 seconds in and I'm already learning, think that's a record for an IRTV video.
Really loving the black-powder content, Karl! Has me saving up for a starter kit, probably gonna be a Colt Navy replica.
If 6 in 10 bullets were the piston type surely people would just save their regular button ball ones for outside of going into battle
Love the channel Karl! "Politics and lore" makes me think of the M1 and M2 ball ammo for the 1903 and .30 cal M1 debate. The M1 was a hotter round, produced more recoil and has a longer range. Along comes the U.S. Rifle CAL .30 M1 and which was designed for the M1 ball. National Guard units training with the M1 didn't have the extended space for the longer range and didn't like the recoil of the M1 ball requested lighter loads from the Ordnance Department. This change included going from a 167 grain boat tail bullet to a 150 grain flat base. The lore is that the heavier M1 would damage the operating rod of the M1 rifle but it didn't. The M2 Armor Piercing ammo had to punch through stuff and needed greater power which is as powerful if not more than the M1 ball. The AP round became highly used as WWII continued. The Garand Collectors Association has a very informative article about using modern sporting ammo in the M1 rifle in their latest issue. (spring '2020)
This video really makes you appreciate just how important smokeless powder and the self-contained cartridge were to firearms development.
Thanks for another great and educational episode, Karl!
My sources say the Williams Clearer bullets were in packaged blue paper, not the usual white making for for easy identification. They were packed one each in every 10 round package of paper cartridges. Type 2 Cleaner Bullets had domed shaped Zinc discs between the bullets and the base . The base pin moved forward upon firing forcing the Zinc washer into the bullet flattening the dome, expanding it and scraping the bore of fouling, in theory. The Williams type One had the Zinc discs stacked on a nub projecting from the base of the bullets. The nub was then peened over holding the discs in place. Type 2 bullets are rarely found fired with the base pin in place having separated in flight or upon impact. I have dug many of these bullets, some with the Zinc ring intact. My house is in a battle area and I've metal detected for decades and shoot black powder CW arms.
This was the video I needed but couldn't find for months!
I love learning about firearms technology before metallic cartridges because of how obscure the information is. Another interesting bullet type was the Nessler bullet, which came about in the Crimean War and was an attempt at bringing minie expanding bullet technology to smoothbores to improve their accuracy.
The obturation effect better benefits with British powder of the era as British powder, good powder compliant with military standards was not graphite coated and met the particle size ratio requirements.
The lack of graphite meant the powder was not reduced in its ignition time, giving it more pop and allowing it to burn more completely in the chamber before the ball begins to move. Finer particle size ratio of the milled composition and more milling time translates into a more thorough burn in a shorter time period.
This translates to the ball expanding properly, quicker and keeping more of the fouling in the chamber and less into the barrel. That is why British powder was so desired among both Union and Confederate soldiers who had the chance to use it.
The Cleaner bullet would seem to be an attempted fix for the blowby and dwell time issue. Mind you, the British powder wasn't a perfect fix either. Note I said it allows for faster and more effective obturation, not instant and absolute.
Also the rush to get powder out into the field put a serious hurt on the quality of Union powder too. I seem to remember Gen James Ripley lamenting the poor quality of the rushed powder having significant detrimental effect on loading. It should be noted the man was a stickler for quality and perfection. Some would say a hindrance in some ways, Spencer and eventually Lincoln seemed to think so anyway.
Very interesting, I love learning about anything to do with the Civil War.
@capandball would be proud!
I grew up next to the New Market Battlefield. Love the Civil War. My buddy just found a type 1 cleaner around Lake Accotink.
might be interesting to see if there is a velocity as well as accuracy difference noticeable between both projectiles.
I'm disappointed that's not where this video ended up.
@@AM-hf9kk I'm confused that near the beginning of this Karl stated that the rifled muskets were accurate up to 600yards. These were very slow projectiles the drop must have been horrendous. I've picked up these guestimate drop figures from another site, no idea how good they are. Look to the bottom of the page. civilwartalk.com/threads/muzzle-velocity-for-civil-war-muskets.154938/
It is said a Whitworth rifle could hit a man at 1,000yards. The snipers must have pre measured points on the battlefield or else had an extraordinary ability to judge distance.
Paul Harrell is comparing 30-30 to .44Magnum in this film, and he was saying you would need a rangefinder with .44Mag at 200yds. 09.08 onwards ua-cam.com/video/PNiDwprzoo4/v-deo.html .44mag is according to the figures in the Civilwartalk thread above getting on for twice as fast as the "Mini" bullets. So 600yds with a civil war rifle might be achievable but was it likely? It is closer to throwing rocks with a trebuchet than firing a high speed flat shooting round.
@@joshuagibson2520 no need for original bullets. it looks like Karl made his own, that's why i asked
@@COIcultist The short answer is that the practice at the time was for volley fire. It was not expected for an individual bullet to reliably hit a man at ranges up to 1000 yards, although the possibility thereof is likely to occur. It's also likely with the defender to establish range markers on the battlefield so as to accurately estimate the range of the approaching army. The long answer can be found in this document detailing the trial results of the M1855 Rifle-Musket against existing and modified arms in U.S. service at the time.
www.google.com/books/edition/Reports_of_Experiments_with_Small_Arms_f/QtdoAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=report+on+small+arms&pg=PA39&printsec=frontcover
Great explanations for the disdain of the Williams. After you do the Gardner, it would be great to have a field trial of all three types. Gives you an opportunity to weigh in on rumors that the "cleaners" shot to different points of aim from the Burtons.
I love details like this about wide spread historical engineering problems vs the common use boots on the ground. Great explanation. Thank you!
You might find the bore profile of the 1861 or 1863 colt special contract musket of interest. It had a relived bore so as fouling developed the bullet could still be loaded easily but would still develop a gas seal after the bore tapered down after maybe the first 12" of travel. From memory I think the bore opened up maybe .006-.008" after about 16" from the muzzle end. I have a modern copy and it does indeed really help to fire for longer periods. Also would be interesting if the exploding bullets used could be re created to test effectiveness of the actual exploding fragments at range. These were used a couple times but off memory can't remember what engagements they were. Naturally the predefined distance of exploding would limit engagement potential.
Ah. Swaging versus casting.
They actually make special cleaner slugs for 12 gauge right now. Like actual cleaning, it's like a barel punch in a shot shell
They also make cleaning pellets for pellet rifles.
You can also dip them in valve grinding compound to fire polish the barrel.
@Matt if just saying that they exist.
@@metamorphicorder A air rifle doesn't leave much fouling ..
Thanks ! Great info! You’ve done your homework.
You'd think if you were on guard duty that you'd use only Burton balls for easier removal and then if you were going into combat use Williams bullets for better accuracy (which should have been easy to do as they came in different colored packages).
Plenty of potential here for an episode to compare the two bullet types over a string of shots, accuracy and ease of loading etc.
That is really damn interesting, I love to learn obscure minutiae like this; and how it's proof that nothing changes. Reminds me a bit of the lore around the M-16.
Karl: Great content. Love the black powder content.
Cudos to you Karl! Great, informative content. I always learn a great deal by watching your videos and share them with my fellow black powder shooters.
What a fascinating exploration of these two ball designs. Thank you very much for the thoroughly detailed explanation of a most interesting subject.
My pleasure!
The sprue is generally on the base and the nose shape is not affected. Round noses are very easy to cast. Swaging is the process of pressure forming bullets. You can not use a one piece swage die to make grooved bullets....unless you turn them in a seperate operation.
Really liked this story! I grew up going to Civil War battlefields. When my son's were growing up I took them. In all that time I had never heard the real story behind the Burton Ball's, etc.
3:00 .580" - .576" is .004" diameter difference, but isn't that .002" clearance in the bore?
Wishing I Seen This 3 years Ago
Thanks Belatedly!
¡A very technical video! and about a topic that I every body talks but no one ever explain. Thanks.
We do enjoy this content, thanks Karl! What an interesting piece of history. I also always thought the name came from the fact that they cleaned the bore, but as more of a happy accident rather than design. Great information.
Thanks for the video. I do enjoy watching these type, and the western vignette, videos more than the AR15 type videos.
That was super interesting. Thank you! Political decisions are rarely made on well vetted facts. That lesson is continually revisited.
You had me worried for a moment with that title being only partially visible on my phone...
Keep your arms on your arms.
There are some in the USA that don't seam to realize that the North won and slavery repealed.
@Loge R It was 95% about that.
I had one of Parker Hales 1861 Enfield Artillery carbine (or "Musketoon") reproductions back in the 80's... a 24" barreled .577 rifled carbine. The "companion" mold I purchased with it was a 560 gr Minie.... but the cavity was nowhere near as deep as on the Burton type pictured.... and it was a square bottomed cavity too...only about 6mm in. The skirt however was MUCH thinner than the Burton.... and those projectiles worked wonderfully. They were more difficult to cast than a "normal" lead projectile, because the mold had a "third" piece...the plug that produced the cavity. I have no idea whether that bullet design was at all "authentic".
Why didn’t they just remove the percussion cap when they were coming off guard duty?
Black powder will pull water from the air and cause corrosion if the powder charge isn’t removed. Wet powder also won’t fire.
Brian Smith-Winsemius: Makes sense, I’m guessing moisture gets in from the flash hole?
Thur the flash hole and around unexpanded bullet too. Minie ball bullets don’t expand and seal against the barrel until they are fired
I absolutely love this type of content Karl. And by "I" I mean we love this type of content. Once again I thank you for your fabulous work.
Even though the Model 1861 rifle musket was made to gauge, following the American system, manufacturing was still not that precise in the 1860s and very few of these guns had bore sizes exactly on spec. You might want take a look at the June 1976 American Rifleman article about Civil War rifle musket bore sizes. I don't feel like digging it out of my stored American Rifleman magazines in my garage bit if I recall correctly the short and dirty explanation is that they were all over the place.
Thank you for a helpful and informative video :-)
It would be great if you could do actual accuracy comparison tests for the Burton Minié, the Williams Improved Type 2, and patched round ball fired from the P53 and Springfield rifled muskets at 50 and 100 yards on a target rather than a gong.
It would also be wonderful if you could do a similar accuracy test (firing appropriate projectiles) to compare the Lorenz Model 1854 and Vereinsgewehr 1857.
I am thoroughly enjoying all this black powder/civil war content. I appreciate your work on this.
Verrrry cool Karl. Like this a lot.
An excellent explanation of the bullets used.
Very interesting Karl. I thought the Burton bullet was the be-all and end-all but now I know better. I didn't consider the pressure curve of BP or what that would mean. Thanks. Love the hat by the way.
Great video! Leave it to the common solder to break any equipment he is given. Even if only by rumors spread by word of mouth.
I have a few Williams cleaner bullet and two still have the piston in them. I recovered them just off of Gettysburg battle field where the country dug out a ditch in about 1974 along with mini balls and some shrapnel. One Williams looked unfired as it had no damage on it.
this was a very interesting little segment, thanks for this dive into projectile history.
I suspect that the cleaner bore has nothing to do with blow by in the first six inches of barrel - as the same amount of gasses and burnt powder is going down barrel in both cases. I think the differences are due to the scraping action of the projectile skirt (it is the scraping action Lee discusses in regards to the Lee Real Bullet.). In one case, the bullet engages 5-6 inches down the barrel, and starts its scraping effect there, whereas with the othe bullet, it begins its scraping action immediately. Of course, lubricated lead is not scraping into the barrel itself, but it is scraping fresh, soft fouling, and keeping the fouling from building up excessively and hardening.
Wow! I had no idea there was so much that went into bullet design. Great content. Thanks for sharing.
More videos like this please. Love the old firearms tech
Footnote here as to why civil war bullets were not cast and why most modern shooters do cast their bullets. Bullets made in a press are swagged. Works well for very soft lead. Most modern cast bullets are made of harder lead alloys or mixtures and are not as readily swagged. In principle the soft bullets used by hobbyists could be swagged, but it would require an expensive die to swagged the needed grooves and so out side of factory settings it is casting.
Shot was produced in the old days by dropping molten lead in a shot tower.
Thanks for this video, I have heard numerous times from park and reenactment personnel over the years about "cleaner bullets" but only in the misguided ways you mentioned. Thanks for setting it straight!
Fantastic and informative video, 'nuff said.
These left such NASTY wounds that the Hague convention finally required jacketed rounds, as they are MUCH more humane in terms of bodily damage!-John in Texas
Really enjoyed this vid/ content. It's stuff you'd never hear about anywhere else!
More of this type of content.
Carl, this was extremely interesting! I'm digging this series!
Really good and informative video - thanks! I like the pointer that you were using!
It's worth pointing out that this was for Union soldiers. Up until about 1863 most Confederate soldiers were firing buck and ball rounds since they had a lot of old converted 1842 Springfields. I'm not sure of the numbers of how many were rifled and how many not, but if memory serves the majority were rifled. Even with rifled weapons, buck and ball was the most issued round. It was simply more usable in the hands of troops that had probably never fired a rifle and was usable in both rifled and smoothbore muskets.
The video specifically states that this is Union. I will be covering Confederate projectiles in other content.
@@InrangeTv awesome. I'd love to have some of my memories corrected on the buck and ball loads, and anything on the Lorenz would be fascinating. I've drifted more to European conflicts of the period so it gets an extra mark in addition to just being a cool rifle with a cool round.
Thank you for another excellent video, Karl. Always interesting content!
Excellent video!! I have ALWAYS loved black powder since I was a kid. I wish more people were into it.
Excellent. Now I know the true story about the cleaner bullet
So they went through a ton of kludges and iterations, including a lathe turned part , to avoid using Minié' s brilliant idea of using a simple to make stamped metal cone.
Interesting video Karl
Could you do a firing/test to show the effectiveness of the cleaner bullets?
As far as I recollect the Whitworth cartridge contained the only self cleaning bullet during the mid-1860s.
I think it would be worthwhile to bring up the Austrian Lorenz rifle musket whick used a unique minie style ball without a hollow base. If I’m not mistaken, they had progressive depth rifling and relied on the ball being compressed at the breach in order to create a tight seal before being fired
You can often find trees at battle sites or camp sites where they fired the “cleaner” rounds into trees
Loved this video. More please!
Makes sense that the rifling would actually act like a file if the bullet jump the grooves sheering of some of the lead and causing it to clog up that part of the barrel
Well I learned something... Thanks Karl
Great content. This cleared up a lot of misconceptions I once believed.
Wow. It's like M16 - civil war edition. Also just finished reading "The Last of the Mohicans", can someone recommend a beginner budget friendly wood stocked black powder rifle?
I would get a traditions kit. cheap, easy to finish, and then you will have no problem taking the rifle apart for cleaning.
@@seantierney3 sweet, thanks!
Occasionally you can find used muzzleloaders for just a couple hundred bucks. Traditions makes good starter kits, though
Very educational. Thank you for bringing this to us.
The 'crushing' process is called 'Swaging.'
Yes, I know.
Great work. I enjoy these breakdown of firearm nuances.
I used to be a member of the 3rd Maine Company A reenactment unit and among units that historically carried them, the Enfield 1853 was vastly favored over the 1861 Springfield. The 3rd Maine Infantry carried both over the course of the war, so you could take your pick and I had an Enfield (I think it was like $150 cheaper and my mother had already found out that both were acceptable). The two main reasons why the Enfield was preferable is that they tend to weigh a little less. I've heard different people say anywhere from 1 to 2.5 pounds less, but I've never weighed their two rifles, so I don't know and it probably varies depending on who you bought your rifle from and when you bought it. I don't even know if the company that made mine is still in business... The other reason the Enfield was preferred is that, as can be seen in this video, the metallic parts of the Enfield are blued and the Springfields were not. This made the Enfield 1853 much easier to keep clean and free of rust. I had my Enfield 1853 until about 2015 when I moved back from Virginia to Maine. I had to leave some things in my apartment and make a second trip down to get the rest. In the 2 days I was gone my land lord let contractors in to start some renovation of the apartment and one of them stole the rifle. I still have a box of .58cal lead balls and percussion caps in my closet XD.
Austrian Lorenz rifle muskets were also very common during the US Civil war but they are .54 bore. The Union had about 200,000 wonder how they kept track of those units using them.
Makes you wonder why they didn't have a handful of guard duty, easy unload rounds but issue the type 2 for actual combat. Sounds like even a round ball would even suffice in a pinch for guards, as you said, you're really trying just to get the camps attention than engage the enemy (unless you have to of course).
Great content. Thank you.
Very well explained and educational.
Extremely interesting, Karl. Many thanks!
great work sir. love history stuff like this.