James H. Burton’s 1855 Minie ball design, Harpers Ferry Armory

“New rifle musket ball caliber 0.58-inch. This final version of the Minie bullet resulted from experiments conducted by James H. Burton at the Harpers Ferry Armory during the early 1850s.”
Year: 1855. Image Credit: Smithsonian Neg. No. 91-10712; Harpers Ferry NHP Cat. No. 13645.

The Minie ball, invented by French Army officer Claude-Etienne Minie, was modified by James H. Burton who began his career as a machinist at Harpers Ferry Armory. The bullets delivered devastating injuries. A Minie ball flattened on impact shattering bone which caused splinters and further muscle and tissue damage.

Civil War Tech: The Minie Ball (9:51) YouTube, January 24, 2016
This video clip includes animations of how the Minie ball functioned, battlefield re-enactments and comments from James Meigs, Editor-in-Chief, Popular Mechanics, Brian Williams, “NBC Nightly News,” and General Colin L. Powell.

Warning! This content is graphic and may be disturbing to some viewers.