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| A Civil War issue Williams’ Patent self cleaning .58 cal. rifle musket cartridge. All original and as issued just as we removed it from a long stored Maine soldier’s cartridge box nearly thirty-five years ago (those were the days!). Collectors will recognize this scarce blue paper cartridge as the one to a packet, issue cartridge fitted with the William’s Patent of 1862 bullet. Fitted with a zinc washer or wad at it’s base the thin zinc disk was designed to expand upon firing and scrape away excess black powder fouling as the bullet passed through the musket’s rifling. Not intended for constant use the Williams’ patent cartridges were wrapped in blue paper so as to differentiate them from the others and were issued only one to a packet. Interestingly enough the use of these self-cleaning bullets led to considerable controversy stemming from accusations that the Yankee intent was only that the zinc wads would cause more wound damage. Many believed that these bullets contained poison within them that would be carried to the blood stream by the slashing of the jagged zinc washers. This erroneous accusation persisted for some years after the Civil War. Excellent reference on this and others may be found in Dean Thomas’s excellent work ROUND BALL TO RIMFIRE – A History of Civil War Small Arms Ammunition. Don't forget to give our search feature a try for special wants. A simple key word in lower case works best. |
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