William’s Patent "Cleaner" Ammunition: Enigmatic Bullets from the American Civil War

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "The Archaeology of Arms: New Analytical Approaches", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Williams Patent bullets (types I, II, and III) are the second-most common bullet type found on American Civil War military sites. Between December 1861 and January 1864, when the Army cancelled manufacturing contracts, an estimated 102,500,000 Williams Patent Bullets had been purchased by the United States Army. Despite their ubiquity, this ammunition remains problematic: were claims of better accuracy over regulation ammunition true or hype; what was its intended function; how often was it included in cartridge packages; was it a “cleaner” bullet or intended as a bore “cleaner”; did soldiers discard it at a disproportional rate; and, with the ambiguity surrounding these objects, are archeologists forming interpretations based on solid evidence or historical myth. This paper will use available archeological comparative site data to examine this artifact type and the effects of confirmation bias on archeological interpretations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeology of Arms: New Analytical Approaches   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

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Contact(s): Nicole Haddow