How Did The Minie Ball Affect Infantry Tactics During The...

How did the Minià © Ball Affect Infantry Tactics in the U.S. Civil War? The U.S. civil war was the most bloody conflict that the U.S. had ever been involved in. It brought over 1,100,000 casualties from both sides, with over ninety percent of these casualties resulting from small- arms fire (Howey â€Å"Weaponry, the Rifle-Musket and the Minià © ball†). The Minià © Ball has been widely attributed to a majority of these cases. The Ball was a bullet developed by Claude-Étienne Minià © and Henri-Gustave Delvigne in 1849 after the two French officers decided to improve on a currently existing design (HistoryNet â€Å"Minià © Ball†). The pair also designed a rifle, a gun containing a barrel with grooves running in a corkscrew fashion along the length of the barrel. These grooves caught the bullet as it traveled down the barrel and spun it, greatly increasing the velocity and accuracy of the bullet as it left the barrel. Compared to the earlier musket balls, which bo unced around in the barrel and exited at an unpredictable angle, it was much more accurate. When the bullet arrived in the United States, James Burton at the arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, simplified the bullet into the .58 calibre widely used in the Civil War (Leonard â€Å"The Bullet That Changed History†). The ball, made of soft lead, featured a conical shape and a hollow center. This allowed it to expand to fit the barrel when shot out of the gun and easily engage the rifling, making it more aerodynamic and capable of flying at