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The Williams cleaner bullet, also known as "cleaner bullets", refers to three different types of bullets that were used by the Union Army during the American Civil War in the standard .58 caliber rifle muskets. There was a fourth developed for use in the Union Repeating or "Coffee-Mill" gun.
There were a wide variety of weapons used during the American Civil War, especially in the early days as both the Union and Confederate armies struggled to arm their rapidly-expanding forces. Everything from antique flintlock firearms to early examples of machine guns and sniper rifles saw use to one extent or the other.
Burton's modified Minie ball had decreased mass and increased speed, resulting in increased energy and better range, as well as a cheaper bullet, which was used in the Crimean War [citation needed] and then the American Civil War. [3] Burton's version of the ball weighed 1.14 ounces. [2]: 314–315
An alternative type of rifle ammunition which saw use during the Civil War was the exploding bullet. One of the few standard-issue exploding bullets was designed by Samuel Gardiner Jr. for the Union Army. These Gardiner rounds were similar to the Minié ball but filled with fulminate and a time fuse set to detonate one to three seconds after firing
The Minié rifle saw limited distribution in the Crimean War and similar rifles using Minié bullets (such as the Pattern 1853 Enfield, the Springfield Model 1861 and the Lorenz rifle) were the dominant infantry weapons in the American Civil War. The large-caliber, easily deformed conical lead bullets, ranging in diameter from .54 to .58 inches ...
Buckshot pellets from the American Civil War. Buck and ball was a common load for muzzle-loading muskets, and was frequently used in the American Revolutionary War and into the early days of the American Civil War. The load usually consisted of a .50 to .75 caliber round lead musket ball that was combined with three to six buckshot pellets.
Thus, larger caliber rimfire cartridges were soon introduced after 1857, when the Smith & Wesson .22 Short ammunition was introduced for the first time. Some of these rifle cartridges were used in the American Civil War, including the .44 Henry and 56-56 Spencer (both in 1860).
In spite of this, few of the carbines were immediately ordered by the government, but this changed with the outbreak of the Civil War, when over 55,000 were ordered for use by Union cavalrymen. [3] This made it the third most popular carbine of the Civil War; only the Sharps carbine and the Spencer carbine were more widely used. [4]