Oh no John they were the most commonly used bullet in the war. The way the minie` ball worked is it was easy to load in a fouled barrel because it was slightly undersized. The powder was poured and the bullet dropped in the barrel and rammed home. When it was rammed down the base slightly opened to hold the bullet from sliding out. When it was fired the hollow base expanded to grip the rifling and seal the bore. A full sized bullet would have been almost impossible to load after a few firings due to the black powder fouling in the bore. With the minie` ball troops of both the north and south had a bullet that could be loaded quickly, had a better BC (slightly) than a round ball, and could be loaded easier even in a dirty barrel.
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