True
Thanks Va-Reb.....x 2.
Respectfully, anyone doubting swaging bullets might want to research that a tad because they did in fact use a swaging process during the civil war. There were numerous bullet patents that document it. Bullets were either pored into molds or solid lead stock was fed into the machine to swage the bullet. The swage marks in the base was a tool transfer mark as the bullet was turned.
Also bullet patina is a funny thing. Some ground activity produces a pure white patina, some a chalky patina and some a gray patina. Anyone who has dug bullets out of a wet swampy area here in Virginia can attest that they will not have a chalky patina and will be just a flat gray.
In my experience ,ammunition recovered from CW camps may be bewildering at times to the digger. Sometimes the Rebs captured northern ammunition variants, and or, vise-versa. Gents, if the ammunition was useable and the powder was good, it would be utilized by either side who fell upon it.
.58 caliber is .58 caliber, .54 caliber is .54 caliber. etc... If it would ram home and the gun would shoot it; some soldier was going to fire it. In battlefield areas, troops may over run an area and seize anything from prisoners, cannons, horses, wagons, rations and yep....creates of ammunition. That's how some variants of one-side's ammunition ends up in the other's camp.
I hit a vey small CS cavalry camp years ago and dug some CS Merrills, CS Richmond Sharps and CS Smith Carbine ammunition. All of a sudden I digs some full Spencer Carbine cartridges. So, did some US Calvary Trooper slide through the old camp after it was unoccupied and dump some cartridges or did some CS Trooper have a captured Spencer Carbine and leave ammunition behind. I'm just not sure. Same with buttons!
I've also hunted geographic areas that were, at one point in the war, northern occupied. Once it was abandoned, it became southern occupied etc... That's why bullets from both sides will be found there. It may change hands several times during the war. An example may be high ground overlooking a river. Just a strategic vantage point for any side that may find it useful.
Again on the swaged thing and to quote Jobe Holiday, "You have touched upon how it was done, very simply the majority of Union manufactured Minie Balls in the Civil war were swaged. They used a swaging machine with a number of dies, in a circular wheel-like arrangement if I remember correctly and I believe steam powered. The lead was cut in slugs from long round bars which had been extruded to the correct diameter. The dies were closed, slugs inserted into the cavities, and the base pins were then pushed into the dies forming a perfect pointed and grooved projectile. A friend actually has some of the base plugs from one of the swaging machines. If you have the chance to look at a book on collecting Civil War projectiles, you will see an assortment of different markings in the base cavities of the Minie Balls, vertical lines, raised US in the base, etc. The C.S. Gardner bullets also used a swaging process to form a flange down over the paper tube for the powder."
Just something to ponder.