Run bullets.

4

4V50 Gary

Staff
You guys know I'm an avid reader. I started skimming through The Life of a Union Army Sharpshooter: The Diaries and Letters of John T. Farnham when I came across this passage (bold is mine):

Saturday- 14. St. Valentine's Day - Cold, but pleasant. Had set screw changed in my rifle & sight changed. Run bullets. Aired clothes. bo't paper. commenced writing to mother. Received papers from home. Recd breast & should[er] belts, brass plates, bullet & cap boxes; getting well loaded up. No coffee for supper. By the fire in eve.
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What does run bullets mean?

I suspect he means that he casted some bullets. As a member of the First Battalion New York Sharp Shooters, Farnham does have a target rifle and not the common Springfield.
 
I don't really have a definitive answer, but I suspect any and/or all aspects of creating bullets could be implied as you stated.

Sometimes in reading through those old diaries, you realize how much language can change over relatively short periods of time. Words take on different meanings depending on the person, time frame and geographical location. It can often take some deep digging to get the real meaning of what the writer was trying to convey.
 
As a youth I read every frontier, buckskinner and mountain man book I could get my hands on. This was some decades ago, so I cannot recall the source; but I am certain 'running ball' means to melt lead and cast ball.
 
Same-Same; running-lead

The term that I am most familiar with is "running-Lead" which basically means the same thing, whether casting or smelting but mostly casting. There are many historical references to "running-lead". ....... :)

Would add that some of Sam Fadala's books, uses that term; Running-Ball for RB's and I suppose that crossed over to running-bullets which is what was being done during the Civil War. . .:)

Be Safe !!!
 
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Thanks Pahoo & Sarge (and everyone else).

Sizers were used for antebellum target rifles. They came with the rifle along with the mould, false muzzle, paper patch cutter and bullet starter (and sometimes rest).
 
They didn't size bullets back then. I would assume he meant making them.
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They most certainly did. One of the big headaches of the Confederacy was getting uniform sizing dies.

I don't know if a guy in the field would be doing it, but arsenals certainly did.

Steve
 
"running bullets" - I would take it as the same as we often refer to it now - i.e. casting bullets. Does the publication indicate what the rifle was that he was using? If it was a pickett rifle or a muzzleloading target rifle - I'm thinking that more than likely, he cast his ownm- probably in a mold specifically made and sized for his particular rifle.
 
He mentioned having the sight changed, maybe ran some bullets through it to sight it in. Can't imagine a sharpshooter not sighting it in after a sight change.
 
+1 Being the entry reads as a 'laundry' list of things accomplished that particular dry, I 'read' it as running bullets through the rifle to sight it in after having work done on the weapon.

The list suggests bivouac and resupply, hence he would not need to cast bullets since a Quartermaster and Armourer would seem implied.
 
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As a member of the First Battalion New York Sharp Shooters, Farnham does have a target rifle and not the common Springfield.
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If this was in 1861 that would be true but they were all issued Sharp's in 1862.
 
Hawg - Sharps were not automatically issued to a sharpshooter unit and within the First Battalion New York Sharp Shooters some men bought their own target rifles.

I'm working on a new manuscript (30k words at present and max 40-45k words) that covers this topic and may be picked up by a UK publisher. The only hang up is the intellectual property rights and whether it will infringe upon the first book.
 
Just what I found on a quick internet search. That the first had Sharp's and Whitworth's and some brought their own but were issued Sharp's in 62.
 
It's actually a confusing subject and when you examine the Confederate sharpshooters of '62. I found one man who was discharged after the surgeon as certified him as an imbecile. Another man was a paid substitute and gave his age at 62 years! In one letter he changed it to 72. Whether 62 or 72, his best service would be as a hospital attendant. Anyway, he deserted and was turned in by his own family who said he was a, "moth to the family." Some Confederates voted for who got transferred to the sharpshooters and the "lucky" candidate was probably the fecal bird of the unit. If the officers go to select the man, they got rid of the sickly or the fecal birds.

It certainly wasn't like today's McDonalds where if you order a Big Mac in NYC, it'll be the same as a Big Mac in Seattle. Mebbe the Confederates would have done better if they had McD mgmt.
 
I found one man who was discharged after the surgeon as certified him as an imbecile.
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I would buy that man a box of fine cigars if he were alive today and performing those exams on the three branches of government!
 
Records can be a great help but they can also lead to more questions than answers. They can also at times be amusing. I was researching one of the soldiers from my family and came across records for another man in his company. Seems he didn't come home from the war and his widow was trying to collect his pension and after sending several letters she got the response that she wasn't eligible because he wasn't dead. :D
 
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