Here is what the "Board Assembled" wrote as their opinion after watching days of firings at the Washington Arsenal comparing buck and ball to rifled muskets. "It is believed that a greater effect will be given by the much greater accuracy and weight of the elongated expanding ball, fired from the rifled musket, than by the scattering over a greater space of many buck-shot, several of which might strike a man, not in a vital part, without even disabling him. The board therefore is of opinion that the smooth bored muskets should all be altered by being rifled, to be fired with the elongated expanding ball, and the use of buck-shot with these arms should be abolished."
We know that didn't happen, but it don't make you want to get your hands on a smoothbore musket and stock up on buck and ball. Now to load buck and ball no problem you say, to fire a round of buck and ball you have to ram paper and all down the barrel or place a wad down on top of the three or four bucks. (some rounds had four bucks) Try doing this on even a slightly fouled smoothbore barrel. At least the Minie' ball had room to expand and the round ball didn't. If you don't do the above then the little bucks will roll down the barrel when leveled to fire, and that can't be good.
Thanks John, like I said Fort Donelson 1862, early war and early war ammo. I too have found bucks from a buck and ball round all over the country. Have you ever noticed how many times you have found them in groups of 2,3 or more as opposed to a single buck found, and you can tell they were never fired. They are still perfectly round and white, depending on the type of ground their found in. These little bucks were lost in the loading process or discarded to fire only the single .69 caliber round ball.
We have had quite discussion on the pros and cons of buck and ball used in the war. Now back to my original post of oh so long ago. As the war went on less and less buck and ball was avilable and used in the civil war as compared to all the other ammunitions used in the war, and I still stand by that.