Tom
.. An Elongated, Conical, Rifle, Minie, are all basicly the same type/shape of projectile (cylindrical oblong bullet). However not all Elongated/Conical are Minies. Many of the Cavalry Carbines fired Elongated/Conical shaped bullets but were not hollow based such as a Minie.

.. "Ball" was a generic catch all term for just about any small arms projectile, as a carry over from pre-war days when only round lead balls were predominately used. When the advent of the Minie type came along the term was still applied. But might have been phrased as "Conical Ball" or "Elongated Ball". The smoothbores typically were refered to simply as "Ball Cartridge" When you find just "Ball" it could have been a round ball or could have been just about anything. Depending on the writers habits.

.. "Buckshot".. doesnt collectively always imply just Buck and Ball. Shotgun use in some cavalry units still existed. Also there were cartridge loads of just buckshot made and issued for the 69 caliber smoothbores as well.

Unfortunately there was no single accepted standard of such terms. Ask three different surgeons and you might get three different terms given for the same item.

You will also find various non-descript terms given. Taken into consideration that probably in many cases the projectile in question was a through-and-through wound and no longer present. Or deformed enough that makes exact identification iffy. Surgeon noting the damage examined that it was a gunshot wound projectile of some sorts, v/s a wound by a knife, bayonet, shell fragment wound etc.

Another thing to consider in the overall picture... Surgeons made notes and records on the casualties they actually tended too. Meaning their records only reflect those that lived long enough to make it to the surgeons table. Those that were killed outright, or died quickly thereafter on the field, a talley of what fatal wounds they recieved were generally not included in these given surgical studies. So even with best efforts we still only have a handful of the puzzle peices to work with.

Frederick