I would agree that the Corinth/Shiloh area has a large variety of bullets. However, the same area is synonymous with bullets that have been claimed to be Civil War that are not. It is easy to throw oddball bullets into the mix when it comes to these areas and claim they are Civil War just based on the wide variety of different types already found. This particular area was at one time home to a very massive bullet mold collection. I would assume that the large variety of molds in the collection have had a bullet or two poured into them overtime. While I don't believe any individual intentionally made bullets to fool people in the 1960's-1970's, today is another story. Think about the marketing tactics and information out there on the projectile market today. Back in the 70's you could buy a lot of bullets for cheap and even the rare ones were considered pennies on the dollar compared to todays standards. Again...today is a different story and relics do end up in possession of those who are monetarily driven to make up elaborate stories to make a buck. Several types of molded bullets have been recast, painted, and have had a patina applied. As long as there in money in it, there will always be someone trying to fool the rest. It isn't just collectors being fooled, it is dealers as well. Over the years, I have become more critical than most when it comes to new bullets. I always have to ask the simple questions of who dug it, where was it dug, were there witnesses, are those witnesses reliable, is the digger reliable, is there documentation on the pieces recovered, is it possible that it is civilian rather than military, etc. When you really start to examine a projectile for what it truely is, you may come up with more reasons why it is not what it is portrayed to be. Then you come up with more questions like why is the design the way it is, what resources went into making it, where the resources available in that geographic area, and could it be a private purchase piece? On top of that you also have to ask could it be prewar or postwar and what are the characteristics of those types of projectiles? Where there civilians in the same area after the war moving west? This type of scenario can lead to all sorts of ideas just based on the personal income of those moving westward. They would all be carrying different guns, new and old, short and long, highly skilled works or art or wallhangers. The point is that all of these guns had bullets but exactly which types of projectiles they fired may never be known. This is the greatest part about collecting dug projectiles!
I would have to agree with several scholars that proof is needed in order to determine whether a bullet is what it is said to be. In the instance of some of the harder to find bullets there is a lot to be left to the imagination. Why aren't these cartridges found? Why aren't these bullets in old cased sets? Why don't the projectiles show up the the earlier texts?
Look at a bullet like the so called "LeMat slug." Why are they only found in one area? Where they found with other LeMat bullets? What makes this bullet attributed to the LeMat other than a similar shape? Do most appear to be the same bullet? Was the LeMat even carried in the area where they were dug? Why don't they show up in cased sets? Why don't they turn up in Europe where most LeMats were manufactured? Where are the fired examples? The LeMat had several of different sizes of guaged bores (bottom barrel), why was this bullet only made for one size? Who were the diggers of these bullets and where are they today? Have more been found since the initial recovery? The fact is that this particular bullet could be from any private/governmental purchased gun and made in very limited quantity. It could very well even be post war. Not likely.....but there is still a chance. I always seem to have more questions about bullets than the facts can answer which leaves me very skeptical about certain types like the above mentioned example. I could always make the case that I have just as much proof why it isn't what it is said to be. On the other hand someone can theorize a completely different story. In the end, nobody is truely correct until hard evidence proves otherwise.
I have always been under the impression that if you are going to collect Civil War bullets you can't just stop reading/collecting there. A five year period is not enough time to grasp the evolution of the bullet and cartridge as a whole, and there are a lot of unanswered questions to just stop at 1865. The "post war" period is just as great with new technological advancements that came about due to the problems with Civil War ammunition. If you only cocentrate on one era it makes it harder to think outside the box when it comes to small arms ammunition.
