Sorry for the delay in posting this, Mike.
This is a tie ring enfield which was found near Des Arc, Arkansas. What makes this bullet stand out from the usual run of the mill tie ring enfield is that this one was actually fired.
Some of you may have heard rumblings that the TM Confederates never fought and this rumor has been the subject of some ridicule such as comparing a fired TM Confederate bullet to a dead cavalryman. There's a perfectly good explanation of why these bullets are so scarce.
By March of 1862 almost all of the men and equipment in the Department were sent east to help save the Confederacy. They would have done it, too, if Pat Cleburne had been put in charge in the west. The Trans-Mississippi had to start all over from scratch. Men were found in the glens and hollows of the Arkansas mountains, the swamps of Louisiana, the badlands of Texas and the razorback ridges of Missouri, many of whom weren't even aware that there was a war going on. All of these backwoodsmen were more familiar with a rifle than they were with a fork and spoon.
They hunted Yankees like they hunted squirrels, one shot to the eye, and they never missed. When word got around to the federal troops of their shooting skills, the Yanks used a tactic that insured they wouldn't be shot in the eye, in the process giving the Rebs much bigger targets to aim at. The bluecoats took Johnnie's bullets to the grave with them.
Now you know the rest of the story.
