You are aware that flintlocks had all but disappeared by the time of the southern rebellion, aren't you? They had been replaced by percussion caps.
Whatever, I'm not a ballistics afficionado. Guy accidentally shot himself, Cheney accidentally shot someone else. Accidents happen. I'm sure I can track down some pretty notorious accidents (I think Teddy Roosevelt almost got himself killed on more than one occasion), but we're debating the Civil War.
a LARGE number of "billy yanks" & "johnny rebs" went to war with FLINTLOCKS, including "Brown Bess" muskets, Charlevilles & assorted privately owned weapons of every sort.
1st Manassas was FILLED with troops with flintlocks & (at least pieces of) American Revolution & "1812 period" uniforms. YES, some soldiers had GOOD, modern weapons, but MANY had "anything available" that would "half shoot".
by late 1861, you would be correct.
that's ONE reason that 1st Manassas was such a "MESS"! poor/missing equipment, all sorts of "uniforms", little or no organization at "company level", amateur soldiers & NO central plan were SOME of the other reasons. it was CONFUSION, personified.
free dixie,sw
my correspondent says that it was about a 3 INCH bore,a flintlock with a barrel over 7 FEET long & weighed about 70 pounds.
"the load" was reported to be a POUND of black powder & "six or more double handfuls" of lead shot. he says he has NO evidence that they ever fired this "miniature cannon" during the WBTS. he simply knows it was "TAKEN to war".(IF this thing was ever fired in the first days of the war, it MUST have been spectacular to say the least.)
fwiw, i have SEEN one of these "MONSTERS" at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum & i would NOT want to be on EITHER end, when it was fired! (the docent at the museum said that it was NOT uncommon to kill 250-300 ducks & geese with ONE shot. that alone should tell everyone something about the BRUTE power of this sort of punt gun.)
free dixie,sw
Actually, that isn't totally correct. Some units at 1st Mannassas DID carry smoothbore flintlocks.