An actual Civil War Minie ball

You couldn’t help yourself, could you? You had to click.  I don’t blame you.  That may be the greatest title to a post I’ve ever written. It’s also probably the greatest urban legend of all time.

C’mon. Did you really think it could happen? But the story – which passed as fact for many years – is so awesome I had to share it here with y’all.

This year marks 150 years since The Civil War began, which means my husband, a huge Civil War buff, is busy reading all things Civil War. He turned me onto the pregnancy-related urban legend. 

New meaning to the term “son-of-a-gun”:

A Minie ball (pronounced minny) is a type of bullet used in a rifle musket – a weapon commonly used during The Civil War. The urban legend says the bullet was fired through the groin area of a Confederate soldier and subsequently ricocheted into the ovaries of a nearby southern bell whose home bordered the battlefield in question. Nine months later a baby was born and eventually the soldier, being a gentleman, married the young mother and everyone lived happily ever after.

According to Dr LeGrand G Capers in his article published in the American Medical Weekly on November 7, 1871, this actually happened:

Dr Capers was the chief surgeon attached to Cuttshaws Battery during the Vicksburg Campaign. He stated that the incident occurred during the very real Battle of Raymond, Mississippi May 11, 1863. He stated in the article that the baby was born to the young lady in question 278 days later who had been examined pre-birth and found to have an intact hymen, suggesting no sexual contact. To tie up loose ends it was also stated that he removed the deformed Minie ball from under the baby’s skin after birth.

As reported by the popular culture/urban legends debunker Snopes, the American Medical Weekly published in its November 21, 1874 edition that the Son of a Gun story was a gag. Still, the article was passed around and eventually cited as fact again in the New York Journal of Medicine in 1959. The crew of the Discovery Channel program Mythbusters eventually declared it impossible due to the physics and biological aspects of the million to one shot.

Still, the Old Courthouse Museum in downtown Vicksburg Mississippi has an exhibit of the Son of a Gun story complete with a minie ball, a picture of Confederate Surgeon Capers, and a copy of the article penned by Dr Capers that started everything. The exhibit states plainly “We don’t ask you to believe the story, just enjoy it!”

I thoroughly enjoyed it! Especially the part about how he removed the bullet from under the baby’s skin after it was born.

Have you heard any killer urban myths about pregnancy? Share them in the comments below!

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