This cartridge box and its contents were similar to those carried by soldiers thirty years earlier during the American Revolution. The leather bag held a block of wood drilled with holes that stored upright fifteen to twenty paper cylinders, or cartridges. Soldiers rolled and folded the cartridges to hold black powder and a musket ball. Loading a gun involved tearing open a cartridge with one’s teeth and dumping the powder and bullet down the gun barrel.
Cartridge box. ca. 1800. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/1885-01-02/. Accessed on December 7, 2024.
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