In the American Medical Weekly dated November 7, 1874, a doctor relates an unusual story of a confederate war soldier during the battle of Raymond, Mississippi in 1863. During the battle, a minie ball crashed into the soldier's tibia, ricocheted through his scrotum and then subsequently penetrated the abdomen of a 17 year old girl who was occupying a nearby farmhouse with her mother and sister. After dressing the girl's wound, the doctor explained, he visited her over the next few months and realized that her abdomen continued to swell as if she were pregnant. Upon examination, he determined that she was still a virgin and that the bullet had impregnated her with the unfortunate soldier's sperm. What was more, the bullet was found in the baby boy's scrotum following his birth.
Though a fascinating, yet slightly disgusting, story, it was later discovered that a story was all it was. In the editor's note section of the November 21, 1874 issue of American Medical Weekly, it stated that the doctor, one L.G. Capers, "disclaims responsibility for the truth of that remarkable case of impregnation by a minie ball." It also described the article as "contemplated fun" and admonished the reader not "to cut capers" after reading it.
In addition, the popular television show Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel disproved the myth by putting it through a simulated test. They found that the ball could ricochet more than 100 yards, but the heat of the minie ball would have been sufficient to destroy the sperm if it had carried any in the first place.
(Sources: Capers, L.G., "Attention Gynecologists: Notes from The Diary of a Field and Hospital Surgeon," The American Medical Weekly, November 7, 1874. Editor's Note, The American Medical Weekly, November 21, 1874. March 30, 2005. Mythbusters, "Son of a Gun," Discovery Channel. Aired March 30 2005.)
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