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This cartridge box from the War of 1812, and its contents were like cartridge boxes carried by soldiers 30 years earlier during the Revolution. The leather knapsack held a block of wood drilled with holes that stored upright 15 to 20 paper tubes, or cartridges. Soldiers rolled and folded these paper cartridges to hold black powder and a musket ball. They tore open the paper cartridges with their teeth and dumped the powder and bullet down the gun barrel. Black powder ringed a soldier's mouth once he had fired several times.

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