A tactic at the time of our Civil War was to fire cannon balls that skipped across the ground into advancing lines of infantry. Solid shot cannon balls will ricochet, bound along for quite a distance, and although appear to be slow moving after the first few bounces, can still be lethal. There are ample accounts of soldiers seeing a rolling cannon ball attempting to stop it with their foot, resulting in severe injury. In many cases, gunners aimed to skip a ball through the enemy formation, as upon striking the ground, the ball will kick up sticks and stones which can injure or kill. A typical ricocheting cannon ball had the potential to skip along for hundreds of yards before coming to rest, and could kill or injure many soldiers.
