[kronckew]

The most common way to clean a BP weapon was with water. In battle, if a soldier's weapon gets fouled & hard to load/fire, they would, if no water was available, urinate into it to flush out the residue. The use of the clever Minie bullet rather than a tightly patched ball not only increased range and accuracy, but it's loose fit made it easier to ram down a fouled musket, increasing the number of rounds you could fire between cleanings.

Touch holes evolved from match locks thru flintlock and percussion locks into using friction primer tubes that cleared the vent as well as poked thru a cloth cartridge into the powder charge for more reliable ignition. The gun captain would insert the primer, clip his firing line to the ring on the primer and, after stepping clear and ensuring the rest of the crew was clear, a tug fired the cannon.

Cannon Rounds were, in the latter years of muzzle loading artillery, frequently made up ahead of time into caseless cartridges with the bagged powder topped with an attached ball strapped to a wooden sabot that could be rammed down as a unit to save time. They also helped avoid the embarrassment of the ball rolling out if you had to depress the muzzle for close range shots.