Yes, that's the popular mythos, but I find it interesting that long before Claude Minie began delving into this subject, a British captain John Norton was the inventor of the cylindro-conical projectile (1818) and a number of inventors had already devised self-expanding bullets when, in 1836, Greener developed such a bullet consisting of a flat-ended oval ball with a cavity in which a metal plug was inserted. When the gun fired, the plug drove forward and caused the bullet to expand and engage the rifle grooves. Greener then submitted his invention to the British government, but it was rejected; later during the Crimean War, Claude Minié received £20,000 from the British government for a similar bullet, Greener sued for plagiarism and ultimately was awarded £1,000. Then in 1856, it was James Burton, of Harpers Ferry Armory, who discovered through experiments the iron plug was an unnecessary improvement, so the American "Minie" ball was only applied in name and was not materially the same. Of course, the name Norton ball or Greener ball, or even Burton ball just did not have the zing as did the "minie ball"! And today we have both the "mini-ball" and the "maxi-ball".