Your civil war .69-caliber 3-groove Minie-bullet is definitely a fired one.
1- It shows rifling-marks... "slightly diagonal" ridges running up the bullet's sides, made by the gunbarrel's rifling-grooves.
2- Definite impact damage on the bullet's nose.
3. Just below the impact damage, there is a linear indentation encircling the bullet's nose, made by the ramrod's mouth during loading into a gunpowder-ash-clogged gunbarrel.
In addition to troops "passing through" an area with no battle history, there were many mustering-in-and-troop-training sites. Those are found in every state which sent troops to the civil war. Troop-training sites in states where no civil war battle was ever fought have produced civil war military relics, such as uniform buttons, buckles, gunparts, and bullets. I mention that in order to give some hope to diggers in Illinois, New York, and Michigan, etc. Do some research for civil war era State Militia mustering-and-training sites.
