Federal smoothbores at Gettysburg, Jul. 1863

[DaveC]

Dean S. Thomas, Ready ... Aim ... Fire! Small Arms ammunition in the Battle of Gettysburg (Thomas Pubns., 2007), pp. 60-67, citing, RG 156 Records of the Office of the Chief of Ordnance, NARA --"Quarterly Summary Statements of Ordnance and Ordnance Stores" 30 June 1863:

88th Pennsylvania [Phil.] (also Enfields)
81st Pennsylvania [Phil.] (also Springfield .58s)
63rd New York--3rd Regt. Irish Brigade [NYC]
69th New York--Fighting 69th/"Faugh a Ballagh!" [NYC]
88th New York--"Mr. Meagher's Own" 2nd Regt. Irish Brigade [Ft. Schuyler]
116th Pennsyvlania [Phil.]
145th Pennsylvania [Erie]
1st Minnesota (also Sharps, Springfield .58s and rifled .69s)
106th Pennsylvania [Phil.](also Springfield .58s, French .58s)
4th Ohio/ OVI [Columbus] (also Springfield .58s, Enfields, and English smoothbores!)
8th Ohio/ OVI "Fightin' Fools" (also Springfield .58s, Enfields)
12th New Jersey--"Buck and Ball" (recorded as making up buckshot cartridges from the buck and ball ammunition before Pickett's charge...)
11th Massachusetts "The Boston Volunteers"
11th New Jersey [Trenton] (also Enfields, Austrian .58s)
12th New Hampshire [Concord] (also Springfield .58s)
7th New Jersey [Trenton] (also Enfields and Springfield .58s)
9th Massachusetts "The Fighting Ninth" [Irish/Boston] (also rifled .69s--in fall '63 got Springfield .58s)
155th Pennsylvania [Pittsburgh]
13th PA Reserves/42nd Regt. "First Rifles" "Bucktails" [Harrisburg] (also Sharps, Enfields)
5th PA Reserves/ 34th Regt. [Harrisburg]
9th PA Reserves/ 38th Regt.[Pittsburgh]
3rd New Jersey (also Springfield .58s)
93rd Pennsylvania [Lebanon] (also .69 rifled muskets)
102nd Pennsylvania [Pittsburgh] (also Springfield .58s)
27th Pennsylvania [Phil.] (also Enfields)

 

[Stantheman86]

What is it trying to say , that all these Units had Smoothbores?

 

[DaveC]

Precisely. At Gettysburg, July 1863. So while over 2/3rds of Federal forces on foot had Springfield 1861s or 1855s or British Enfields, and a good chunk after that had Austrian rifles, there were still that many regiments with some, or even all, soldiers equipped with smoothbore .69 caliber muskets, and that in the Army of the Potomac. Imagine the Western Theater had even more still being used...

Unfortunately, I am unaware of any such documentation for CSA forces...

 

[Artificer]

Dave,

In the 1980's, I spent many, many hours in the NPS Reference Library at Chatham Manor, just across the river from Fredericksburg, VA. (Some forum members may know that Chatham Manor was Gen. Burnside's HQ for the Battle of Fredericksburg and later where Gen. Hooker staged part of his "Grand Review of the Army of the Potomac" for Lincoln and other dignitaries.)

I researched many things there over those visits and one visit, I tried to find out where my Paternal Confederate Ancestor fought and what unit he was in. While going through the Original Copies of "The War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Civil War" and numerous original references that day, I came across an original reference to a Union Regiment of Soldiers "in the West" who after winning a Battle, noticed the Confederate dead were armed with Enfield Rifles. The Union Soldiers were still armed with "Smoothbore Muskets," so they dropped their Muskets and eagerly took the Enfield Rifles. I THINK this was from the Battle of Shiloh, though it may easily have been another Battle. I know I was very surprised about that at the time that Confederate Soldiers were armed with more up to date Rifle Muskets than Federal Soldiers.

Gus

 

[DaveC]

Westerners as a rule, North and South, came from a much more pronounced firearm culture. These men were keen aficionados of firearms, and followed all of the technological breakthroughs and developments. Recall that the Texas Revolution had been fought with flintlocks for the most part (although wealthy men like Mirabeau Lamar had caplock shotguns and so on). As soon as Texas Independence had been won, the Lone Star Republic adopted the Model 1816 musket, but also the Jenks breech-loading carbine, the Colt Paterson revolvers, carbines, and shotguns, etc. Samuel Colt put the Texian Navy in Campeche as the "roll engraving" scene on his U.S. Navy Model 1851 .36 revolver, while others had various Western themes.

In the U.S. Civil War, it seems that while the arms in the Western Theater were often secondary or even tertiary class arms, the complaints from the men about them seemed more frequent and vociferous too! The soldiers sometimes balked at the issued arms. Sometimes even threats of punishment didn't quell their displeasure. In other cases officers or even State governors would fume and fulminate about the arms on offer... Notably the governor of Indiana.

While given the relative penury of the CSA and general inadequacy of the industrial base, with a few notable exceptions, it is most frequently Confederate rebels who exchanged arms on the battlefield--another "home court" advantage--it is also the case that Federals frequently swapped out arms. On the Confederate side, I have recently read of Tennesseeans smashing their flintlocks against trees and rocks so that no one would go and gather up their discarded obsolete muskets and foist them on some other hapless unit! I have even read of Federals swapping their arms for Richmond copies of Harper's Ferry Model 1855s!

Returning to the Army of the Potomac: Notice how the equation seemed to be "IRISH=.69 smoothbore." Poor Paddy? Were these "mere Irish" B'hoys simply thought to lack the ability of the use of the rifle, I wonder? Certainly interesting.

 

[Many Klatch]

In Grant's Memoirs I remember reading that after Vicksburg fell the Confederate forces stacked arms and marched out. The Federal forces then stacked their smooth-bored muskets and marched in and rearmed themselves with new Enfields. The Enfields had slipped past the blockade and had been delivered to Vicksburg by train.

In one of the battles back of Vicksburg the opposing forces were 50 yards apart. Grant wrote that he preferred the smooth bore muskets because they were shooting buck and ball. So the Federals were firing 4 ball with each shot and the Confederates were only sending one ball back.

 

[Stantheman86]

I had read that the Irish Brigade kept their 1842 Springfield Smoothbores by demand and did not want rifle-muskets because they liked the faster loading and ability to use Buck and Ball, which suited their aggressive, up close fighting preference as a Unit.

This is why I tell my "gun friends" or history fanatic friends , that people get stuck in this mindset that every Union soldier had a 61 Springfield and the Confederates were barefoot and ragtag with shotguns and flintlocks. Many times the CSA had better weapons and I honestly feel they had a superior tactical use of sharpshooters and Marksmen.

People often don't know that the CSA had small numbers of cottage industries making Enfield and Sharps copies.

Also , yes more than a couple of the Harpers Ferry 61 Springfield copies were taken and used by US troops, along with I'm sure other rifles seen purely as "Confederate". I would not be surprised if numbers of US soldiers finished out the war carrying 1841 "Mississippi's ", or CS Richmond rifles, Cook and Brother 2-banders, etc. Collectors may pay $7-10,000 for an original "CS Richmond" rifle for its CSA Provenance when in fact the rifle may have spent the war carried by a Union soldier. People look at Civil War history with a "modern" lens, but things were loose back then and if a victorious Battalion dropped 50% of its weapons and rooted through the dead of the opposing force for weapons, the chain of command didn't much care as long as they had functional weapons and ammo for them.

This also adds interest to my research of US troops removing rear sights from 1861 Springfield rifles and the various contract rifles. Maybe not many but some original rifles were found after the war with either the rear sight leaves missing or the whole rear sight gone.

Collectors assumed it was done after the war when the weapons were used as farm guns , etc but still some people say the sight leaves had been known to be discarded in the field .

Maybe by soldiers used to smoothbore muskets and the instinctive act of aiming down the pipe during volley fire, and the rear sight became an annoyance to them? Or it got caught on stuff? Maybe we'll never know

 

[Artificer]

Returning to the Army of the Potomac: Notice how the equation seemed to be "IRISH=.69 smoothbore." Poor Paddy? Were these "mere Irish" B'hoys simply thought to lack the ability of the use of the rifle, I wonder? Certainly interesting.

Actually, the 69th New York is one of the few Federal Units I know some details on, as they got the closest to the sunken road during the Battle of Fredericksburg and they were up against a Confederate Irish Brigade (Cobb's).

http://historyarch.com/2017/12/12/an-american-tragedy-at-fredericksburg-clash-of-the-irish-brigades/

The Federal Irish Brigade was formed VERY early in the War when the North just did not yet have enough "New model" M1861 Rifle Muskets made to issue to the huge numbers of soldiers who needed arms. So like many, if not most "Non Regular U.S. Regiments" in the early War period, they got issued what was available and that usually was a M1840 Percussion Smoothbore at best to at worst, some hastily purchased out of date and often worn European percussion converted smoothbore muskets.

In the Pre War years and after the M1855 Rifle Musket was delivered to REGULAR U.S. Infantry units, they began the first real marksmanship training and actually used their Rifled Muskets as far as 700 yards in combat. This was "in the west" where they often used what was later called "Skirmisher Tactics," so there wasn't the blinding clouds of black powder smoke from huge formations, that didn't allow them to shoot much beyond 100 yards - as was often the norm in the UnCivil War. The thing people don't think about though, is these were already well trained and disciplined Soldiers who were then given additional marksmanship training to properly use the much longer range Rifle Muskets and the Tactics that made them effective. They weren't starting as raw recruits who often didn't know their left foot from their right and a huge amount of available time was eaten up just in basic training of the early War Volunteers.

In the kind of combat in the East where large formations of soldiers were the norm, a single volley would often cloud the Unit firing to the point they could not see the enemy at all and for a time till the smoke dissipated. Add to the fact the same thing was happening with the "other side's" forces, once they fired, they were also sheathed in smoke clouds. A couple more quick volleys from each side and neither side could see individual targets to aim at. So even though the Rifled Muskets of the day could be used at much longer distances than 100 yards, the Black Powder used by both sides caused much of the combat to be 100 yards or less. At that distance, Buck and Ball from Smoothbores was very effective indeed.

Gus

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Part or all of the 10th TN infantry CSA, I have read, had unconverted 3rd model Bess muskets at their start off in the ACW. (That may be balderdash, as I'd think it was more likely IF they had the flinters they'd have had older versions of Springfields in flintlock). Supposedly these came from captured Bess taken from either the War of 1812 and/or bought after Texas won independence and the Mexican-American war. I've also read that some captured 3rd model Bess were converted over to caplock, and used by Confederate militia. Unfortunately, neither of the old books where this was found had much in the way of reference notes.


LD

 

[DaveC]

Some of the early militia muskets strongly resembled English muskets, no?

Also, up post on the Gettysburg list, "English smoothbores" are recorded for the 4th OVI!

Archaeological evidence in Texas turns up lots of Mexican India-pattern British muskets/ ex-Napoleonic War surplus, but also comparative rarities like the New Land Pattern too.

I believe that some early war Virginia troops had to use flintlocks initially, which may have been Virginia militia muskets and/or Model 1795 and Model 1816. Recall that in Georgia even pikes were on issue, at least for drill and training use.

 

[Grenadier1758]

I have also heard that Kentucky started the ACW with unconverted Brown Bess Muskets from muskets in long-term storage.

 

[Stantheman86]

Think of the modern equation.....like giving already trained, professional modern soldiers a new , advanced weapon vs. Recruiting a raw , untrained 10,000 man Battalion with varying levels of ability and giving them the newest weapons to use.

 

[DaveC]

I have also heard that Kentucky started the ACW with unconverted Brown Bess Muskets from muskets in long-term storage.

Recall, however, that at the outset of secession and Civil War, that the "Dark and Bloody Ground" hung in the balance. "To lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game ... Kentucky gone, we cannot hold Missouri, nor, as I think, Maryland. These all against us, and the job on our hands is too large for us. We would as well consent to separation at once, including the surrender of this capitol."

Fellow Kentuckian Lt. USN William Nelson, and Joshua Speed hurried 5,000 muskets to Cincinnati, from whence they were passed over the river to Unionists, followed by a further 5,000 by June 1861, and a further thousand to ex-Congressman Emerson Etheridge of Tennessee. By July 300 Sharps rifles and a Dahlgren howitzer arrived from the navy...

These weapons were "Lincoln guns" for the Unionists. Supposedly some crafty and inscrutable pro-Yankee pocketed 60,000 dollars from pro-secessionist governor Beriah Magoffin, and supplied the arms without touch-holes.

 

[Stantheman86]

I totally believe that Brown Besses were used by Kentucky CS troops, they had to dig deep in the armories and pull out whatever was in there.

Looking at it in a broad scope , when the vast majority of your soon to be enemy is armed with muzzleloading weapons a Brown Bess is still a viable weapon. I'd feel at least adequately armed with a functional Brown Bess and a box full of buck and ball cartridges in 1861. The standard. 65 round ball cartridges for the. 69 musket would definitely work in a Brown Bess, as long as each guy had a few spare flints.

In fact if you could keep a supply of flints and get .69 Buck and Ball cartridges I'd be ok keeping that thing for the whole war, I'm sure some guys did. Also don't have to worry about finding or getting caps and in a pinch you can drop pretty much anything down the bore , a handful of shotgun pellets, a few revolver bullets, etc.

 

[Arkansawer]

I totally believe that Brown Besses were used by Kentucky CS troops, they had to dig deep in the armories and pull out whatever was in there.

Looking at it in a broad scope , when the vast majority of your soon to be enemy is armed with muzzleloading weapons a Brown Bess is still a viable weapon. I'd feel at least adequately armed with a functional Brown Bess and a box full of buck and ball cartridges in 1861. The standard. 65 round ball cartridges for the. 69 musket would definitely work in a Brown Bess, as long as each guy had a few spare flints.

In fact if you could keep a supply of flints and get .69 Buck and Ball cartridges I'd be ok keeping that thing for the whole war, I'm sure some guys did. Also don't have to worry about finding or getting caps and in a pinch you can drop pretty much anything down the bore , a handful of shotgun pellets, a few revolver bullets, etc.

 

[Arkansawer]

Can someone delete my previous non reply ? The comment I wanted to make was some Arkansas troops at Shiloh were carrying flintlock muskets. As they went through Federal camps they exchanged the muskets for .58 rifles. A couple of hours later, they had sever ammo shortages and had to fall back to be resupplied with ammo.

 

[Eterry]

There is a very well written, researched, and presented article about smoothbores used in the ACW in a back issue of the American Rifleman. I posted about it here not long after it the monthly edition was issued...I dug up my old post, i dont know how to attach the old post, but here it is...

I did a little research and found one article on the American Rifleman website I recall reading in their magazine, titled "The guns of Manassas, 1861" from July 2015. It was written by Joseph G. Bilby, who I'm not familiar with, but who has written 16 books according to an online search.
Here is one quote from the article:
"In the spring of 1861, the most common small arms in militia hands or stored in federal and state arsenals, North and South, were .69-cal. smoothbore muskets. Some of these were late Model 1842 muskets in percussion ignition. More, however, were the 1816 or even earlier pattern guns, originally manufactured as flintlocks. Many had been modernized by conversion to percussion during the 1850s, but a substantial number remained in their original configuration."

Feel free to read the entire article, its pretty lengthy and appears to be well researched.

 

[DaveC]

Funny thing 'bout ol' Kentucky: 35k Confederates and 90k Union hailed from that state... Today there are some 74 monuments to the Civil War, of which two are apparently Union and 72 of which are Confederate!

 

[DaveC]

Shiloh just might be one of the last if not THE last major battle in North America fought with flintlocks.

19th Tennessee CSA--although they may have gotten some caplock smoothbores just before battle.
12th Tennessee CSA had caplock and flintlock muskets
14th Tennessee CSA
20th Tennessee CSA had flintlocks until March 1862, then went to Enfields
22nd Tennessee may have had English muskets and some flintlocks.
23rd Tennessee CSA
24th Tennessee CSA ostensibly had 1841 Mississippi rifles and flintlock .69s.
28th Tennessee CSA had a mix of modern P53 Enfields and flintlock .69s.
33rd Tennessee had flintlocks, apparently to augment civilian hunting guns and shotguns
15th Tennessee had a mix of caplock and flintlock .69 smoothbores, apparently
6th Tennessee had a mix
So to the 9th TN also.
The Crescent City Infantry had a bunch of smoothbore muskets, 1819 Halls, and shotguns.
Apparently some un-modified flintlock Halls breechloaders were use by the 2nd, 6th, 7th, 10th Arkansas Inf.
3rd KY CSA had a mix of caplock and flintlocks.
15th Mississippi had a mix of rifles and smoothbores, including flintlocks.
Lots and lots more percussion converted flintlocks.


The last use of flintlocks in major battles in South America must surely be during the 1864-1870 Paraguay War or War of the Triple Alliance when Paraguay was decimated by Imperial Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay... Certainly large quantities of India-pattern British flintlock muskets had been sold to Paraguay after the Napoleonic Wars into the early 19th Century....

 

[DaveC]

The 7th Texas showed up in Tennessee with 750 men. Their arms consisted of 123 shotguns--of which, 25 were in need of repair--150 miscellaneous "rifles"--48 in "poor condition"--and 104 percussion muskets given to them while they marched through Louisiana. A total of 377 weapons for those 750 men.

By August 1861 Tennessee had raised 17,541 infantry of which 69 percent were armed with flintlocks, 20 percent with smoothbore percussion guns, and 11 percent with rifles.
Apparently the 47th TN had 10 different makes and models of firearms in their possession!