OK, now. Here’s more than you ever wanted to know about firing a rifle during the Civil War. However, Gary and I were puzzled about what the steps for loading and firing a weapon were, how they did it in battle and were discussing this in front of a poster about arms during the Civil War. All of a sudden a Park Ranger, Will, who had overheard our questions, appeared at our side with a Civil War rifle all ready to answer our questions. As he was talking, several others gathered around. He was a font of information and was excited to share it all with us. And we were a receptive audience with lots of questions.
Firstly: did you know that everyone who was an infantryman in the Civil War, whether from the Confederacy or from the Union was right handed? Well, of course, that makes sense since they were standing in a line facing the enemy. If some were right handed and others were left handed and handling their rifles, cartridge boxes, percussion cap boxes on different sides of their bodies, they’d knock into each other and cause no end of deaths. If everyone is right handed, they all do the same thing on the same side, firing a rifle is much more orderly, no one bumps the guy next to them while loading and firing is much safer.
WEAPONS
In the beginning most of the young men forming into companies in their states and then going into battle had their own weapons and they could be anything. Some had rifles, some had muskets. Each of these fired different ammunition and the ammunition might be of a different calibre. Don’t think that if you run out of ammunition, that you can borrow from the guy next to you. Or, if you run out of ammunition that you can pick up a cartridge case from a dead or wounded enemy soldier as you attack forward.
The Springfield and the Enfield rifles were the most the most common weapons used by both the North and the South: the Enfield imported from England was the most popular in the South while the Springfield manufactured in the US in Springfield, MA was the weapon of choice for the North. As the war continued the both the Union and the Confederacy increased the number of both of these they had in service. Both of these were much more accurate than previous weapons and could shoot much further. Now, given that rifles were much more accurate than older weapons, why in the world did men using these rifles stand in line, moving forward in a bunch? Why did the not leave space between them, why did they not vary their lines? Well, the officers were still using old tactical books which said that armies needed to move forward in an orderly fashion - just like they had hundreds of years ago.
These weapons weighed about 9 pounds but then you also had to count the weight of the ammunition and caps the soldiers had to carry with them. Oh yeah, some times they also carried bayonets for hand to hand fighting.
AMMUNITION
Soldiers carried a cartridge box which usually held 40 rounds of ammunition. This ammunition was a small paper wrapped cylinder which held both the ball and the powder. The soldier would reach inside this cartridge case, with draw one cartridge, tear off the seal with his teeth (one requirement for being a soldier was having at least 2 teeth - one on top and one on the bottom so you could tear the cartridge paper) pour the powder into the muzzle, then put the ball down the muzzle, pushing it down with the ramrod.
The most common ammunition was the minie’ ball do-developed by Claude-E’tienne Minie’ (pronounced Mi nay - but in America pronounced minnie as in Minnie Mouse.) Because this was rifled, it shot truer and straighter and usually went all the way through the injured part unless it hit a bone and caused it to shatter (thus all the amputations during the Civil War.) A musket ball was round and bounced around the chamber until it exited. It if exited right as it bounced on the top of the muzzle, it might ricochet downward, if it hit the bottom of the muzzle, it might exit upwards. Not very accurate. And they had less power than a rifled shot so they would remain lodged in whatever they hit.
We noticed in a lot of plaques as we toured the battle ground that not many men were actually killed in battle. We had thought that there were horrendous numbers killed. However, the number only counts those killed immediately, not those who were wounded and died later either of infection, shock or from disease.
PERCUSSION CAPS
To fire the ammunition, you needed a percussion cap (shaped like a little hat - see below - hence the name ‘cap’). The cap held some fulminate of mercury which would cause the cap to explode when hit, causing a small flame to go through the cap, ignite the powder and shoot the ball out of the muzzle of the gun.
OK, you’ve got a weapon, some ammunition, some caps - now you’re ready to fire. If you have enough training and practice enough, you’ll be able to fire 3 times a minute. Of course, you’ve running into battle, across an open field or through brush and bracken, possibly up a hill with someone else firing at you 3 times a minute.
Here are the 10 steps you’ll need to go through to get your weapon to fire (The pictures are from the NPS Vicksburg National Military Park website. (The National Park Service has modified the original Civil War Small Arms Drill, designed as a battle drill to fire the rifle-musket under combat conditions. Although the soldier’s safety was paramount, speed was essential. Since combat is not an issue in Civil War parks today, the National Park Service has altered the drill to enhance the safety of the demonstrator.)
LOAD: bring the musket from your shoulder and place the but of the rifle on the ground between your feet holding the weapon with your left hand about arm length from your body at a 45 degree angle. Using your right hand, open your cartridge box
HANDLE AND TEAR CARTRIDGE
HANDLE CARTRIDGE: take a cartridge form your cartridge box and bring it up to your mouth.
TEAR CARTRIDGE: using you teeth, tar the paper cartridge, exposing the powder
CHARGE CARTRIDGE: tear open the cartridge, pour the powder down the muzzle, then the ball and finally the paper from the cartridge.
DRAW RAMMER: remove the ramrod from its place on the weapon.
RAM CARTRIDGE: insert the ramrod pushing the paper the ball and the powder down to the bottom of the muzzle
RETURN RAMMER: return your rammer to its fully seated position on your rifle. Think about doing this precisely during a battle. You’ve got to get this rammer exactly into the right position to return it or you might lose it before you fire again. And, most important, use your little finger to push it fully in, if you use any other finger and the gun goes off unexpectedly, you might find yourself without a hand.
PRIME: raise the muzzle of your rifle to eye-level with the lock above your waist. With your right thumb, cock your weapon half-way, put a percussion cap on the cone of your weapon
READY: using your right thumb, cock your weapon fully
AIM: bring the butt of your rifle to your shoulder and take aim.
FIRE: fire your weapon
Now, do this 3 times a minute. The above procedures would be used under the best of circumstances. A soldier on the drill field would be expected to load and fire a musket 3-4 times per minute. In combat, it was much different. Oh, yeah, don’t forget that you are running into combat in full uniform across an open field or through brush and bracken at a enemy who is firing at you.
Orders can be given to determine who fires: Fire by file means that the men in the front line fire one at a time down the line; fire by rank means that they fire by line, the first line fires first and then the second line fires over the shoulders of the first line (imagine how that sounds in your ear if you are in the front line); fire by company means that a company fires all at once and then the next company; or fire by music means that the drummer gives the fire signal on his drum. A regiment of 400 men can fire 1200 shots a minute when well trained. The goal is to keep up a stead volley - as much lead in the air as possible to kill as many of your opponent as possible. Often they fire a volley in order for effect and then it’s everyone on their own.
Here’s a Union soldier in full battle uniform. Hey, does he look familiar? Sure, it’s Will, our knowledgeable Ranger.
Now, in the interest of fairness, here is, Todd, another ranger in the other poster demonstrating a Confederate uniform.
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