The 14th Illinois once attempted target practice with a barrel set up 180 yards from the firing line, but of 160 shots fired only four actually hit it. In the few weeks between its formation and going into battle, for example, the 24th Michigan had one recorded instance of target practice, during which three men were wounded and one died of a heart attack. Training could help overcome some of these difficulties but target practice was virtually unknown on either side of the Civil War. The curved trajectory of the bullet also meant there was a gap over which the bullet flew: a rifle musket sighted to a range of 500 yards would send the bullet clear over the head of a mounted cavalryman standing at a distance of 250 yards. In order to hit a target at distances beyond 100 yards, the firer had to carefully adjust their sights and accurately estimate the range, which could be difficult in the havoc of battle. Another reason is that the rifling also slowed the speed of the bullet, which meant a lower muzzle velocity than smoothbore muskets and a curved trajectory. Black powder fouled the rifling in the barrel and produced thick clouds of smoke which hung about the battlefield and obscured targets. Guelzo argues that one technical reason such short ranges persisted was the continued use of black powder.
Surveying a number of battles, they found that Civil War combat still largely took place at ranges similar to or slightly better than smoothbore muskets, suggesting no revolution had taken place in the way war was conducted. More recently, historians including Paddy Griffith, Mark Grimsley and Brent Nosworthy have challenged this interpretation. Rifled muskets not only blunted the frontal assault by enemy infantry but also neutralized the offensive capabilities of cavalry and field artillery and thereby led to the increased usage of trench warfare. McPherson have argued that the increased range of the rifled musket rendered the Napoleonic tactics with which Civil War commanders continued to fight obsolete and bloody. Previously, historians of the war such as James M. Whereas a smoothbore musket like the Brown Bess could be expected to accurately hit a target at a distance of several dozen yards, rifled muskets were reasonably accurate at a distance of 500 yards. One significant advantage the rifled musket had over the smoothbore was its effective range. ĭrawing of a Civil War soldier loading a muzzleloader rifle Rifled muskets quickly became the standard weapon of modern armies of the period, including the United States, while some smoothbore muskets were converted into rifles.
Conically-shaped with a hollow base, the Minié ball could be easily loaded but expanded upon firing to fit the rifling grooves. However, it was the invention of the Minié ball which ultimately solved the problem of the slow-loading rifle. The caplock replaced the flintlock, improving performance in wet weather and allowing for a slightly higher rate of fire, and the use of rifling with mechanically fitted bullets was tested by several inventors. In the decades leading up to the Civil War, several advances helped make the rifle a more practical weapon for the average soldier. In order for rifling to impart a spin upon a projectile it has to have a tight fit, and with weapons of the time being muzzleloaders this made it much slower to load and fire a rifle compared to a musket. Historically, the smoothbore musket had been the primary weapon of the infantry while the rifle was reserved for specialist units.
The Civil War brought many advances in firearms technology, most notably the widespread use of rifled barrels. Though the muzzleloader percussion cap rifle was the most numerous weapon, being standard issue for the Union and Confederate armies, many other firearms, ranging from the single-shot breech-loading Sharps and Burnside rifles to the Spencer and the Henry rifles - two of the world's first repeating rifles - were issued by the hundreds of thousands, mostly by the Union. One is armed with a Springfield rifle and the other an Enfield rifle.ĭuring the American Civil War, an assortment of small arms found their way onto the battlefield. Two African American Union soldiers in Dutch Gap, Virginia.
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