Firearms Used During the Civil War: The Civil War in Four Minutes
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- čas přidán 2. 06. 2015
- In this In4 video segment, Civil War Trust staffer Douglas Ullman, Jr. explains and demonstrates the use of Civil War era small arms and armaments. Watch now to find out about the different small arms of the Civil War, from the Spencer repeating rifle to the Enfield Rifle, and learn how the technological advancements made during the Civil War changed the face of warfare forever.
This video is part of the American Battlefield Trust's In4 video series, which presents
short videos on basic Civil War topics.
I cannot imagine trying to do all this while being shot at
Laughs in magazine (Spencer Rifle)
There are many stories of nervous soldiers forgetting to remove their ramrods and shooting them with the bullet, and then being unable to fire again. Also soldiers would go through the motions and not actually fire because they couldn't remember how to load and fire, some soldiers had 7-8 balls jammed down the barrel and never fired.
At the Battle of Chattanooga, the 13th Ohio Mounted Infantry decimated the 18th Kentucky with Spencer rifles. If anything, you'd hope you'd never meet someone on the battlefield with a breechloader, revolver or repeater if you had a rifle-musket. Meeting which would be more likely than you may think.
The quality on this channel is unbelievable. Great variety and great production
One important aspect to remember is most Union and Confederate regiments were formed and armed from state militia arsenals. These state militia arsenals had few if any rifled muskets or Minie balls. The vast majority of Civil War battles were fought in the first two years of the war were with percussion cap smoothbore muskets. Most of the smoothbore muskets were the 1842 smoothbore musket but many much older muskets and shotguns were used too. Many Confederate regiments were armed with old 1815 muskets, Brownbess muskets, and shotguns. The main advance was most of these older muskets were converted over to use the percussion cap.It took a good deal of time to ramp up production of the 1861 Springfield rifled musket or import the 1853 Enfield rifled musket from Great Britain.
Both sides used buck and ball rounds or all buckshot rounds. The average combat distance for the men in the ranks was about 70 yards because black powder weapons left large amounts of smoke on the battlefield. The terrain of many battlefields were thick brush, forests, rugged hills, thick vegetation along river banks, swamps, and rolling hills. Most soldiers were poorly trained. So the ability to shoot a man sized target at 300 yards with the parabolic trajectory of the Minie ball with poorly trained soldiers on a smoke covered battlefield takes a leap of faith. Most mediocre soldiers with poor marksmanship skills were better off getting about 70 yards and blasting each other with buck and ball rounds or buckshot in "point and shoot affairs."
The larger point here is many Union and Confederate regiments used smoothbore muskets throughout much of the war. It was a MIXTURE of rifled muskets and older smoothbore muskets in the ranks on Civil War battlefields. The Springfield rifled muskets with Minie ball were more expensive to acquire and supply. Both sides probably predominantly used their rifled muskets with expensive Minie balls as sharshooters and skirmishers. The regiments in the main infantry lines probably kept using their smoothbore muskets with buck and ball rounds until 1863 or so. Production of rifled muskets picked up by 1863 but there were still plenty of regiments still using smoothbore muskets until the midpoint of the war and beyond. We know this because at the worst bloodiest parts of the battle such as Shiloh, the Bloody Lane and Cornfield of Antietem, many areas of Gettysburg and countless other battles, archeologists find .69 caliber balls and .30 caliber buckshot from buck and ball rounds where the bloody fighting was at close quarters. At close quarters, say under 100 yards, where nearly all battles were fought, the buck and ball rounds from smoothbore muskets were many times more effective than the rifled musket with Minie balls. A good buck and ball hit in the torso on a human target at 50 yards meant almost certain death. A .69 caliber ball and three .30 caliber buckshot caused terrible multiple wounds on a human body at close range. Many Union regiments didn't want to give up their smoothbore muskets because once you got in close range, the buck and ball rounds were so devastatingly effective. Many Confederate regiments used buck and ball or buckshot rounds until the end of the Civil War.
So the better way to think of the Civil War were the MIXTURE of rifled muskets with Minie ball and smoothbore muskets working together on the same battlefield. The percussion cap made the old smoothbore musket a much more reliable to fire and quicker to load weapon. The poor visibility from the smoke of blackpowder weapons on the Civill War battlefield makes the Minie ball with the rifled musket an overrated weapon. It was the buck and ball and buckshot rounds fired from percussion cap smoothbore muskets that did much of the killing in the first two years of the war. Rifled muskets were a moderate improvement for skirmishing and sharpshooter tasks. However, at close range on a smoke filled battlefield with poor visibility, it was actually a poorer weapon than the smoothbore musket with buck and ball rounds.
www.davide-pedersoli.com/rivista-dettaglio.asp/l_fr/idne_89/69-ball-buck-and-ball-and-buckshot-cartridges-of-the-us-army.html
why did you wright an essay this is the comment section
Thanks! Your comment is very interesting :)
you act like a "poorly trained soldier" couldn't shoot. most of them could shoot very well, just not in a line standing in the open and maneuvering like 1860's armies did leftover from the american revolution. the commanders knew better than the average soldier though. even though the average soldier spent his time in the woods hunting animals that didn't want to be shot. also you can only fire at the rate of your slowest soldier. would be far better to just let them shoot at will.
@@Fater4511 Most Union troops did NOT get very much training in shooting Minie ball with rifled muskets. Many Union troops from farms had experience shooting but shotguns were mostly what were used by civilians. So estimating range, understanding the trajectory of the rise of the Minie ball at 250 meters above straight line of sight. Civil War battlefields with black powder weapons were filled with dense clouds of smoke making finding an individual target, estimating its range, and hitting the target extremely difficult, especially at places like Shiloh where thick underbrush made seeing individual targets difficult as the battle commenced. Most Union troops were poorly trained with little experience shooting rifles. As the war progressed this reality changed but in the first two years of the war, Union troops were inexperienced marksman. The technology of rifled muskets and Minie balls was new technology that took time to master.
Most troops with poor training were better off in the first years of the war with smoothbore muskets with buck and ball rounds used in the closed ranks with their skirmishers using rifled muskets. Again, as the war progressed these realities did change as soldiers learned to use their rifled muskets with production catching up to demand.
@@klif_fps5257 If you want stupid simplistic answers to history go read your grade school history book. If you really want to understand what went on or want to have a discussion then more words are needed to describe what actually happened. Go to college where the professor expects 30 page term papers on a subject with ten sources or more. You can't handled three or four paragraphs? The state armories issued out mostly smoothbore muskets with buck and ball rounds or buckshot rounds. State militias did NOT have the Springfield 1861 rifle or the Enfield rifle in any quantities at the start of the Civil War. My point is the percussion cap, smoothbore musket was widely used in many Northern and Southern regiments even up until the time of Gettysburg. It was a mixture of smoothbore muskets with buck and ball rounds in the ranks and rifled muskets in some regiments or for their skirmishers.
Great work, 4 minutes of entertainment and learning about our past. Ty
Great concept and execution of In4 series! Enjoying the learning.
I had the privilege of shooting a carbine rifle in Cody Wyoming. Paul the owner was excellent in teaching how to load and shoot. Also shot a Gatlin gun. Both experience was awesome.
Sick dude !!!
Matt seems like he’s real fun at parties
Bruh dont bully matt
Great informative video! Thanks for making and sharing!
Great video
Well shot video. I liked it.
Great info. I hope to see this channel do longer peices.
Perfect. Thanks.
Great exposition
Wow. Just wow !!
Good shot Matt.
I want to live in a world where war is something that never even occurs to anyone due to its absurdity.
We should know many Southerners especially went to the Civil War with shotguns, old flintlock muskets, and a variety of smoothbore muskets from the War of 1812 and frontier Indian wars, or the Texan Independence wars or Mexican war. A huge variety of weapons, mostly smoothbore percussion cap muskets were used in the first year or two of the war. The Enfield rifle and Springfield rifled muskets were around at the beginning but supply was short and demand extremely high. So by necessity, much fighting in the first year and second year of the Civil War was made with a huge variety of weapons. It was a Quartermaster's nightmare come true.
Nice video. The bullets you showed were Confederate tie base Sharps carbine.
nice
w channel 🦅🦅
I didn't hear the command to recover arms..
interesting musket,looks like a Belgium cone 69 flint conversion but the business end looks 58,what's the story ?nice details and good work
Sloan Champion yeah I saw that. During the early phases on the civil war, percussion converted flintlocks were used by both sides
Thank god the north and south didn't use their arsenal of nuclear weapons in the civil war.
😂😂😂 imagine Fallout civil war
The major European powers started using rifled muskets before the American civil war in the 1850s. The mine ball was invented in 1847 and first used in mass in the Crimean war 1853.
"Powda goes in fust, right?"-a smiling New England private asked his captain in their first fight. The private beforehand had asked his captain to keep an eye on him during their first battle because he was convinced that he'd run away.
Cool fanfic or whatever, don't think I'd be smiling and chatting much in any fight though
1:55 what is the marching tune that starts playing in the background here?
found it, it's Kingdom Coming
I was under the impression that artillery was responsible or most Civil War casualties... Especially Confederate casualties...
Crazy 🤪 how they're making bullets during battle
So, assuming good cover behind trees and/or in ditches/trenches (so the initial volley wouldn't annihilate them), a 300 men skirmisher unit armed with Spencer rifles should be able to dish out as much fire as a 2000 men strong brigade with 1961 Springfields, right? Hopefully such heavy cover could also provide protection from shock cavalry, and would reduce the number of casualties... expensive, though.
That's what happened in the first engagement of Gettysburg. Buford's dismounted cavalry with repeater rifles had delayed the enemy using their superior arms.
Love the Spencer rifle. Hundreds of thousands of those babies got to see action.
It is really annoying to see people who SHOULD know better continue the MYTH that the bullets used by both sides of the Civil War were the ones designed by Mine'! That design had a serious flaw, it had a wooden or metal plug in the hollow, which sometimes caused problems when they were fired. The bullets ACTUALLY used were an improved design developed by the US Army Ordnance Department, which eliminated the plug in the hollow.
A quick thought, isn´t a musket a weapon that fires round bullets ? A rifle being a weapon which sends spinning lead (due to rifles), hence a "rifle"
ok, how then do you define the difference between a rifled musket and a rifle ? Is it the breech vs muzzle-loading function ?
thanks for the answer,
Minie balls were .58 caliber as well as the round balls for the same rifled musket. Muskets were smoothbore weapons and were generally .69 caliber.
Rifles of the Napoleonic era were short, there fore "Musket Length Rifle" were introduced. Shorten to Rifle musket.
Prarp knows vada he's talking about.
3:30
BRO-I CANTT😂
Those 5 soldiers that are shown are from Massachusetts. The regiment escapes me though
Did you have to put a new percussion cap on every time you fired the gun?
Forrest Monday yes
How many persons in company.
Interet videi but i found the background music a bot loud and distracting.
Just glad the Gatling gun made it's way into the Union just toward the end of this war. That would have been devastating.
Huh? They did see use, at Cold Harbor and Petersburg with devastating effects.
All Civil War game players know that Lorenz rifle was the best jack of all trades.
In reality, it was one of the worst rifle-muskets..... anyway, you're referring to War of Rights aren't you?
@@SStupendous Grant, Lee, Sherman: Civil War Generals 2.
he has a conversion musket and he's firing a minie ball I don't think so that is cone see were the pan was cut off that gun was once a flintlock
I didn't see your comment but I noticed that also,it looked like a Belgium cone 69 conversion on the rear and a 58 up front
+ACE Champion yeah very weird has a 1853 Enfield ramrod it's either a Belgian or maybe a contract musket from 1812 maybe a 1816 or 1835/40 it's definitely a conversion though the one thing that I've noticed with a lot of Austrian French and Belgian conversions they Bend the hammer to be offset this one doesn't seem to be bent
+ACE Champion when they converted it they may have rifled it too but since it has an 1853 Enfield ramrod it may be .577 caliber ? hard to tell
I was wondering because I can see the brass hardware
ACE Champion yeah a brass pan
It's unbelievable the devastation one can inflict thank God they didn't have assault rifles back then there wouldn't be anyone left
1853 Enfield rifle was the best rifle musket.
Nah mate the 1863 springfield was
Both of you are wrong, M1862 Zouave rifle rules
Yikes don’t want to get hit with one of those.
It's make ready not ready.
Nope, the command ready is correct for the civil war.
Really? I never knew this. It may be the fact that I'm British. I don't know what it's like for Americans. We say make ready.
Josef Little Yes we say fire by company or fire by file, fire by Companies, Fire by Battlion, brigade and etc. Company ready, Aim, Fire.
@@joseflittle4493 That's a command for long prior to the war.
Guy needs some chapstick
Reenacters are some goofy mofos.
Reenacting battles is an odd hobby. The weirdos exist in Europe to. They generally reenact battles from the Napoleonic Wars.
tripsaplenty If no one did it or any type of living history, it would cut one off from an up close view of history. I suppose there is film but that isn’t as interesting an event and hearing the sounds of the weapons, smell of the smoke, seeing the camps/uniforms up close. Then again, I suppose a lot of people these days aren’t that interested in studying a lot of aspects of history
also by the way I do not consider a small arms a rifle to me a small arms is nothing bigger than a blunderbuss which is a giant f****** shotgun pistol so a musket does not count as a small alarm at least in my opinion
so basically javelin rocket launcher is small arms :D cuz i can handle it :DDDDDDDD
I know this is going to sound insane but what if the South would have used bows and arrows that is a handheld weapon and could be fired way faster than a rifle I mean really they could have sent thousands of arrows in the time of hundreds of bullets which would have at least wounded people that were attacking them might have been all right idea
@Joakim von Anka I definitely appreciate your reply and if you can link me up to specific numbers I would be interestedbecause you could definitely fire arrows quicker than muskets back then or even Enfieldand add a close-range heroes would have been more deadly so I do agree but definitely let me know where you found that out I'm just interested and wondering
Ignoring training entirely - the usual explanation for the end of the bow - I see the traitors problems largely being logistical. A US soldier armed with a Springfield or Enfield would go into battle with a minimum of 70 cartridges. A large quiver might carry half that many arrows, while weighing significantly more than the cartouche box. Then we have the problems of an utterly inadequate industrial base manufacturing arrows in sufficient quantity, getting them to the troops over railways already stretched beyond capacity, and even maintaining the bows that could be fielded at the time. Please remember that the vast majority of the traitor armies had at least some experience with firearms versus virtually none with bows, so they wouldn't even know how to nock a string or protect the staves.
But European standards those guns were out of date they were already using bolt action needle guns
Only Prussians had bolt action rifles at that time,the Dreyze needle gun, while British only started to make trapdoor versions of the Enfield 53.French were probably developing their Chasepot rifle,but it will take several years after American Civil War to start being used en mass.
does this guy know how hats work?
well, made but he is basically lying.
In 1861 the British, French, Danish, Swedish, Austrian armies all used rifle muskets as their standard infantry weapon. So did the armies of the states in the german federation.
Norway and Prussia had implemented breachloading rifles.
So NO, Most armies of the world greatpowers used rifled firearms.
(and that I don't list Russia and Spain is only because I don't know what they had,
you can disagree and we can all put in our two cents but there's no need to be ugly,I don't think that these two living historians took time out to intentionally mislead anyone ,hey you can always make your own video, nice details on the uniforms and I caught something that was interesting, the union soldiers musket on the back with the hammer and lock plate looked to be a converted 69 flint into the Belgium cone configuration, the business end of the barrel looked to be a 58, the nose cap looked brass and not a 69 style but a 58 ,would like to know the story,thanks
The British army had a breech loading rifle in the American Revolution called the Ferguson Rifle. Whole armies were never issued them though, just small groups.
He's not lying at all, the US was the first to completely re arm their military unlike the European powers because we had to. Britain mostly kept their breech loading rifles for skirmishes, the French was attempting a re arm for the next decade which they ended up doing and the Swedish only gave breech loading and rifles carbines to cavalry troops.
Swedish and Prussians were using breechloaders longer than most Civil War soldiers had been born
5 minutes
Not much personality to Matt , huh ?
this stinks
3:34