Tag: Historic Firearms

The armies of the American Civil War fought (mostly) with muzzle-loading rifles.  The expanding Minie ball allowed muzzle-loaded rifles to fire at the same rate as smoothbore muskets.  Rifled muskets had existed for hundreds of years previously, but rifling required a tight seal between bullet and bore to work and so loading a rifle meant hammering the bullets down inside instead of just dropping it.  The Minie ball fell freely down a rifle barrel, then expanded against barrel grooves when fired.

This made bullets more accurate.  How much did this contribute to the bloodshed?  In Battle Tactics of the Civil War, Paddy Griffith proposes that it made little difference.  Griffith’s overall thesis is that the Civil War was the last of the Napoleonic wars, not the first of the modern wars.  Regarding the alleged impact of rifled muskets, he basically makes the following claims:

1. Increased length of battles, not improved weapon effects, drove casualty rates.  Civil War soldiers didn’t die in such large numbers because rifle fire was more lethal, but because because they fought longer.

2. Documentary evidence, while sketchy, suggests that the actual engagement range of Civil War rifle infantry units was no higher than of Napoleonic smoothbore infantry, and this fire was no more effective (see above).

3. Whatever the theoretical capability of Civil War rifles, soldiers lacked either the training or experience necessary to exploit it.

Chart from Griffith’s book comparing the Civil War to the unquestionably “modern” WWI and Napoleon’s campaigns.

These assertions might be true.  The rifled musket didn’t need to significantly improve the killing power of infantry fire to have a tactical effect.  I believe that above any improvement in killing power, rifles enabled Civil War units to deliver suppressing fire effectively in a manner that was not possible with smoothbore muskets.

Griffith’s Assertions Are Not Ridiculous

I have this rifle, an M1903, sighted at 100 yards.  I fire at a target 400 yards away.  Based on intuition, how far does the bullet fall below my sight?

Read More