A question about the Civil war/Revolutionary war

[ParaGoomba Slayer]

Originally Posted by Billtog

I'm still all about swords for reasons explained by RevDyer (and because they're so awesome).

In you opinion, what is better: A gun/bazzoka that launches swords, or a sword that can fire bullets?

[Taeblewalker]

How about a sword that also functions as a bomb? I call it a claymore.

[ParaGoomba Slayer]

Originally Posted by Taeblewalker

How about a sword that also functions as a bomb? I call it a claymore.

[mr_rex777]

They take longer to reload.

[RobWeaver]

At the time of the Revolutionary War, a shotgun was called a "fowler" because it was for firing birdshot at "fowl." They were very common in the Colonies, especially in New England. The militia that mauled the Brunswickers at Bennington was almost exclusively armed with fowling pieces. They can fire a single projectile quite effectively. What they can't do is fit a bayonet. So-called semi-military fowlers were civilian-made fowling pieces modified with a shorter stock and bayonet lug to take a bayonet. This is one of the reasons shotguns were unsuitable military weapons in the black powder period. A smoothbore musket is essentially a shotgun that will mount a bayonet. Most of the weapons of the Revolution, and a significant percentage of those used in the American Civil War were smoothbored. The famous Irish Brigade, for instance, had at least 2 regiments that were smoothbore armed for the entire war. Shotguns were issued to cavalry in the south early in the war due to a shortage of carbines for cavalry use. As soon as they could be replaced they were. Shotguns, being civilian made, were difficult to repair and of varying gauges. You want standardization in an army. The Confederates sleeved shotguns with rifled sleeves that not only standardized the caliber but also rifled the short barrels, but tese tended to have a gas leak at the breech. These were some of the considerations that led to an overall rejection of shotguns as a military weapon.

[Dennys]

Additionally, in the early days of the American Civil War (unlike the Royalist vs Parlimentarian ruckus back in the mother country), many of the Confederate arms were personal hunting weapons from the called up militias, plus what was siezed from Federal arsenals. The Confederates didn't get a really good supply of rifled muskets until later on.

The shotgun was a preferred cavalry weapon, due to their use in close combat, and in routing broken troops. Confederate cavalry generally stayed mounted more, owing to the more agricultural culture and superior horsemanship. Union cavalry fought mounted, but later as more carbines and repeating carbines made their way into the mix, became more mounted infantry.

Dennys ~ Willing to let more learned Subject Matter Experts entend and revise these comments.

[RobWeaver]

There were also Federal regiments, like the 42nd Pennsylvania, known as the "Bucktails" who originally brought their personal weapons with them into service. In Tennessee, I can think of at least 3 regiments that were armed with flintlocks dating back to the war of 1812. The Confederacy managed to get ahold of standardized arms pretty quickly, though, as did the Union. It would be a mistake to think that both sides marched around with grandpa's shotgun until 1864 or so. Massive numbers of firearms were imported from Europe since the European nations were upgrading to breechloaders at the same time. The second most common musket in both armies was the English Enfield, and the third the Prussian Lorenz. Belgian Liege muskets were very common and disliked. The government also pressed into service every old musket it still had in storage: 1825's were fitted with percussion locks; 1842s were sleeved with .58 rifled barrel sleeves. The Confederacy also turned out a surprising number of home-grown muskets, most commonly the copy of the 1855 made in Richmond. After the spring of 1862, when both sides got settled into serious killing, they were pretty well armed to do so. I'd be reluctant to say that Confederate cavalry remained mounted longer than Federal. Forrest was using his boys as mounted infantry pretty early on. The Confederacy had little use for cartridge firearms that took a brass cartridge, like the Henry or the Spencer, for the simple reason that brass was in shortage in the South and needed for things like percussion caps and artillery primers. There were several thousand captured Henrys in Confederate storage at the end of the war, but insufficient ammunition to make them worthwhile to issue.