Earl J. Hess, The Rifle Musket in Civil War Combat: Reality and Myth (Lawrence: University of  (original) (raw)
Related papers
Spencer Arms and Ammunition Compared With That of Other Arms: An 1865 Report.
OMP-ORDNANCE RESEARCH PAPER No. 1, 2021
In February 1865, the American Civil War was rapidly drawing to a close. At the time, senior Union commanders merged their cavalry forces into autonomous units. They sent them to destroy communications, transportation, and industry in the South. One such unit was the Cavalry Corps (Corps) of the Military Division of the Mississippi (MDM). Before participating in the final phase of the war, Captain Henry E. Noyes, acting assistant inspector general (AAIG) for the Corps, prepared a report summarizing the merits of various carbines and ammunition then being used by cavalrymen assigned to the MDM. The following report details the strengths and weaknesses of several carbine models used in field conditions.
Towards a Hierarchy of Civil War Bullet Rarity
2023
Since the mid-1960s, several American Civil War bullet experts have contributed a number of important compilations of photographs and measurements for use in the collector community. Generally, the research and documentation required for these types of publications takes years to compile and reflects a unique passion for the study of early projectiles. What is typically not shared is the rarity of one example to another, a product of the research of advanced collectors. Expanding this knowledge would allow anyone to evaluate the historical impact of any specimen whether it was recovered in the field or purchased. In this report, a panel of Civil War bullet experts was polled in hopes of creating a hierarchy of Civil War bullets that will standardize terminology and distinctly communicate the scarcity of specimens in collections.
Too Little Too Late? The Introduction of the Spencer Rifle
2018
The photo above does not seem like much, but the story behind it is incredible. On August 17, 1863, a man named Christopher Miner Spencer entered the White House, gun in hand. He was let in past the sentries and ushered in to meet with President Abraham Lincoln. Spencer was at the White House to show the president his invention, the repeating rifle. He had been trying to get it adopted by the United States Army with little success, so he decided to go to the man with the most power. Spencer showed Lincoln his gun, and the president was impressed by how simple it was. One could take it apart and put it back together in only a few minutes, needing only a screwdriver. Lincoln invited Spencer back to the White House so that they could test the rifle. [excerpt]
journal of confl ict archaeology, 2014
This paper deals with firearms that were employed by the Argentine army in frontier warfare between 1869 and 1877. Documentary information and archaeological assemblages from two contemporary military facilities —Fort General Paz and Fortín Algarrobos — are combined to characterize the armament in service during those years. This was a crucial period, during which a process of modernisation and standardisation of the army’s armament started, centred on the incorporation of Remington single-shot breech-loading rifles and carbines. However, the archaeological record shows that this process was slow and that an astonishing variety of older firearms (flintlocks, percussion smoothbores and rifles) remained in service, causing logistic and operative problems, and reducing the army’s combat effectiveness. The paper then discusses the impact of the incorporation of the Remington guns on frontier warfare, critiquing commonly held determinist characterisations, and placing the Remington’s effect in a broader political and economic context.