I found this video interesting. I would like to see a demo of one of these needle rifles in person one day.
Yes I enjoy them alot especially about the accuracy of smoothbore muskets.That guy has some really good, well thought out videos.
The musket was designed for volley fire, knowing the system would -on average- MISS a man sized target at 100 yards. However, 30-45% of 100 muskets fired from a line of troops would kill or disable a portion of the enemy lines. After 2 or 3 volleys, one side would break and run, the remaining troops win. Troops with the highest morale consistently won. Also, following a volley or two, the winners would advance with fixed bayonets to close the deal. Few men held their ground after a thousand musket balls whizzed by, followed by a wall of advancing 24" bayonets.Never understood volley fire.
It did. Superior training, discipline and morale won- repeatedly.... bravery beats bullets.
Most of the battles were engaged at 100 to 3,000 yards, extremely variable across 18 states and different regions. Farmland is rarely flat- is rises and has depressions. Walk Antietam or Gettysburg to see the actual sites.I wonder what the standard distance was in the civil war in open fields.
No. Many engagements happened in Cornfields where the corn was taller than the troops. Other sites were orchards, woods, swampland, riverbanks, creeks, railroad cuts, or fighting in deep trenches or against brick or earthen fortifications, to include urban fights - street to street, basements and barns.back then everything was open fields.
Popular misconception. All of the regiments and battalions formed up in the woodlines, out of sight. Some had further to march than others, and the terrain was undulating. One major disruptor was a series of fences 5-7 feet high that troops had to climb over or knock down- under intermittent fire.Thinking about Pickett’s charge they advanced in an open field for almost a mile,
As paper cartridges says in the video they already had a far more accurate rifle and the logistics to support it they had no need for the mostly inferior Dreyse.The War Department suffered from the NIH Syndrome…Not Invented Here…for much of its history up to and including much of the DOD era. They also refused to buy Spencer Rifles even after its superiority was demonstrated. It wasn’t until after President Lincoln ordered the Spencer purchased that any were issued…and then grudgingly.
The powers that be were wedded to the idea of not wasting ammunition and it was believed any kind of repeating rifle would make soldiers do exactly that. That idea is why the 1903 Springfield has the magazine cutoff…the intent was originally to keep the rifle a single shot with the rounds in the internal magazine in reserve for an emergency.