GDG- Re: muskets and tactics

[Biggsk at aol.com]

Ron asks:

>>>>How much did military tradition effect the reluctance  to use more 
efficient weapons?  At one time during the war, didn't the  attacking troops wait 
until they were 100 yards from the defenders line before  charging, when the 
rifled muskets of the defenders were effective up to 200  yards?  Wasn't this the 
traditional way of attacking when the only  muskets available were 
smooth-bores that were effective only up to 100  yards?  Did tactics followed when 
attacking a position ever change to  reflect the use the defenders use of rifled  
muskets?>>>>



Ron - please get the recent book by Brent Nosworthy, "The Bloody Crucible  Of 
Courage," which is, in my opinion, the most important Civil War book of the  
last decade!  Nosworthy covers all of the above in detail for you.
 
Also - the smoothbores were often preferred by some units for the  deadliness 
of the buck and ball round that it fired - one ball and three smaller  
pellets - thus putting four projectiles downrange where the rifled musket put  out 
only one.  The armies at Antietam were still largely equipped with such  
smoothbores and it remains to this day America's bloodiest day.  These  weapons were 
predominant at Shiloh, which was the battle that shocked both  nations into 
the reality of a long and bloody war.
 
Greg Biggs



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