Cavalry

[Gfran64]

Hoistingman4,


To the best of my knowledge, Custer was not at Gettysburg on Day 1 and was no where near McPherson's Ridge. It was Buford's 2 Brigades of Cavalry under Devin and Gamble. Custer saw action on Day 3 at the East Cavalry Field repelling JEB Stuart's attempt to take the Union rear.

GregB)

[BOSTON]

Can't find a good OOB for Mcpherson's Ridge showing every unit there, I'd appreciate it if someone could post a copy. If there is an OOB showing what hardware they were carrying would be nice.

Hoistingman4

[BOSTON]

CAVALRY

The principal shoulder weapon of the mounted services was a short-barrelled carbine. These were effective out to 200 yards. Numerous designs appeared early in the war, and close to 20 different types were eventually adopted by Federal forces. They ranged from fairly simple single-shot breechloaders using a paper or linen cartridge and a percussion cap, to complex repeaters firing self-priming metallic cartridges. Calibers ranged from .44 to .54, and many carbines took specially made cartridges. Resupply of ammunition often proved tedious.

One mainstay of the cavalry on both sides was the Sharps. In production since the early 1850's, this .52 caliber arm was already known to be strong and reliable, and about 80,000 were purchased by the Federals. The Sharps was the primary weapon of General John Buford's division as it delayed the Confederate infantry advance towards Gettysburg on 1 July, 1863. Even though a single-shot, its breech-loading mechanism allowed a trooper to get off up to 5 shots per minute, against possibly 3 from a muzzle-loading musket.

As with the Springfield, the Confederates made their own copies of the Sharps, but demand far outstripped production. Only about 5,000 Confederate or "Richmond" Sharps were made. Of these, General Robert E. Lee wrote that they were "so defective as to be demoralizing to our men." Southern horsemen had to make do with captured Yankee breech-loaders, for which ammunition might be hard to come by, or stick with awkward short-barrelled muzzle-loaders, for whom cartridges could be produced locally. A few Southern arsenals, most notably the Richmond Arsenal in Virginia, the Fayetteville Arsenal in North Carolina and the Cook & Brother Armory of Athens, Georgia, attempted to manufacture muzzle-loading carbines for Confederate troopers. Production was slow and erratic, and never met the needs of the men in the field.

If the shortage of good, serviceable single-shot breech-loading carbines did not vex the Confederate cavalryman, the appearance of reliable repeaters in the hands of his foes must surely have.

One such weapon was the Spencer, patented in 1860. Available in .52 caliber, it was capable of sending out seven aimed shots within thirty seconds. The effects of such firepower were overwhelming to Confederates used to the slower muzzle-loaders. Often, Federals with Spencers fired only one shot together to simulate a volley of musketry and waited for the Confederates to advance. When they did, the Unionists unleashed the other six shots in a rapid fusillade of fire that devastated the Southern lines. One Confederate observed, "There's no use fighting against such guns..." Over 94,000 carbines were acquired for use by Federal forces. None of them were used at Gettysburg, but the 5th and 7th Michigan regiments of General Custer's brigade were armed with the longer rifle version, and did good service with them there. One Michigan trooper, Robert Trouax, later distinguished himself with his Spencer rifle at the Rapidan River,"killing six rebels as they were crossing the river".

Another repeater held in high esteem was the .44 caliber Henry Rifle. Carrying 16 shots, it too put a Confederate opponent at a severe disadvantage. While only 10,000 Henry Rifles were made, and only 1,731 purchased by the government, their presence on the battlefield was felt by the Confederates. Stated one of General William T. Sherman's soldiers: "I think the Johnnys are getting rattled; they are afraid of our repeating rifles. They say we are not fair, that we have guns that we load up on Sunday and shoot all the rest of the week."

The ill-supplied Southern trooper could not hope to match the firepower of these repeating weapons, for they utilized special copper rim-fire cartridges that were beyond the production capability of Confederate ordnance. In the case of handguns, though, both sides were more evenly matched. The manufacturing centers for these weapons were still located in the North, but few designs required the use of special ammunition. Captured revolvers were much more easily (and hence much more often) turned against their former owners

http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/soldierlife/webguns.htm

Take notice of the range of the cavalry weapon of 200yds. Would this be so in the new GB game?

Hoistingman4

[Jim]

The source we are using for weapons assignments for the Union is Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg, 4th Edition, by John W Busey and David G Martin. The armaments section is extracted from an earlier study by Dean S Thomas who obtained the information for all of the AoP from the 30 June 1863 'Quarterly Summary Statement of Ordnance and Ordnance Stores' held in the National Archives.

This source shows that the 5th MI Cav was armed with 'Spencer Rifles' and that the 6th had both Spencer Rifles and Burnside carbines.

Bufords three brigades have 8 regiments with Sharps carbine, one with Burnside carbine, and 3 with mixed carbines among Gallager, Smith, Sharps and Merrill carbines.

The other units of Union cavalry had similar mixtures of carbines.

The story of Buford's troops being armed with repeaters is out there, but does not appear to hold up under serious historical scrutiny.

-Jim

[BOSTON]

Jim wrote:

The source we are using for weapons assignments for the Union is Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg, 4th Edition, by John W Busey and David G Martin. The armaments section is extracted from an earlier study by Dean S Thomas who obtained the information for all of the AoP from the 30 June 1863 'Quarterly Summary Statement of Ordnance and Ordnance Stores' held in the National Archives.

This source shows that the 5th MI Cav was armed with 'Spencer Rifles' and that the 6th had both Spencer Rifles and Burnside carbines.

Bufords three brigades have 8 regiments with Sharps carbine, one with Burnside carbine, and 3 with mixed carbines among Gallager, Smith, Sharps and Merrill carbines.

The other units of Union cavalry had similar mixtures of carbines.

The story of Buford's troops being armed with repeaters is out there, but does not appear to hold up under serious historical scrutiny.

-Jim

Thanks for answering some questions.

Hoistingman4

[Jim]

hoistingman4 wrote:

Can't find a good OOB for Mcpherson's Ridge showing every unit there, I'd appreciate it if someone could post a copy. If there is an OOB showing what hardware they were carrying would be nice.

Hoistingman4

The book 'Gettysburg - The First Day' by Harry Pfanz does a nice job of going into detail about the actions on the first day. It includes an OOB of only those units involved in the first day actions. The firearms carried by Union troops are in Busey & Martin. The weapons carried by CS units are very poorly documented and can only be estimated at best.

-Jim

[BOSTON]

The book 'Gettysburg - The First Day' by Harry Pfanz does a nice job of going into detail about the actions on the first day. It includes an OOB of only those units involved in the first day actions. The firearms carried by Union troops are in Busey & Martin. The weapons carried by CS units are very poorly documented and can only be estimated at best.

-Jim

At present reading; Campaigns of the Civil War by Walter Geer from Borders book store. Gonna have to raid the vault to buy another book.:ohmy: Then I'll have a whole bunch of new questions to ask ya.

Hoistingman4

[Hancock the Superb]

I believe that the Buford's calvary was very effective at delaying the Confederate advance. However, due to the fact that they had been skirmishing for over 5 hours, there was really not much halting the Confederate advance. (I mean, they delayed them 4 hours, but they couldn't stop Heth's Division.)

In the end, it was the firepower of Reynold's first 11 regiments that halted the first 8 confederate ones (one of Davis's regiments was guarding the supply train.