" Iron Brigade armed with smooth bore muskets at Gettysburg?" Topic

That's my question.

Thanks.

No. One or more regiments had Austrian rifles (Lorenz, I think), which many folks consider inferior. Given the casualties they inflicted on the Rebs, I think maybe they performed just fine.

2nd Wisconsin was armed with the Austrian Lorenz rifle at Gettysburg.

All armed with Lorenzes, Springfields and Enfields. the Second Wisconsin used Austrian model 1854 Lorenz muskets in their original .54 calibre. IIRC the 7th WI, and 19th IN. had rebored .58 calibre Austrians and the 6th WI, and 24th MI had Springfields. Some of the flank companies had Enfields.
The Second WVI used their Lorenzes as assault rifles. They were 4" shorter and easier to load. The bayonet was 4" longer leaving them at no disadvantage in a hand to hand fight. On the approach to McPherson's Wood they loaded and fixed bayonets on the run.

and archers men were armed with enfields.

How does one use a Lorenz as an 'assault rifle'?

Having a 4" shorter barrel has no effect on loading time. I have live-fired both rifles, rifle-muskets, and muskets, and found the loading times to be within a few seconds all around.

The only difference-maker in the equation would be if the rifles had been supplied with waterproof, self-consuming cartridges which did provide a noticeable decrease to the loading time, and brought them into line with the rate of fire of a breech-loader.

However, only a handful of units in the AoP were being issued them at the time of Gettysburg, among them the 4th & 7th Maine infantry. You'd need to peruse the ordnance issue/returns for the 2nd WVI to ascertain whether they were a part of the field-testing for these rounds.

I reenacted the 2nd WVI. Several of us have original Lorenz Rifle Muskets. They are lighter than Springfields and much better balanced. Many units complained about them, but the Iron Brigade seemed to be quite satisfied. We always postulated that the Lorenz was the perfect weapon for the Western boys. They could tolerate a slight loss of accuracy because they prided themselves on being excellent marksmen. the musket was shorter, which along with the use of Scott's Manual of arms which allows one to draw the bayonet across the body with the right hand, made it possible to load and fix bayonets on the double quick, without stopping (as they did at Gettysburg). The bayonet socket has a helical slot and not the L slot on other muskets which also allows it to be fixed more easily with one hand. So, because of the handiness, the ease of operation, the slightly shorter range, the longer bayonet and the ability to carry a few extra .54 rounds, we used to call them civil war assault rifles. Not because of the rate of fire, but because they were useful in a bayonet charge.
As for Archer's Brigade at Gettysburg. I have attempted to research the armament and have never been able to prove that they were all armed with rifled muskets. The nature of the wounds of the Black Hats seems to suggest that at least some of the regiments were armed with smoothbores with buck and ball.

I have, for several years now, questioned the carrying of extra rounds. That comes from a letter quoted in Dean Thomas' book "Ready…Aim…Fire!" The letter was sent by an officer to the Ordnance department. Paraphrasing it, he called attention to the great waste of ammunition in the AoP whereby the men were issued 50 rounds of ammunition when their boxes could hold only 40. He said that the route of march away from the issuing point was strewn with the extra packets of ammunition as the men considered them extra weight and discarded them at the first opportunity.

As to Archer's Brigade, I would suggest an email or telephone call to the TN State Archives to see if their records might hold any clues. At the very least, they ought to be able to show what the units were initially armed with.

V/R

i don't understand the confussion over the weapons carried by the ANV at gettysburg.
it has been noted that the gettysburg campaine was the first where ALL of lees infantry carries rifles muskets. the returns for 2nd corps show the entire corps carried enfields. the first and third corps carried a varity of rifled muskets.
according to tucker in "high tide", archers men had enfields. stewart and hassler have also made mention of the enfields.

John,

At the risk of seeming to use a single-source reference, I would refer you to Dean Thomas' excellent book "Ready…Aim…Fire!" and his survey of recovered ammunition.

Dean shows clearly that some portion of every CS division at Gettysburg was armed with either .69 muskets, or .69 rifled muskets. He shows this through both recovered cartridges and either dropped or spent balls which are clearly on either known CS manufacture, or of a type, such as the Carcano, which were imported by the Confederacy.

Especially noticeable amongst these were .69 Gardner rounds, which were exclusively a CS product, and French .69 rounds or both conical and "slug" types, the conical being identified by a triangular indentation in the base, as well as being nose-cast.

Indeed, nose-cast, as well as cast rounds in general, are virtually always CS manufacture, as US manufacture was done by pressing the rounds in a machine fed by long rods of lead.

The evidence as surveyed by Mr Thomas is difficult to refute, though he does point out that overall, it is quite likely that a larger proportion of CS troops were armed with rifles or rifle-muskets than their federal counterparts. In fact, according to his notes, more than 40 federal regiments at Gettysburg were carrying either .69 muskets, or .69 rifled muskets.

V/R