"Forrest's soldiers tactic" Topic

Forrest cavalrymen – how did they fight ?
I know thah mainly dismounted, but how ?
Skirmishing or in solid, double lines ? They were armed in rifled muskets, not cavalry carbines AFAIK. Armed as infantry, they should prefer infantrymen tactic.
Any comments welcomed.

Armed as infantry, they should prefer infantrymen tactic.

Why? The weapon should not really affect their tactical deployment. They would fight just like other ACW cavalry. In fact they might be slightly more effective since their rifled muskets would have a longer range than the standard cavalry carbine.

I believe Forrest's preferred weapon was the Enfield Rifle (not rifle musket), which, being shorter, was better suited for carrying on horse-back.

What Don says.

Many would have liked repeating rifles, or even captured federal sharps breech loaders, but in his area of operations, supply concerns prevented that.

Many of his men also carried M1841 "Mississippi" rifles which were the same length as the Enfield rifle.

Unless the situation precluded it, they fought as dismounted cavalry, since, well, they WERE cavalry.

Why? The weapon should not really affect their tactical deployment. They would fight just like other ACW cavalry. In fact they might be slightly more effective since their rifled muskets would have a longer range than the standard cavalry carbine.

A full length muzzle-loading musket is much harder to load from the saddle than a carbine, which is itself, harder to load than a breach-loading rifle.

Let's first take a look at the weapons carried by Forrest's Cavalry. As of 25 May 1864 Forrest's command had the following arms:

.69 cal. Muskets – 42
.58 cal Ashville Rifles – 1385
.54 cal. Mississippi Rifles – 2594
Shotguns – 2
.54 cal. Hall Carbines – 4
.52 cal Sharps Carbines – 1188
.50 Colt Carbines – 11
.56 cal. Burnside Carbines – 57
.70 cal. Belgian Rifles – 50
.51 cal. Maynard Carbines – 72
.52 cal Hall Rifles – 18
French Pistols – 353
.44 cal. Revolvers – 486
.36 cal. Revolvers – 1094
.54 cal. Holster Pistols – 24
Sabres – 208

After the Battle of Brice's Crossroads the capture of Federal arms augmented the weapons carried by Forrest's men. A 3 July 1964 inspection report for Rucker's Brigade of Chalmer's Division provides another example of what then might be typically found throughout Forrest's Cavalry. Three regiments of Tennessee and Mississippi cavalry consisting of 1,072 effective men carried the following arms:

653 (61%) Infantry arms
365 (34%) Carbines (Sharps, Maynard, Burnside)
461 (43%) Pistols (36. Colt Navy; 44. Colt Army, French Lafachuaux)
36 (3%) Sabres

Thus a total of 1,018 (95%) men were equipped with long arms. If we assume that the remaining 54 men carried at least a pistol only 407 (38%) of the cavalrymen had both a rifle or carbine and a pistol.

For both mounted and dismounted action Forrest's Cavalry was deployed in a single rank. Given the above armament, dismounted tactics were much more effective.

The frontage of the dismounted single rank could be in a relatively close order – near infantry frontage. Dismounted action called for troops to be kneeling any time they were not moving and this pushed the files slightly further apart than that of close order infantry. The dismounted cavalry could also fight in extended order (about double distance) or in skirmish order with the distances between men determined by the terrain and the numbers of troops.

Also note that if skirmish order was used a reserve deployed in close order was positioned to the rear of the skirmishers. This reserve could be used to relieve the skirmish line, as a flanking force, or as a rallying point for the skirmish line should it have to fall back.

Ryan,

keep in mind that the term "Infantry Arms" could, and likely did, mean rifles, as was commented upon above, and not the rifle-muskets most folks think of. Many CS infantry units were armed with these weapons as were a number of federal units right up until the end of the war.

V/R

Why? The weapon should not really affect their tactical deployment. They would fight just like other ACW cavalry. In fact they might be slightly more effective since their rifled muskets would have a longer range than the standard cavalry carbine.

A full length muzzle-loading musket is much harder to load from the saddle than a carbine, which is itself, harder to load than a breach-loading rifle.

But ACW cavalry did not fight mounted as a rule.

Many, many thanks for such a load of informations !

Never heard of the Ashville rife. Was it a CSA copy of something?

By Franklin, at least (if not before), Forrest's escort company (c. 100 men) carried captured Spencer carbines/rifles. I suppose, as an escort, they were not expected to get into sustained fire fights, so limited ammunition (whatever could be captured) was not too big a problem.

Well those statistics look suspect – anyone who has been to a Civil War re-enactment knows that every Confederate carries at least 4 LeMat revolvers ;-)

Ryan thank you for producing that information it looks entirely reasonable.

I believe that any group of Confederate cavalry re-enactors left over time spontaneously will generate revolvers…

The Ashville rifle is an odd reference. The Asheville Armory produced a "very small" quantity of double-banded rifles but it seems unlikely that so many ended up in Forrest's hands. It may be that the person filing the report used this as shorthand for the type of gun or perhaps confused Asheville with Fayetteville.

Rebel Spencers turn up elsewhere as well. In November 1864 the Confederate cavalry opposing Sherman's March to the Sea included Ross's Texas Cavalry Brigade. It had 703 men armed with 333 Enfield Rifles, 64 Austrian Rifles, 175 Sharps Carbines, 73 Spencer Carbines, and 58 other breech-loading carbines.

interesting stat about sabers given every plastic/metal cav figure has a saber. When did sabers fall out of favour with CSA cavalry?

The South had only a minority of cavalry armed with sabers. The only sabers available were those in private hands, militia companies and US Arsenals at the start of the war. Though a handful of companies produced both swords and sabers during the war, they saw only limited production as the metals were needed for other uses.

Some few thousands swords and sabers came through the blovkade from England, Prussia, France and Belgium, but not in any numbers to be of more than moderate use.

Confederate cavalry regiments tended to not be as motley, arms-wise, as the returns tend to show. What happened was that companies within the regiment tended to be like-armed. By that, I mean that 1 or 2 companies might be armed with a revolver and saber, while the remaining might be armed with rifles or rifle muskets. Again, those companies would then be armed, wherever possible, with like weapons of the same caliber, to assist with ammunition resupply, repairs, etc.

In other words, you might see, say, 2 companies armed with pistol and saber, 4 companies armed with .54 caliber rifles, and 4 companies armed with .57 caliber weapons, such as US M1855 rifles, Enfield rifles, or .57 infantry weapons.

Having said that, pistols and sabers were not overly common in CS cavalry units, as a whole, and likewise, revolvers were rare among infantry and artillery officers as well. I will flat-out state that there is a higher percentage of pistols and sabers among reenactors than ever existed in the real confederate army.

V/R

Anyone interested in Confederate cavalry & artillery uniforms and equipment would do well to bookmark this site and consider it's content/articles.

link

Flayderman's Guide lists the Asheville Armory Model 1841/1855 Style rifle. It's described as being .58 caliber with a 33" barrel and lock of 1841 type. Manufactured from 1862-63, est. 875 made. At least a few were made with captured Harpers Ferry locks.

Hope that clears up some confusion.

Hank

I guess it would take anyone new to the cavalry some time to train with a saber, time they didn`t have. Great post. Cheers

From what I have read, hacking away with a saber was as much training the horse as it was the trooper.

Mostly it was training the trooper not to lop the ears off his horse. And it was usually more productive to use the point instead of the edge.

I imagine, though, that it might have taken a while for the horses to get used to having the riders firing weapons near their ears.

TKindred: I seem to remember reading, (twenty plus years ago), that no metallic cartridges were manufactured in the Confederacy during the war. Are you aware it that is accurate or not? Please accept my apology in advance if this is straying too far off the topic and my thanks if you care to comment. Thanks, John Miller

John, there were some few manufactured, but these were almost exclusively pinfire cartridges for the LeFaucheux and similar imported revolvers. IIRC, No government manufactured cartridges (metallic) were produced. These were all civilian concerns.

As for Spencer rifles & carbines, ammunition for these was through captured stores, as no ammunition for these was produced in the South. The Confederacy DID produce a limited number of Sharps-patterned carbines, but these were considered inferior and/or unreliable by CS cavalrymen who preferred a captured federal weapon instead. The south DID produce self-consuming cartridges for their (and federal) Sharps rifles, however.

TKindred: OK, thanks very much for getting back to me!! John Miller