"OOB Database Post Two" Topic

Attached are some sample pages from my database on the Shendandoah Valley Campaign of 1861-1862. It is designed so each regiment and battery can be linked to the correct brigade, notes, strength, casualties, and commander by battle. I'm not 100% on the below it is more for format and to look for missing data elements.

(Sorry about the jpegs it looks a lot clearer as pdf's)

Campaign Overview

Battle Overview (Port Republic)

(Missing)

Army Overview (Jackson's Valley Army)

Division Commander Overview (Ewell's Division)

Division Order of Battle (Ewell's Division – Infantry)

Brigade Overview (Taylor's Brigade)

Brigade Painting Notes (Taylor's Brigade)

Regiment Commander Overview (Wheat's Batallion)

Regiment Overview (Wheat's Batallion)

I'll just toss this out there. Although it's nice to have specific weapons associated with specific units, in the case of the M1842 and earlier, it doesn't really matter unless it's still in the original flintlock.

Even though the lock may be dated 1822/1835/etc, that's just a production run date. ALL of them are M1816 pattern weapons, all originally produced in flintlock, and in the late 1840's, began conversion to percussion following one of three main conversion systems.

The M1842 was the only exception, it being produced from the start with a percussion lock, and a slightly more robust stock.

It's a trivial thing, really, but I thought I'd toss it out there anyway. All of them were the same caliber (.69) and used one of 4 types of cartridge: Buckshot, roundshot, buck & Ball, and Minnie'. Of those, the Buck & ball and Minnie' pattern make up the lion's share of cartridges issued for use with them.

All of them would also have been produced with oil-finished walnut stocks and bright steel metal parts.

V/R

Agreed. Weapon type (flintlock, percussion, rifled, etc.) and painting notes (steel furniture, brass, patchbox) are more pertinent to wargame uses. But I have a weapons table with the history of each type and the classification (type) and painting notes are stored there.

Even at 28mm it would be hard to tell a 1842 from a 1861 at 10mm or 15mm even harder.

By doing weapon types by regiment I can do a summary report for all troops by weapon type – in this case smoothbore percussion and flintlock, and rifled percussion

I also have an appendix page with a more detailed description of each type

Again the descriptions need some editing a lot are just copied in from wiki and other sources for now. I suppose this is a little more in depth than a typical order of battle but instead a complete overview of every aspect of the commanders and troops of the entire campaign

Nice work. Even with the variety of weapons listed there, it still isn't a great problem for the ordnance officer to supply ammunition for them. There are only 3 calibers in that entire army. The flintlocks, M1816 to M1842 are all .69and use the same rounds.

The percussion rifles are all .577 or .58, with the probable exception of the M1841. and as I had commented elsewhere, the CS Ordnance Department followed it's US counterpart in reducing the round size for those weapons to .57, so it could be issued to any of them.

The M1841 was originally produced in .54, but in the years between the adaption by the US Army of the M1855 system with it's .58 minnie round, efforts were being made to rebore the M1841's to .58. Many were so converted, and given with various styles of locks/lugs and bands to fit a bayonet. Some even had the barrels turned down at the muzzle so as to accept an extended-blade triangular bayonet. Interesting times.

So it's entirely possible that those M1841's were in .58, but it's also possible they remained in .54. Either way, having only 3 calibers of ammunition to deal with certainly was a lot easier than it could have been.

The real devil is in the details of maintaining all those differing weapons when they were damaged. THAT took some ingenuity, and a good supply of available spare parts.

Interesting also at this point in the war over 10% were flintlocks and 75% smoothbore. Yet this is the army that technically won 5 of 6 battles against better armed federal troops.

jaxenro:

At Gettysburg, more than 40 federal regiments still carried smoothbores. It wasn't until the overland campaign in Spring of 1864 that all of the federal armies in the east were completely armed with rifled weapons.

TKindred

True but my references (still need to be verified) show Freemonts and Banks troops mostly with Enfields and Springfields in the Valley