Scott Hippensteel - Myths of the Civil War: The Fact, Fiction, and Science Behind the Civil Wars Most-Told Stories

Scott Hippensteel is associate professor of earth sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he focuses on coastal geology, geoarchaeology, and environmental micropaleontology. His early research involved the H. L. Hunley, the famous Confederate submarine, and used microfossils to interpret that great historical artifact. His previous work includes Rocks and Rifles: The Influence of Geology on Combat and Tactics during the American Civil War (2018) and more than thirty peer-reviewed journal publications. A native of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, Hippensteel holds graduate degrees from the University of Delaware. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

TO BE AN EFFECTIVE BATTLE WEAPON, A RIFLE MUST BE CAPABLE OF inflicting a disabling wound that would prevent the enemy combatant from continuing on as a threat. This degree of energy, or knockdown power, is a gray area with many variables. For example, a lethal bullet at fifty yards may lose enough velocity and corresponding energy at four hundred yards such that it inflicts only a slight wound. A smaller-caliber full-metal-jacket bullet with a sharp point may not do an adequate job transferring energy to the target; it may simply pass through the body, retaining much of its potential energy with it as it continues on in flight.

The calculation of muzzle energy is the simplest way to estimate the hitting power of a rifle. This metric uses the square of the muzzle velocity and the mass of the bullet, neglecting bullet shape or type or jacketing. As a result, the knockdown power of the .58 mini bullet is underestimated compared with later, faster-moving rounds. The mini has a large diameter and is constructed entirely of lead, so it does a better job of transferring its energy to a human target, compared to a .223 or .30-06 full-metal-jacketed spitzer bullet. Nevertheless, the hitting power of the .58 is not as impressive when compared with the metallic cartridge that replaced it in US service, the .45-70 Government. The .45-70 also fired a solid-lead bullet, but at a significantly higher muzzle velocity.

There are several other ways to calculate the terminal ballistics of bullets. The most widely used is the Hornady Index of Terminal Standardsor HITSa measure more impartial to the Civil War bullet than simply using muzzle energy, because it increases the importance of the bullet weight (and includes a factor for the projectiles diameter). HITS is calculated by squaring the weight of the bullet (in grains) and multiplying by the muzzle velocity. This number is then divided by the square of the bullet diameter multiplied by seven hundred thousand. Interestingly, the HITS values for the M1855 rifle musket, the M1873 Trapdoor, and the M1906 and M1 Garand all fall within 5 percent of each othernearly identical hitting power. This metric also indicates that the two most dissimilar service weapons, the smoothbore musket of .69 caliber and the .223 M4, have the lowest knockdown power, with the smoothbore having only half the energy of the other later guns and the tiny .223 full-metal jacket being the weakest of all. This is a large reason why hunting cartridges, whether in .223 or .30-06, will use soft-point or hollow-point bullets to alter the terminal ballistics in such a way that more energy can be transferred to the target by an expanding or fragmenting bullet. These types of bullets, of course, were banned in warfare by the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907.

BETWEEN JANUARY 1861 AND JUNE 1866, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT purchased almost three hundred thousand revolvers from Colt and Remington. Despite this acquisition, it is the Confederate cavalryman who is most associated with the use of the pistol. Many of Mosbys Raiders carried four or more revolvers on raids, magnifying their firepower during brief engagements.

The Civil War rifle musket and its effectiveness in battle are the subjects of entire books, yet no such discussion has taken place regarding the second-most-common firearm on Civil War battlefields. How good was the Civil War revolver as a fighting tool? After all, discussions took place during the war regarding the role of the pistol alongside the saber. Muddying the debate, somewhat, was the fact that the most likely soldier to be issued a Colt or Remington was also the same man who would be handed a breechloader or repeaterthe Union cavalryman. As a result, the revolver was often carried by a soldier who needed it the least. Meanwhile, in the South many horsemen rode into combat with muzzleloaders or shotguns. And those Rebels on horseback who could get a pistol would obtain as many as they could carry. This was especially true in irregular units.

The primary benefits of the black-powder revolver involve its ability to deliver rapid, short-range firepower in a weapon that is relatively easy to operate with one hand. The pistol handles well, especially for a man on a horse. There were severe drawbacks to the gun, however. Most important, it was incredibly slow to reload. With a rifle musket (or muzzleloading pistol, the precursor to the Colt revolver), a soldier would fire once and take twenty or so seconds to reload. With the revolver, a soldier fired five or six times and then spent several minutes reloading. Even if a second, previously loaded cylinder was carried, reloading required multiple steps (and extra cylinders were very hard to find). Other drawbacks of the weapon included the tendency for the percussion caps to fall off (occasionally causing a misfire) or the less-than-occasional chain firewhen one percussion cap causes all the chambers to fire at once. Nothing inspires confidence in a handheld weapon more than the thought that it might blow your hand apart.

Let us start our brief evaluation of the black-powder revolver in a manner similar to our assessment of the rifle musket: years in use as a service weapon ().

Figure B.1. Before the introduction of metallic cartridges, the black-powder revolver lasted about a decade in service with the US military.

The black-powder revolver was certainly an improvement on the muzzleloading pistols it replaced, but it only lasted in service for around ten years before being replaced by guns firing metallic cartridges. The reason for this is simple: the time it takes to reload an M1860 Colt (an eternity) versus an M1873 Colt Single Action Army. If duration in service is any indicator of the impact and improvement of a new pistol, the M1873 Peacemaker takes a backseat to only one other Colt product, the venerable M1911 semiautomatic. In other words, the M1860 lasted around six years in service, and the M1911 lasted more than six decades.

Nevertheless, the Colt and Remington pistols of the Civil War could deliver five or six shots in rapid successionan important attribute in a firefight or skirmish at close range. What about hitting power? This question is difficult to answer precisely because of the nature of Civil War guns: the amount of black powder loaded into the weapon determined the muzzle velocity. Without a standardized metallic cartridge, the amount of powder and resulting energy could vary slightly. A standard military load for the Colt 1851 Navy Revolver would propel a .36-caliber 130-grain conoidal bullet at approximately 950 feet per second. This would produce a muzzle energy of around 260 foot-pounds. For the larger-bore .44-caliber M1860 Colt Army, a 140-grain bullet is propelled at nine hundred feet per second, producing a similar muzzle energy to the guns older brother. Both guns could be loaded to fire with more velocity and energy, but this was a dangerous proposition. For example, one of the guns the Civil War Colts were replacing, the M1847 Walker pistol, fired a 140-grain bullet at 1,100 feet per second, but it also had a proclivity to occasionally explode.