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Author: Earl J. Hess
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304
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Book Description
Challenges the longstanding view that the rifle musket revolutionized warfare during the Civil War, arguing instead that its actual impact was real but limited and specialized.
Author: Earl J. Hess
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304
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Book Description
Challenges the longstanding view that the rifle musket revolutionized warfare during the Civil War, arguing instead that its actual impact was real but limited and specialized.
Author: Earl J. Hess
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700623833
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296
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Book Description
The Civil War's single-shot, muzzle-loading musket revolutionized warfare-or so we've been told for years. Noted historian Earl J. Hess forcefully challenges that claim, offering a new, clear-eyed, and convincing assessment of the rifle musket's actual performance on the battlefield and its impact on the course of the Civil War. Many contemporaries were impressed with the new weapon's increased range of 500 yards, compared to the smoothbore musket's range of 100 yards, and assumed that the rifle was a major factor in prolonging the Civil War. Historians have also assumed that the weapon dramatically increased casualty rates, made decisive victories rare, and relegated cavalry and artillery to far lesser roles than they played in smoothbore battles. Hess presents a completely new assessment of the rifle musket, contending that its impact was much more limited than previously supposed and was confined primarily to marginal operations such as skirmishing and sniping. He argues further that its potential to alter battle line operations was virtually nullified by inadequate training, soldiers' preference for short-range firing, and the difficulty of seeing the enemy at a distance. He notes that bullets fired from the new musket followed a parabolic trajectory unlike those fired from smoothbores; at mid-range, those rifle balls flew well above the enemy, creating two killing zones between which troops could operate untouched. He also presents the most complete discussion to date of the development of skirmishing and sniping in the Civil War. Drawing upon the observations and reflections of the soldiers themselves, Hess offers the most compelling argument yet made regarding the actual use of the rifle musket and its influence on Civil War combat. Engagingly written and meticulously researched, his book will be of special interest to Civil War scholars, buffs, re-enactors, and gun enthusiasts alike.
Author: Earl J. Hess
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807159395
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 445
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Book Description
For decades, military historians have argued that the introduction of the rifle musket-with a range five times longer than that of the smoothbore musket-made the shoulder-to-shoulder formations of linear tactics obsolete. Author Earl J. Hess challenges this deeply entrenched assumption. He contends that long-range rifle fire did not dominate Civil War battlefields or dramatically alter the course of the conflict because soldiers had neither the training nor the desire to take advantage of the musket rifle's increased range. Drawing on the drill manuals available to officers and a close reading of battle reports, Civil War Infantry Tactics demonstrates that linear tactics provided the best formations and maneuvers to use with the single-shot musket, whether rifle or smoothbore. The linear system was far from an outdated relic that led to higher casualties and prolonged the war. Indeed, regimental officers on both sides of the conflict found the formations and maneuvers in use since the era of the French Revolution to be indispensable to the survival of their units on the battlefield. The training soldiers received in this system, combined with their extensive experience in combat, allowed small units a high level of articulation and effectiveness. Unlike much military history that focuses on grand strategies, Hess zeroes in on formations and maneuvers (or primary tactics), describing their purpose and usefulness in regimental case studies, and pinpointing which of them were favorites of unit commanders in the field. The Civil War was the last conflict in North America to see widespread use of the linear tactical system, and Hess convincingly argues that the war also saw the most effective tactical performance yet in America's short history.
Author: Earl J. Hess
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807876399
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 448
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Book Description
Earl J. Hess provides a narrative history of the use of fortifications--particularly trenches and other semi-permanent earthworks--used by Confederate and Union field armies at all major battle sites in the eastern theater of the Civil War. Hess moves beyond the technical aspects of construction to demonstrate the crucial role these earthworks played in the success or failure of field armies. A comprehensive study which draws on research and fieldwork from 300 battle sites, Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War is an indispensable reference for Civil War buffs and historians.
Author: Grady McWhiney
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240
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Book Description
Why did the Confederacy lose so many men? The authors contend that the Confederates bled themselves nearly to death in the first three years of the war by making costly attacks more often than the Federals. Offensive tactics, which had been used successfully by Americans in the Mexican War, were much less effective in the 1860s because an improved weapon - the rifle - had given increased strength to defenders. This book describes tactical theory in the 1850s and suggests how each related to Civil War tactics. It also considers the development of tactics in all three arms of the service during the Civil War.
Author: Martin Pegler
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472815920
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 81
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Book Description
At the outset of the American Civil War, the Union Army's sharpshooters were initially equipped with the M1855 Colt revolving rifle, but it was prone to malfunction. Instead, the North's sharpshooters preferred the Sharps rifle, an innovative breech-loading weapon capable of firing up to ten shots per minute – more than three times the rate of fire offered by the standard-issue Springfield .58-caliber rifled musket. Other Union sharpshooters were equipped with the standard-issue Springfield rifled musket or the .56-56-caliber Spencer Repeating Rifle. Conversely, the Confederacy favoured the Pattern 1853 Enfield rifled musket for its sharpshooters and also imported from Britain the Whitworth Rifle, a .45-caliber, single-shot, muzzle-loading weapon distinguished by its use of a twisted hexagonal barrel. Featuring specially commissioned artwork, this is the engrossing story of the innovative rifles that saw combat in the hands of sharpshooters on both sides during the Civil War.
Author: Paddy Griffith
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300084610
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 496
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Book Description
Military expert Paddy Griffith argues that despite the use of new weapons and of trench warfare techniques, the Civil War was in reality the last Napoleonic-style war. Illustrations.
Author: Brett Gibbons
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN: 9781719857277
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 110
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Book Description
On the battlefields of the Crimean War, William Howard Russell described the new weapon in the hands of British troops -- the rifle-musket -- as "the Destroying Angel" that swept away their Russian foes. In a response to the popular belief among current historians that the rifle-musket's impact on military history was very limited, Brett Gibbons argues that the rifle-musket was in fact the first modern infantry weapon. Drawing upon a wealth of previously unidentified primary sources, Gibbons examines the rifle-musket and it's role in not just the American Civil War, but also the Crimean War, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and the Italian Wars of Unification. He compellingly demonstrates that the rifle-musket forever changed the way battles are fought, and just as importantly, revolutionized the way soldiers are trained. Gibbons considers a number of historical battles, from well-known actions like the "Thin Red Line" at the Battle of Balaclava to obscure yet ferocious actions during the Indian Rebellion, to illustrate the varying impact of the rifle-musket in both trained and untrained hands. Drawing upon his broad domain knowledge as an expert on 19th century arms and a U.S. Army Ordnance officer, Gibbons compellingly demonstrates that the rifle-musket deserves a better reputation than it currently has from military historians.
Author: Brent Nosworthy
Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
ISBN: 9780786715633
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 752
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Book Description
A noted military historian takes a close-up look at the fighting methods, tactics, and weaponry on both sides of the American Civil War in a thorough analysis of Civil War military practices that chronicles the evolution of warfare from the early days of the war, through the famous battles at Gettysburg and Antietam, to the final surrender of the Confederate forces. Reprint.
Author: Earl J. Hess
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700614214
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
I saw enough to sicken the heart. . . . The scenes which I witnessed were enough to overthrow all imaginations concerning the glory of war; but, dreadful as they were, I hope and believe that I would be willing to suffer the worst, . . . rather than prove a traitor to the trust which our country reposes in all her sons.--J. Spangler Kieffer, Pennsylvania Militia With its relentless bloodshed, devastating firepower, and large-scale battles often fought on impossible terrain, the Civil War was a terrifying experience for a volunteer army. Yet, as Earl Hess shows, Union soldiers found the wherewithal to endure such terrors for four long years and emerge victorious. A vivid reminder that the business of war is killing, Hess's study plunges us into the hellish realms of Civil War combat-a horrific experience crowded with brutalizing sights, sounds, smells, and textures. We share the terror of being shot at for the first time and hear the "grating sound a minie ball makes when it hits a bone instead of the heavy thud when it strikes flesh." We are assaulted by choruses of groans from the wounded and dying and come to understand why some soldiers returned to battle with great dread Drawing extensively upon the letters, diaries, and memoirs of Northern soldiers, Hess reveals their deepest fears and shocks, and also their sources of inner strength. By identifying recurrent themes found in these accounts, Hess constructs a multilayered view of the many ways in which these men coped with the challenges of battle. He shows how they were bolstered by belief in God and country, or simply by their sense of duty; how they came to rely on the support of their comrades; and how they learned to muster self-control in order to persevere from one battle to the next. Although our ability to appreciate war as it was conducted in the previous century has been clouded by our familiarity with modern conflicts, Hess's study conveys that reality with an immediacy rarely matched by other books. Even more, it urges us to reconsider these soldiers not as victims of the battlefield but rather as victors over the worst that war can inflict.
