A collection of bedtime stories - or sharpshooter & sniper tales

[CajunBass]

Moving over to the Spotsylvania Courthouse battlefield. This monument marks the spot where Union General Sedgwick fell, shot by a Confederate shaprshooter. General Sedgwick had just told his men not to be afraid. "They can't hit an elephant at this distance." Then fell, shot through the eye.



The "Bloody Angle" at Spotsylvania. The site of some of the most desperate fighting of the war. There is a stillness here. Even on a hot summer day in Virginia, there is a coldness that I just can't put my finger on.



A section of the Confederate line at Spotsylvania.



The sign says it all, giving you some idea how desperate the fighting was along this front.

 

[CajunBass]

And a couple from the beginning of the end. The McLean house, Appomattox Courthouse. Appomattox, Virginia. It was here that General Robert E. Lee, Commanding, Army of Northern Virginia, surrendered to Lt. General Ulysses Grant, Commanding, Armies of the United States, on April 9, 1865.



A small Confederate cemetary, just outside of Appomattox where we stopped for a picnic lunch. One of the men burried here, I forget which marker, (I believe it's the third from the left) enlisted a few days after Fort Sumter. He apparently marched and fought with the Army of Northern Virginia all through the war, only to die in the final charge as Lee tried to break out of the Federal encirclement.

 

[Ratdog68]

Hey CajunBass... your pix and narrative add some good seasoning and make for some interesting viewing. Thanks for sharing them !

 

[4v50 Gary]

O.K. A different track. We leave the Civil War to examine another battle from a war fought almost one hundred years earlier. The time is 1763 and it takes place here in North America. The continent is still under the control of the British Crown and the colonies were supposed to be enjoying the peace that followed the Treaty of Paris.

British adaptation to forest warfare in light of Pontiac’s War and Bushy Run

Following the Peace of Paris, the French surrendered their interests in the New World in Canada and east of the Mississippi, the French outposts were occupied by the victorious British. While France was humiliated, the ones who suffered most were their Indian allies who had fought against the encroachment of their lands by the restless British colonists. It was an uneasy truce at best. After all, reasoned the Indians, unlike the French, they were not defeated, and how could the French give away that which was not theirs? Discontent increased when the British Commander in Chief, Lord Jeffrey Amherst, reduced the flow of gifts to the Indians. To the latter this was a serious breach of protocol. Disgusted with the English, Ottawa war chief Pontiac announced that he had a dream in which he received a vision. He said that the Great Spirit told him that the red man was to discard the trappings of the whites and return to their earlier way of life. Under his leadership, the tribes were to unite and destroy the English and retake their land.

The excerpt is from Chapter One. The books should be printed by Friday. Delivery is sometime next week.

 

[Old Fuff]

EXCELLENT!!!!

From whom will it be available?

 

[4v50 Gary]

I've got someone working on the website. I've got the resale license so now I'm a tax collector in California. I'm still waiting for the fictitious business name from the county. Then I can get a bank account and from there it will be good to go.

War erupted on the frontier. Farms burned and settlers who did not flee were slain. The defensive chain of forts fell in rapid succession and in the Great Lakes region only Fort Detroit held out. In the south, only Fort Pitt and those east of it remained in British hands. It is said that Fort Pitt held out because “not an Indian would show his nose without being picked off with a bullet, for we have some good marksmen here.” Anxious to relieve Fort Pitt, Lord Amherst sent Col. Henry Bouquet along with the remnants of the Forty-Second and Seventy-Seventh regiments (excluding staff officers, 171 and 102 strong, respectively). Both regiments were depleted by sickness in their West Indies Campaign (of the 2,057 Scots who embarked for the campaign, only 795 returned in Nov. 1762). Along with his own regiment, the Royal Americans (Sixtieth) and frontiersmen whom he hired as scouts and flankers, Bouquet mustered a pitiful 500 men. His feeble column was substantially weaker than the 7,000 he and Forbes had led in 1758. The only advantage Bouquet enjoyed over the earlier expedition was that his men were no longer strangers to forest warfare. Following his earlier route on the Forbes Road, Bouquet led his small column eastward from their staging area at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. When less than twenty miles from Fort Pitt, they were ambushed. The two companies of light infantry drove the Indians back. Montgomery Highlander Pvt. Robert Kirk: “When Col. Buccard perceived their design, he ordered that part of the square which were on the flank, to move forward and support the front.” After their initial repulse the Indians regrouped and attacked the flanks and the supply train in the rear. Pvt. Kirk continues his narrative: “The rear by this time had come, when the Indians perceiving they must fight a fresh party, changed their scheme, came round and attacked the rear; we faced about, and having made a kind of breastwork with the flour bags, waited their approach; when they came close up, we gave them our whole, fire, and rushed out upon them with fixt bayonets; the Indians are not very well used to this way of fighting, they therefore immediately took to their heels, and left the field of battle, but they hovered in the woods about us all days and night, which made the commanding officer not to think it expedient to leave that situation for that night.”

 

[BHP FAN]

waiting for the books,with baited breath!
What the heck does that mean ,anyway?

 

[mykeal]

'Bate' (alternate spelling is bait) is a shortened form of abate, meaning to lessen or moderate. To 'wait with bated (or baited) breath' is to wait with shortened, shallow breathing, as in ambush, anticipating your quarry.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Proof that mykeal is smarter than I.

Here's more on Bouquet and the Battle of Bushy Run.

Realizing their only salvation was to lure the Indian to close quarters, Bouquet devised a strategy. Since Indian tactics called for minimizing their casualties, they avoided fully encircling an opponent. By allowing an avenue of escape, a disheartened foe could flee and in the ensuing panic the Indians would run them down and destroy them. Thus the Indians’ lines were shaped like the letter “C” as opposed to a complete encirclement. The gap was used by Bouquet to move one light infantry company, his grenadier company of the Forty-Second and remaining frontiersmen onto an unoccupied portion of the hillside and out of view. Bouquet ordered his remaining two light infantry companies (probably one from the Seventh-Seventh and one from the Forty-Second) to feign a retreat toward the center when the Indians again attacked.

By the hair of a bear, Bushy Run was narrowly saved from closing due to Pennsylvania's deficit. So, if you've got a chance, visit that battlefield. It's operated by the PA State Park System. Other nearby sites that are worth visiting include Jumonville Glen, where Washington started the French & Indian War by his failure to protect Jumonville when he surrendered. Jumonville Glen, along with the nearby Mt. Washington Tavern, Braddock's Grave and Fort Necessity (Washington's first defeat) are operated by the National Park Service. Everything is close to Pittsburg so if you should stop by there to visit Fort Pitt - another PA State Park site. A blockhouse built during the time of Herny Bouquet still stands today. Take note of Grant Street when you in Pittsburg (a short distance from Fort Pitt). It's where 77th Montgomery Highlander Maj. James Grant launched his (1758) attack on Fort Duquense. I'll post that after Bushy Run is finished.

 

[4v50 Gary]

More on Bushy Run

The next day, when the Indians renewed their attack, the two light infantry companies retreated as planned. Mistaking this for a panicked retreat, the Indians rushed forward for the kill. Instead, the light infantry suddenly turned around and fired a volley. Startled, the Indians prepared to stand their ground when the two light infantry companies lowered their bayonets and charged. The final surprise came when the hidden companies swept forward and cleared the hillside. This was too much for the Indians, who broke. The student, Bouquet, applied the Indians’ tactic of luring a pursuer into an ambush against the Indians themselves. (Indian tactics included luring a pursuer into an ambush. Knowing a pursuit would follow the raiding band for revenge, recovery of prisoners and chattel, the Indians would lie in wait and fall upon their pursuers.) Describing the climactic moment is Pvt. Robert Kirk: “[T]he Indians thought we were going to break and run away, and being sure of their prey came in upon us in the greatest disorder; but they soon found their mistake, for we met them with our fire first, and then made terrible havock amongst them with our fixt bayonets and continuing to push them every where. They set to their heels and were never after able to rally again...” Bouquet collected his wounded and pressed on to Fort Pitt. His casualties (fifty dead, sixty wounded or about twenty-four percent), while heavy, were nowhere near those of Braddock (1755) or Grant (1758), and he succeeded in lifting the siege of Fort Pitt and breaking the spirit of Pontiac’s Revolt. It being late in the year, and with few troops, Bouquet was compelled to halt the campaign and rest his men.

Books arrived today. Now I can't walk into my downstairs library.

 

[BCRider]

Well I'm in for a book as soon as I know where to send the money order or PayPal.

 

[4v50 Gary]

While some earlier historians believed that Bushy Run proved the British soldiers’ mastery of forest warfare, both Brumwell (Redcoats) and Starkey (European and Native American Warfare) cite the post-Bushy Run defeat of Capt. Dalyell with 276 men (which included Maj. Robert Rogers and his Rangers) at Fort Detroit and the Seneca ambush on the Niagara Trail (Sept. 14, 1763) as evidence to the contrary. Brumwell argued that the British Redcoat adapted to forest warfare. Starkey’s assessment is more accurate, and while Starkey recognized improvements, he believed that the Redcoat was still far from being the equal of the Indian. The Indians had no doubt about their superiority and derisively called the British “petticoat soldiers”. Starkey also pointed out that most British officers failed to adapt themselves and he cites the loss of successive forts during Pontiac’s Rebellion as demonstrating a lack of understanding of Indian tactics. Many years later one former Royal American lieutenant, Major General Arthur St. Clair, was badly defeated in his 1791 expedition against Little Turtle’s Miami Indians.

Even after his victory Bouquet expressed reservations about his regulars. “n obedience to your desires I would have attempted it with that Small addition of men fit for Such Expeditions. But without a certain Number of Woodsmen, I can not think it adviseable to employ Regulars in the Woods against Savages, as they can not procure any Intelligence; and are open to continual Surprises. Nor can they pursue at any distance this Enemy when they have routed them, and Should they have misfortune to be defeated the whole would be destroyed if at above one day’s march from a Fort.” Furthermore, a confident Bouquet would not have issued instructions to scatter to the victors of Bushy Run. Pvt. Robert Kirk: “We were now within 20 miles of Fort-Pit, & had directions if we were again attacked, and should be defeated, to make the best of our way to said Fort...”

To buy a copy, here's a link to a Link

 

[4v50 Gary]

Analysis on Bushy Run continued...

In eight years of conflict, British fighting skills improved and this becomes evident in comparing the losses sustained by each successive battle near Fort Duquesne/Fort Pitt. Respectively, Braddock, Grant and Bouquet suffered 62%, 37% and 24% casualties. Furthermore, Bouquet’s paltry column not only withstood an Indian attack longer than Braddock’s or Grant’s, but also fought on the next day and won. While still not the equal of the woodland Indian, the British regular was adapting to forest warfare. Credit must be given to Bouquet who understood Indian tactics and applied it against them. He used the Indians’ overconfidence and their contempt for the redcoat to lure them to close quarters where his Highlanders’ skill and passion for cold steel were most effective. Was there a tactical edge that allowed Bouquet’s strategy to work? We turn to frontiersman James Smith for an answer. A former captive who was adopted by the Caughnewago Nation and lived with them for five years, Smith was intimate with their mode of warfare and both raised and led a company of riflemen to protect the Pennsylvania frontier against Indian raids. Smith wrote: “The Indians had no aid from the French, or any other power, when they besieged Fort Pitt in the year 1763, and cut off the communication for a considerable time, between that post and Fort Loudon, and would have defeated General Bouquet’s army, (who were on the way to raise the siege) had it not been for the assistance of the Virginia volunteers....” Smith also points out that the Indians: “...had no British troops with them when they defeated Colonel Crawford, near the Sandusky, in the time of the American war with Great Britain: or when they defeated Colonel Loughrie, on the Ohio, near the Miami, on his way to meet General Clarke: this was also in the time of the British war. It was the Indians alone that defeated Colonel Todd, in Kentucky, near the Bluelicks, in the year 1782; and Colonel Harmer, betwixt the Ohio and Lake Erie, in the year 1790, and General St. Clair, in the year 1791....” (Note: While Smith and Montgomery Highlander Robert Kirk both identify Barrett’s men as Virginians, Bouquet identifies them as Marylanders. The ambiguity may arise from the dispute between the two colonies over their border.) Bouquet neglects to credit Capt. Barrett and his Virginia riflemen as instrumental to his success. It is likely that without them Bouquet’s regulars could not have pursued the Indians deep into the woods without being ambushed again.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Conclusion of Bushy Run

The next year Bouquet led a larger army including numerous frontiersmen into the heart of Indian territory in a punitive expedition and negotiated a peace from a position of strength. In recognition of his achievements Bouquet was promoted to brigadier general in the United States and transferred to Florida where he died of malaria (1765). Pontiac surrendered himself to Sir William Johnson (July 25, 1766) and almost three years later in April,1769, was murdered by a Kaskaskia Indian who was in the pay of an English trader.

While recent research, notably Bodine’s, cast Bouquet in a less mythical light, some of Bouquet’s ideas for Indian warfare remain valid. The adoption of brown clothing and leggings or even the limited use of rifles are among them. Perhaps the most viable proposal by Bouquet was the use of dogs. While not original to Bouquet, who acknowledged the Spanish precedent, the use of dogs was validated in the American Revolution at Freeland Station (April 2, 1781) where a party of settlers set out to ambush a war party that was en route to attack the station. Instead of being the ambushers, they were ambushed and cut off by the Indians who had thrown a cordon in their path. Their precarious state was relieved by the timely release of their dogs, who distracted the Indians long enough for the settlers to retreat to safety.

Bouquet was promoted to General in America. The peculiar thing about British ranks, is that outside of the Americas, Bouquet would only be a colonel. It's somewhat akin to the brevet ranks given to our soldiers during the American Civil War - except that Bouquet probably received a general's pay. Unfortunately, he didn't have long to enjoy his promotion. He was sent to Florida where he contacted yellow fever and perished from it. His final resting place is unknown.

The article was originally released in Muzzle Blasts Magazine, the official magazine of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association. If you don't belong, you might consider joining. Here is a Link

 

[4v50 Gary]

Happy New Year (2010)!

During the course of 2010, the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association will publish three articles adapted from Chapter 1 and 2 of the book. If you don't already belong to the NMLRA, you should consider it. Here's an incident from our Revolution.

The American’s lack of artillery did not deter them and they posted men to pick off the landing parties. Their fire was so accurate that the British abandoned their efforts to land and burn the town. The next day the British attempted to destroy the town with cannon fire but their ships had mistakenly anchored too close to shore and were within range of the riflemen. “Men were picked off in every part of the ships, and great terror soon prevailed in the fleet. The cannon were deserted, for every gunman became a target for the riflemen. The British commander, unable to endure a fire so deadly, ordered the cables slipped and the vessels to retreat. This movement was difficult, for men seen at the helm, or aloft adjusting sails, were singled out and shot down.” One tender, along with seven of her sailors, was captured.

The Company of Military Historians should also release one of my articles this year.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

Congratulations Gary.
I am enjoying my, signed ,copy of your book that my wife got me for Christmas... It was well worth the wait.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

Gary,have you done anything on "Bloody" Bill Cunningham or maybe,"Daring" Dicey Langston? My ggggggrand father Martin Dial sr. of Laurens Dist.,South Carolina, was once captured by Bloody Bill(according to family legend) at the canebrake. Martin's son Isaac(my gggggrandfather) named his daughter Dicey (my ggggrandmother)after the daring Miss Langston.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Jimmy Ray, neither Bloody Bill nor Daring Dicey Langston are mentioned. BTW, I've heard of Bloody Bill Anderson but not Bloody Bill Cunningham.

I had information on Jack Hinson too but didn't include him as I wanted feats of marksmanship and not just body counts. Now there's a book on Hinson that was released last year.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

Bloody Bill Anderson was a Confederate partisan (rode with Quantrill)and a relative of mine.(his mother was Martha Thomason Anderson) also my Todd ancestors rode with Quantrill. Bloody Bill Cunningham was a Tory during the American Revolution and was deserving of the nickname. Dicey was his sworn enemy and a patriot to be admired at age 16 years.

 

[Hangingrock]

Scout-Sniper 1862-1865 perspective might find commonality w/the scout-sniper of today

Scout-Sniper 1862-1865 perspective might find commonality with the scout-sniper of today.

The following excerpts were taken from: The Civil War Diary of Wyman S. White
First Sergeant Company F 2nd United States Sharpshooters.


Telescope Rifle
While the contention over the gun was in progress, our boys could see a Rebel over beyond the gun stand¬ing beside a tree. They fired at him for a long time and he in return sent a bullet as often as one might reload. A puff of smoke told our men that he still lived and was doing business at the same stand. Why all the shots our boys sent him did not silence him or even disturb him was to them a mystery. At that time I was using a telescope breech loading rifle that weighed thirty pounds and someone came to us and wanted me to try my rifle on the man they could not hit or si¬lence. I went and as soon as I brought my rifle's tele¬scope to bear on the mystery, I saw that it was the body of a dead rebel lashed up to a tree and a live rebel Sharpshooter was behind the tree doing his best to pick off the Yankees that were sending bullets into his dead comrade hung up beside the tree that covered him.
Four Inches of Powder

Then I fired a shot and the bullet made the dust fly right amongst the workmen. They scouted around but went to work again. I loaded my thirty pounder again and fired, making the dust fly among the chaps, who took themselves out of sight for a short time. I fired the fifth time before they quit their job and they did not put in an appearance at their job again. This per¬formance proved beyond a doubt that the big muzzle loader was a longer range gun than the Sharps rifle, and there was a reason. The charge in loading it was four inches of powder, a good flannel wad, a bullet that weighed more than an ounce that was wedged into the grooves of the rifling inside by use of a false muzzle. So that when the fire from the percussion cap touched the four inches of powder it would send a bullet more than a mile and do good execution. I have no doubt the working party of rebels was more than a mile away and I had no trouble in driving them away. I also have no doubt that if I hit them they received an awful wound.

Clean Rifle

This young officer was a tall slim man about thirty years old, of florid complexion and, as he lay there and I had seen nothing but his face, I should never have thought but it was the face of a living man. How I came to notice the affair was that my rifle was in bad shape and needed cleaning. I saw a rubber coat and thought that I might get a dry piece of cloth from under the rubber coat. The body was clothed in no less than three coats of cloth besides the rubber one, also three or more pairs of pants, and I concluded this officer wore all those clothes to give him a better appearance by looking more stocky. In getting cloth for cleaning my rifle I cut through three pairs of pants before I got a dry piece fit to use on my rifle. This piece was taken from a pair of U.S. Soldier's sky blue pants, and the rubber coat the colonel wore had the name and regiment of an officer of a New Jersey regi¬ment stamped on the inside with stencil. I got my dry cloth out of his pants and left him alone in his glory and went on my way to obey orders in locating the enemy.


The Telescopic Sighted Sharpshooters Rifle
There was in use, a very heavy rifle, with a teles¬copic sight, used for special sharp shooting. There were not many of these rifles but they were assigned to those soldiers considered to be the best shots. The soldier had a special wooden case for the rifle. When the unit moved, he had to take the rifle to the case at the wagon train and put the rifle in it, for transportation. The rifle weighed 34 pounds. When he put away the telescopic sighted rifle, he took up his Sharps rifle again and moved with the troops until a special duty required the use of the large long range rifle again. The charge for loading the telescopic rifle was four inches of black powder, a good flannel wad, a lead bull¬et that weighed more than an ounce that was wedged into the grooves of the rifling inside by use of a false muzzle. When fire from the percussion cap hit the charge, it would send the bullet more than a mile and do good execution. The rifle fired greater distances and more accurately than the Sharps Rifles were capable of doing. In the book "Berdan's U.S. Sharpshooters in the Army of the Potomac, 1861-1865," the author, C. A. Stevens, explains in an incident in the First Regiment, he high regard in which those using such rifles were, held. "Harrison's Creek, June 16th, 1864. One of the first men shot on taking this position was James Heath, ,f Michigan, who carried a 34 pound telescopic rifle, the heaviest in the regiment, and which, as he went down, fell with a heavy blow in the middle of the road. The rifle was immediately turned over to James Ragin, of Wisconsin, who was sent to the rear by Capt¬ain Wilson, to put it through repair before attempting o use it. The giving of these telescopic rifles, but a few of which were now carried at this period of serv¬ice, was in the nature of a mark of honor, as the sharpshooter thus armed was considered an independent character, used only for special services, with the, privilege of going to any part of the line where in his, own judgment he could do the most good. It is there- fore sufficient, in naming the men carrying these pon¬derous rifles, to show that they were among our most trusted and best shots." It is to be noted that at the Battle of Burnside's Mine, 30 July, 1864, Ragin was wounded in the left arm. The rifle was then assigned to Frederick H. Johnson of Company B. He was from New York City.
In the foregoing manuscript, it will be noted that Wyman S. White had been assigned one of these tele¬scopic rifles and had used it for an extended period of time with, according to him, quite excellent results. It will also be noted that he operated at times as an in¬dependent marksman in various parts of the line where he thought he could do the most good.

 

[KodiakBeer]

So, who made this 34 pound rifle?

 

[4v50 Gary]

Wyman White's diary remains the most valuable diary of any Civil War era sharpshooter that I have read. It's also getting hard to get now too.

BTW, as to which soldier got the rifle, what was described in the above thread talks only about the practice of the Berdan Sharp Shooters. I have found an example where whomsoever could get their hands on a telescope gun could become a sharpshooter and whether he had any expertise with it or not was not relevant.

As to who made the rifle, they were made by individual gunsmiths. There are examples of these guns in various collections. Gettysburg National Battlefield Park has at least one as does the Log Cabin Shop in Lodi. The National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, VA has several target guns of the period. The Smithsonian does too, but it's not on display right now (I was there in April).

 

[KodiakBeer]

Thanks! I was assuming it was some heavy model of the Whitworth or something like that.

Sounds like the Civil War equivalent of the Barrett!

 

[4v50 Gary]

April 2010 issue of Muzzle Blasts had an article on Braddock's Defeat. It was extracted from Chapter 1.

May 2010 issue has an article on Spencer's Ordinary, a little known skirmish that was a prelude to Yorktown.

 

[4v50 Gary]

There's a terrific book out by Tom Tate. From Under Iron Eyelids: The biography of James Henry Burton, Armorer to Three Nations discusses the career of James Burton. If you never heard of the man, he's the fellow at Harper's Ferry who improved Claude Minie's bullet and by tapering the bullet's skirt, could discard the plug that served to expand the undersized minie ball to mate with the grooves and lands of the gun barrel. He then went to England where he help set up the English armories to make the P53 Enfield rifle musket. When the American Civil War broke out, he returned to the South and became an armorer for the Confederacy. I just started reading it and it's terrific, well researched and is a must for anyone who is fascinated by the Civil War.

Enough rambling. Here's our bedtime story for today.

In the afternoon, as three companies of our regiment were supporting a section of the Baltimore battery, Second Lieutenant B. G., Co. F, was shot by a rebel sharpshooter at not less than 900 yards distance. The lieutenant died at 10 p.m. on Sunday night.