The most common smoothbore percussion musket in Confederate hands was most likely a U.S. 1816/22 converted from flint sometime after the Mexican War. The adoption of the percussion lock system beginning in 1842 resulted in the retroactive conversion of some of the Federal stockpile of over 800,000 flint-locks still on hand. However, not all smoothbore muskets used during the Civil War were of U.S. manufacture.
In May 1861, Caleb Huse obtained C.S. contracts for the commercial British P53 rifle-muskets but also surplus P39 and P42 percussion cap ‘Brown Bess’ smoothbore muskets. He continued on to Continental Europe and obtained other available surplus muskets from France, Belgium, Prussia, and Austria. These varied somewhat in bore diameter as well as quality. American gun-makers were not the only ones producing muskets from substandard and condemned parts that were sold into the gun trade.
Exact figures of European smoothbore muskets purchased by the Confederacy and run through the Blockade are not known, but Huse claims to have landed 100,000 of the more modern M1854 Austrian (a.k.a. Lorenz) rifle alone. This figure may be exaggerated. Caleb Huse wrote this many years post-bellum and time has a way of muddling certain details. The contract was also higher in cost than the Confederate Ordnance Department had been led to believe.
We do not have figures from the Imperial Armory in Vienna like we do from the Birmingham Small Arms Trade (courtesy of John Dent Goodman) so the best we can do is come up with a figure working backwards. As near as can be determined Josiah Gorgas indicated in correspondence to Secretary of War James Seddon that 27,000 Austrian rifles were imported by the end of 1862. Another 23,000 remained in Nassau awaiting shipment. There were probably various European smoothbore muskets included in that figure as well due to the volume of arms buying going on. A further 30,000 Austrian rifles remained in Vienna awaiting payment. If the math is right, that makes around 80,000 Austrian rifles by the end of 1864…then the paper trail goes cold. The number of smoothbore muskets was certainly less than that. By 1864 the Confederacy did not intend to import any more obsolete flintlocks as they already had a supply of those on hand. European smoothbore muskets were more commonly issued and remained in service longer in the Western theater units. The continued use of buck and ball rounds is one reason why the so-called “obsolete” smoothbore muskets were still seeing service on both sides when Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse in April 1865. A good source on the extent of smoothbore musket usage during the U.S. Civil War is The Bloody Crucible of Courage by Brent Nosworthy. The author reviewed ammunition
requisitions from the last years of the conflict and found that an unexpectedly large number of orders for .69 caliber buck and ball cartridges were being filled right up until the end of the war. If the armies were armed almost totally with .58 caliber rifle-muskets as has often been stated, what use would the .69 caliber buck and ball rounds be and what purpose would the soldiers have for them? Obviously, the buck and ball cartridges were issued because a number of smoothbore muskets were still in the ranks.
What did the officers at the time think about the effectiveness of the “new” rifle-muskets in the field? Opinions seem to vary, but after approximately two years studying the effectiveness of both “rifled” and “smoothbore” muskets with troops in battle, Claud E. Fuller noted in The Rifled Musket (Stackpole Publishing, 1959) that one Union officer reported back:
“...(Even) with all the defects in the new (rifled) arms, caused by the great curves of their trajectories, an army can not now do without them; it would be placed in a position of inferiority to its adversary (at longer ranges). It would be equally in error to fall into the other extreme, and discard entirely smoothbore arms from our army, a result towards which we have been tending for several years past.”
The report concludes by saying, “Battles must be fought and won, as in times past; decisive victories cannot be gained by firing at long ranges; at short ranges the (smoothbore musket with) the buck and ball cartridge is certainly more effective. It is a grave error to adopt for an army rifled (muskets) to the entire exclusion of smoothbore arms.”
The historical use of smoothbore muskets throughout the war is a simple reality most historians chose to ignore. Experienced Civil War field officers have been quoted as saying “The (smoothbore) musket with buck and ball is the best arm in the service” and as fellow Civil War News columnist Joe Bilby noted in his May 1993 article for American Rifleman, “buckshot tells at close range.”
Craig L. Barry was born in Charlottesville, Va. He holds his BA and Masters degrees from the University of North Carolina The (Charlotte). Craig served Watchdog Civil War Quarterly as Associate Editor and Editor from 2003–2017. The Watchdog published books and columns on 19th-century material and donated all funds from publications to battlefield preservation. He is the author of several books including The Civil War Musket: A Handbook for Historical Accuracy (2006, The Unfinished Fight: 2011), Essays on Confederate Material Culture Vol. I and II (2012, 2013) and four books in the Suppliers to the Confederacy series on English Arms & Accoutrements, Quartermaster stores and other European imports.
We asked our contributors to submit their top ten favorite Civil War books of all time. We removed paragraph breaks to allow for more content in this expanded Civil War News issue.
I have been reading books on the American Civil War since I was 10 years old, when my Aunt Connie gave me my first one for Christmas, Robert E. Lee and the Road of Honor, by Hodding Carter, in the Landmark series for young readers. I was immediately hooked, and over the years since then, while taking a break from time to time to read about another era, usually military history or the odd work of historical fiction, it is still Civil War history that I turn to for my study and recreational reading. Now we have a bookstore that specializes in Civil War books, as well as other periods of military history; we generate a direct mail catalog once a month, containing about 200 titles, the best books that we have picked up in recent weeks. On a particularly good month, you will see one or more of my personal favorites, usually marked by a little post scrip comment, such as One of My Favorite CW
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Books, or One of my very favorite Confederate Navy Books, or the like. So when asked to prepare a list of my ten favorite Civil War reads, the only challenge was to keep the list down to ten, which I couldn’t do, for there are so many that I have loved over the years. At any rate, here goes, a succinct list of Marc Ramsey’s eleven favorite Civil War Books in no particular order.
1. Lee’s Lieutenants, a Study
2. Fighting 3. Lone Star Preacher by John
in Command by Douglas Southall Freeman. Charles Scribners Sons, 1942–1945. This is an unforgettable read and still the best source 4. One for Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. When you sit down in your favorite chair with these books, you forget you’re reading; you are literally transported back in time, thanks to the writing skills of its great author.
For the Confederacy, The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander edited by Gary Gallagher. 5. Berry University of North Carolina Press, 1989. I love this well-crafted volume for its objective look at each of the battles and campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia. Over the years I have advised
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W. Thomason. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1941. In spite of the fact that this is historical fiction, it is still true to the history, while adding some unforgettable characters to the story, especially Praxeteles Swan. The author was a noted Marine Corps officer and talented illustrator, and the author of Ed Bearss’ favorite book as a young person, JEB Stuart.
of Jackson’s Foot Cavalry, His Experiences and What He Saw During the War 1861–1865 by John Worsham. The Neale Publishing Co., 1912. One of the best written of all personal narratives, and a great source for details and anecdotes of army life and equipment. We actually built F Company, our reenacting unit, around this book.
Benson’s Civil War Book, Memoirs of a Confederate Scout and Sharpshooter by Berry Benson. University of Georgia Press, 1962. This is an astonishing but factual 6. Running the Blockade by
8. “Company AYTCH,” Maury
9. Ghost Ship of the Confederacy
10. Recollections Grave and Gay
11. To the Gates of Richmond, memoir. Benson really was at all the places and did all the things that he describes. His saddest moment in the war was when he took his last shot at a Yankee and missed just before Appomattox.
Tom Taylor. J. Murray, 1897. These are the exciting reminiscences of a bright, young Englishmen and his partners, who risked all to make a profit running cargoes through the Yankee blockade into Southern ports.
and Hope, The Recollections of Val C. Giles, Four Years With Hood’s Brigade, Fourth Texas Infantry, 1861–1865 by Val Giles. Coward-McCann, 1961. Another superbly written account about one of the most captivating subjects of the war, the exploits and experiences of Hood’s Texas Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia.
Grays, First Tennessee Regiment: or, A Side Show of the Big Show by Sam Watkins. Cumberland Presbyterian Publishing House, 1882. You don’t read this book, you listen to it. You listen to an old Southern veteran as he shares with you his stories and memories, most of which are probably mostly true. It’s a delight!
by Edward Boykin. Funk & Wagnall’s Company, 1957. There are few sea stories as compelling as the adventures of the CSS Alabama, and of all the books written on this subject, this is by far and away my favorite.
by Mrs. Burton Harrison, (Constance Cary). Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1911. The author, a novelist, and one of the “Cary Invincibles,” tells of life in the Confederate capital during the war from the perspective of a fervent young Confederate woman at the heart of Richmond’s governing and social circles, and of life afterwards as she becomes the wife of Jefferson Davis’ chief aid, Burton Harrison.
The Peninsula Campaign by Stephen Sears. Ticknor & Fields, 1992. My favorite campaign of the war is the Seven Days around Richmond; this is the best book on that series of
These books all have personality and are captivating reads. They are filled with individual experiences, anecdotes, irony, and even at times, humor.
On a final note—as I get older, I have found great pleasure in occasionally picking up one of these, my old friends, from my library, and reading it again. I find myself transported back in time, to a familiar place, where all cares for the present are, for a little while, suspended. Enjoy!
Marc Ramsey is co-owner of Owens and Ramsey Historical Booksellers with his lovely wife Jill, who, for the past 25 plus years, have specialized in the buying, selling and trading of rare and collectible Civil War books, artifacts and paper items. They provide appraisals for estate planning, charitable deductions, or insurance purposes. They also love making recommendations to readers looking to expand their Civil War knowledge as well as providing customers with very rare and collectible volumes for their libraries.
Jack Melton’s request to list my top ten favorite Civil War books is the most challenging assignment since writing my Ph.D. dissertation at the University of South Carolina. Every historian of the conflict could easily cite 100 or more books as essential reading. My interest in the coastal war shaped my list, along with a hefty dose of nostalgia. So here goes: 1. The Golden Book of the Civil battles, by one of the best military historians I have ever encountered.
War. New York: Golden Press, 1960. A Christmas gift from my parents when I was eight years old in 1961, it is my all-time favorite Civil War book. Editors of American Heritage adapted it from the American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War for young readers. I spent hours and hours, days and days, marveling at the period photographs, lithographs, engravings, and diorama maps by David Greenspan, and perusing Bruce Catton’s excellent narrative. Little did I know that The Golden Book of the Civil War would be the first step toward my becoming a Civil War historian and professor in the Department of History