I cannot imagine trying to do all this while being shot at

One important aspect to remember is most Union and Confederate regiments were formed and armed from state militia arsenals. These state militia arsenals had few if any rifled muskets or Minie balls. The vast majority of Civil War battles were fought in the first two years of the war were with percussion cap smoothbore muskets. Most of the smoothbore muskets were the 1842 smoothbore musket but many much older muskets and shotguns were used too. Many Confederate regiments were armed with old 1815 muskets, Brownbess muskets, and shotguns. The main advance was most of these older muskets were converted over to use the percussion cap.It took a good deal of time to ramp up production of the 1861 Springfield rifled musket or import the 1853 Enfield rifled musket from Great Britain. Both sides used buck and ball rounds or all buckshot rounds. The average combat distance for the men in the ranks was about 70 yards because black powder weapons left large amounts of smoke on the battlefield. The terrain of many battlefields were thick brush, forests, rugged hills, thick vegetation along river banks, swamps, and rolling hills. Most soldiers were poorly trained. So the ability to shoot a man sized target at 300 yards with the parabolic trajectory of the Minie ball with poorly trained soldiers on a smoke covered battlefield takes a leap of faith. Most mediocre soldiers with poor marksmanship skills were better off getting about 70 yards and blasting each other with buck and ball rounds or buckshot in "point and shoot affairs." The larger point here is many Union and Confederate regiments used smoothbore muskets throughout much of the war. It was a MIXTURE of rifled muskets and older smoothbore muskets in the ranks on Civil War battlefields. The Springfield rifled muskets with Minie ball were more expensive to acquire and supply. Both sides probably predominantly used their rifled muskets with expensive Minie balls as sharshooters and skirmishers. The regiments in the main infantry lines probably kept using their smoothbore muskets with buck and ball rounds until 1863 or so. Production of rifled muskets picked up by 1863 but there were still plenty of regiments still using smoothbore muskets until the midpoint of the war and beyond. We know this because at the worst bloodiest parts of the battle such as Shiloh, the Bloody Lane and Cornfield of Antietem, many areas of Gettysburg and countless other battles, archeologists find .69 caliber balls and .30 caliber buckshot from buck and ball rounds where the bloody fighting was at close quarters. At close quarters, say under 100 yards, where nearly all battles were fought, the buck and ball rounds from smoothbore muskets were many times more effective than the rifled musket with Minie balls. A good buck and ball hit in the torso on a human target at 50 yards meant almost certain death. A .69 caliber ball and three .30 caliber buckshot caused terrible multiple wounds on a human body at close range. Many Union regiments didn't want to give up their smoothbore muskets because once you got in close range, the buck and ball rounds were so devastatingly effective. Many Confederate regiments used buck and ball or buckshot rounds until the end of the Civil War. So the better way to think of the Civil War were the MIXTURE of rifled muskets with Minie ball and smoothbore muskets working together on the same battlefield. The percussion cap made the old smoothbore musket a much more reliable to fire and quicker to load weapon. The poor visibility from the smoke of blackpowder weapons on the Civill War battlefield makes the Minie ball with the rifled musket an overrated weapon. It was the buck and ball and buckshot rounds fired from percussion cap smoothbore muskets that did much of the killing in the first two years of the war. Rifled muskets were a moderate improvement for skirmishing and sharpshooter tasks. However, at close range on a smoke filled battlefield with poor visibility, it was actually a poorer weapon than the smoothbore musket with buck and ball rounds. www.davide-pedersoli.com/rivista-dettaglio.asp/l_fr/idne_89/69-ball-buck-and-ball-and-buckshot-cartridges-of-the-us-army.html

The quality on this channel is unbelievable. Great variety and great production

Great work, 4 minutes of entertainment and learning about our past. Ty

I had the privilege of shooting a carbine rifle in Cody Wyoming. Paul the owner was excellent in teaching how to load and shoot. Also shot a Gatlin gun. Both experience was awesome.

Great concept and execution of In4 series! Enjoying the learning.

Great informative video! Thanks for making and sharing!

Great video

Great info. I hope to see this channel do longer peices.

Matt seems like he’s real fun at parties

Well shot video. I liked it.

Perfect. Thanks.

Wow. Just wow !!

Great exposition

Good shot Matt.

We should know many Southerners especially went to the Civil War with shotguns, old flintlock muskets, and a variety of smoothbore muskets from the War of 1812 and frontier Indian wars, or the Texan Independence wars or Mexican war. A huge variety of weapons, mostly smoothbore percussion cap muskets were used in the first year or two of the war. The Enfield rifle and Springfield rifled muskets were around at the beginning but supply was short and demand extremely high. So by necessity, much fighting in the first year and second year of the Civil War was made with a huge variety of weapons. It was a Quartermaster's nightmare come true.

I want to live in a world where war is something that never even occurs to anyone due to its absurdity.

Nice video. The bullets you showed were Confederate tie base Sharps carbine.

nice

interesting musket,looks like a Belgium cone 69 flint conversion but the business end looks 58,what's the story ?nice details and good work

Thank god the north and south didn't use their arsenal of nuclear weapons in the civil war.

I didn't hear the command to recover arms..

"Powda goes in fust, right?"-a smiling New England private asked his captain in their first fight. The private beforehand had asked his captain to keep an eye on him during their first battle because he was convinced that he'd run away.

w channel 🦅🦅

So, assuming good cover behind trees and/or in ditches/trenches (so the initial volley wouldn't annihilate them), a 300 men skirmisher unit armed with Spencer rifles should be able to dish out as much fire as a 2000 men strong brigade with 1961 Springfields, right? Hopefully such heavy cover could also provide protection from shock cavalry, and would reduce the number of casualties... expensive, though.

A quick thought, isn´t a musket a weapon that fires round bullets ? A rifle being a weapon which sends spinning lead (due to rifles), hence a "rifle"

The major European powers started using rifled muskets before the American civil war in the 1850s. The mine ball was invented in 1847 and first used in mass in the Crimean war 1853.

Those 5 soldiers that are shown are from Massachusetts. The regiment escapes me though

1:55 what is the marching tune that starts playing in the background here?

Crazy 🤪 how they're making bullets during battle

3:30

Did you have to put a new percussion cap on every time you fired the gun?

I was under the impression that artillery was responsible or most Civil War casualties... Especially Confederate casualties...

It is really annoying to see people who SHOULD know better continue the MYTH that the bullets used by both sides of the Civil War were the ones designed by Mine'! That design had a serious flaw, it had a wooden or metal plug in the hollow, which sometimes caused problems when they were fired. The bullets ACTUALLY used were an improved design developed by the US Army Ordnance Department, which eliminated the plug in the hollow.

How many persons in company.

All Civil War game players know that Lorenz rifle was the best jack of all trades.

Just glad the Gatling gun made it's way into the Union just toward the end of this war. That would have been devastating.

he has a conversion musket and he's firing a minie ball I don't think so that is cone see were the pan was cut off that gun was once a flintlock

Interet videi but i found the background music a bot loud and distracting.

It's unbelievable the devastation one can inflict thank God they didn't have assault rifles back then there wouldn't be anyone left

1853 Enfield rifle was the best rifle musket.

Yikes don’t want to get hit with one of those.

Guy needs some chapstick

It's make ready not ready.

so basically javelin rocket launcher is small arms :D cuz i can handle it :DDDDDDDD

Reenacters are some goofy mofos.

also by the way I do not consider a small arms a rifle to me a small arms is nothing bigger than a blunderbuss which is a giant f****** shotgun pistol so a musket does not count as a small alarm at least in my opinion

I know this is going to sound insane but what if the South would have used bows and arrows that is a handheld weapon and could be fired way faster than a rifle I mean really they could have sent thousands of arrows in the time of hundreds of bullets which would have at least wounded people that were attacking them might have been all right idea

But European standards those guns were out of date they were already using bolt action needle guns

does this guy know how hats work?

well, made but he is basically lying. In 1861 the British, French, Danish, Swedish, Austrian armies all used rifle muskets as their standard infantry weapon. So did the armies of the states in the german federation. Norway and Prussia had implemented breachloading rifles. So NO, Most armies of the world greatpowers used rifled firearms. (and that I don't list Russia and Spain is only because I don't know what they had,

Not much personality to Matt , huh ?

5 minutes

this stinks

3:34