Federal smoothbores at Gettysburg, Jul. 1863

[DaveC]

J. Swain at Jefferson Arsenal posted this ammunition supply from Indiana for the U.S. Army of Tennessee in May 1861, basically the "resupply" order after Shiloh on the Federal side:

https://www.thejeffersonarsenal.com...chargeId=88eaf992-62cf-435f-8820-b053d44089c6

 

[Stantheman86]

Not much has changed, the Infantry expends a staggering amount of ammo when deployed today.

Also figure that....what's a good number.....10% maybe of all that ammo was discarded by US troops who didn't feel like carrying the extra arsenal packs.

The shops at Gettysburg say the streams and areas around old trees (presumably where soldiers hung out ) are full of "dropped" Minies and .69 round balls. Because that stuff was heavy and they would be issued 50-60 rounds, maybe more . They would fill their cartridge box and some of the guys would just toss the 1-2 arsenal packs that they were supposed to keep in their packs or haversacks.

 

[DaveC]

The list reveals a lot of smoothbore ammunition:
601k .69 round ball
63k buck without caps
21k buck and ball .69

I was frankly surprised by the sheer scale of .69 elongated ball/ Minie/Burton ammo: 921k cartridges.

 

[beyu]

The shops at Gettysburg say the streams and areas around old trees (presumably where soldiers hung out ) are full of "dropped" Minies and .69 round balls. Because that stuff was heavy and they would be issued 50-60 rounds, maybe more . They would fill their cartridge box and some of the guys would just toss the 1-2 arsenal packs that they were supposed to keep in their packs or haversacks.

Or — a lot of the "dropped" ammunition was tossed out by the troops under orders. We all know black powder absorbs moisture from the air. If there had been a period of rain, fog or just humid air, higher command would order the men to refill their cartridge boxes with fresh ammo.

BTW, it is my understanding that the typical Union Army cartridge box carried held 40 rounds. I have a Civil War style repro cartridge box, and that is the capacity of the two tin inserts.

 

[Eterry]

The 7th Texas showed up in Tennessee with 750 men. Their arms consisted of 123 shotguns--of which, 25 were in need of repair--150 miscellaneous "rifles"--48 in "poor condition"--and 104 percussion muskets given to them while they marched through Louisiana. A total of 377 weapons for those 750 men.

By August 1861 Tennessee had raised 17,541 infantry of which 69 percent were armed with flintlocks, 20 percent with smoothbore percussion guns, and 11 percent with rifles.
Apparently the 47th TN had 10 different makes and models of firearms in their possession!

At the time of the ACW Texas was waging unofficial war with marauding Indians and Bandits from south of the border. I'm sure they didn't want to take arms away from family or friends, and figured to acquire them on the way.

 

[Stantheman86]

The "American " style box holds 40, the Enfield style box holds 50.

 

[DaveC]

By then cartridges were being bundled into ten or even fifteen round paper packets. The ten round package contained a paper tube with twelve musket caps. These were torn open to use the cartridges within. Four packages fit in the cartridge tins of the U.S. type box.

Enfield cartridges are longer, and so it caused all sorts of modifications to have to be made for the mostly CSA troops issued that type. The .69 box could fit them OK. Extra packages of cartridges were expected to be carried in pockets or knapsacks or haversacks. Sometimes 60 cartridges would be issued, at other times double the quantity for 80 total.