Shoulder Arms! How Sheridan's and Davis' Divisions were armed at Stones River

    During Wheeler's raid around on the Federal army on December 30, 1862, Major General Alexander M. McCook’s headquarters wagon was captured by Confederate cavalrymen and some of its contents turned over to General Bragg, including personal correspondence from McCook’s father (I’ll share that in a later post) as well as the business papers of the army, including ordnance reports. Several of those captured ordnance reports now reside in the Braxton Bragg Papers held by the Western Reserve Historical Society here in Ohio. I'd like to highlight today two ordnance reports from that collection, one belonging to General Phil Sheridan's division and the second from General Jefferson C. Davis' division. Together, they tell a fascinating story of how a typical western Federal regiment was armed, and highlights the diversity of weapons carried by the Union army in the early days of the war. 

This unidentified soldier was part of the "Norway Bear Hunters," Co. C of the predominantly Scandinavian 15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. His regiment was armed with Belgian-made .58 caliber rifles during the Stones River campaign. 

          General Phil Sheridan’s division earned a name for itself as one of the hardest fighting divisions of the Army of the Cumberland based on their actions on the morning of December 31st, 1862 at the battle of Stones River. In one of his best days of the Civil War, Sheridan adeptly handled his three brigades in such a way that he held back a good portion of Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee for roughly two hours. This delaying action bought critical time for General William S. Rosecrans to organize a second line of defense nearer the Nashville Pike, but it came at a high price: Sheridan’s division lost all three of its brigade commanders and suffered more than 1,600 casualties. “The loss of my brigade commanders and a large number of regimental and battery officers with so many of their men struck deep into my heart,” Sheridan later recalled. “My thinned ranks told the woeful tale of the fierce struggle through which my division had passed.”

The enlisted men of the 21st Michigan posed for this picture at the end of the war. As part of Joshua Sill's brigade, the Wolverines utilized Austrian-made .54 caliber Lorenz rifles at Stones River. 


During the war, the War Department used a classification system for long arms that measured their relative effectiveness. A class 1 firearm (late model Springfields and Enfields) were considered the best in class, class 2 weapons were considered servicable but acceptable, class 3 were serviceable but substandard, and class 4 was reserved for obsolete weapons. I've applied that classification system to each brigade to determine which was the best-armed; it would be interesting study to correlate this with battlefield performance, but we'll save that for another time. 

We will start off by looking at the weapons carried by the three brigades constituting Sheridan’s division. The particular document of interest here was authored by First Lieutenant Arad J. Douglass of the 71st Ohio who was serving as the divisional ordnance officer during the Stones River campaign. (Why an officer of the 71st Ohio, an Army of the Tennessee regiment, was on Sheridan’s staff remains a mystery to me.) This particular document was dated December 15, 1862 and was likely the latest copy available; the next semi-monthly report would have been due on December 31st and Douglass along with the rest of the division were rather busy fighting for their lives and didn’t have time to count their weapons. The Army of the Cumberland would undergo a massive re-arming program in the coming months that went a long way towards standardizing what was carried by the infantrymen of the army.

          Among the more unusual weapons carried by the regiments of Sheridan’s division at Stones River were the 387 French-made .69 caliber short rifles (Carabine de Vincennes) with sword bayonets carried by the 2nd Missouri and the .58 caliber Dresden rifles carried by the 44th Illinois.

 

Brigadier General Joshua Woodrow Sill (1831-1862)

First Brigade, Brigadier General Joshua W. Sill

36th Illinois: 640 men for duty

15 U.S. M1822 .69 caliber smoothbore muskets, 57 U.S. M1841 .54 caliber Mississippi rifles, 335 U.S. M1842 .69 caliber rifle muskets, 79 English-made P53 .577 caliber Enfield rifle muskets, 95 U.S. M1861 .58 caliber Springfield rifles; total 581 rifles with accoutrements, 25,600 rounds of ammunition (44 rounds per gun, 40 rounds per man)

U.S. M1842 .69 rifle musket


88th Illinois: 515 men for duty

573 U.S. M1842 .69 rifle muskets with accoutrements, 20,600 rounds of ammunition (35 rounds per gun, 40 rounds per man)

24th Wisconsin: 656 men for duty

730 Austrian-made .54 caliber Lorenz rifle muskets with accoutrements, 26,240 rounds of ammunition (35 rounds per gun, 40 rounds per man)

21st Michigan: 405 men for duty

561 Austrian-made .54 caliber Lorenz rifle muskets with accoutrements, 16,320 rounds of ammunition (29 rounds per gun, 40 rounds per man)

M1859 Austrian-made .54 caliber Lorenz rifle

Total weapons: 2,445

Class 1 Weapons: 174 (7.1%)

Class 2 Weapons: 2,199 (90%)

Class 3 or Class 4 Weapons: 72 (2.9%)


Sergeant John Hall and Private Joshua Hall, Co. I, 44th Illinois with their sword bayonets. The 44th Illinois were acting as provost guards for the division on the morning of December 31, 1862, and both men were killed in action that day. (Stan Hutson)

Second Brigade, Colonel Frederick Schaefer

2nd Missouri: 458 men for duty

109 English-made P53 .577 caliber Enfield rifle muskets, 378 French-made .69 caliber short rifles, 487 guns total with only 479 accoutrements (which meant there were 8 guns without accoutrements), 18,320 rounds of ammunition (37 rounds per gun, 40 rounds per man)

1859 model French .69 caliber "Carabine de Vincennes" with sword bayonet

15th Missouri: 430 men for duty

48 English-made P53 .577 caliber Enfield rifle muskets, 336 .58 caliber muskets, 384 guns all with accoutrements, 17,700 rounds of ammunition (46 rounds per gun, 41 rounds per man)

44th Illinois: 453 men for duty

487 Belgian-made M1857 .58 caliber Dresden/Saxon rifles with accoutrements, 18,120 rounds of ammunition (37 rounds per gun, 40 rounds per man)

M1857 Belgian-made .58 caliber Dresden/Saxon rifle

73rd Illinois: 479 men for duty

393 U.S. M1842 .69 caliber rifle muskets, 168 English-made P53 .577 caliber Enfield rifle muskets, 561 guns all with accoutrements, 19,160 rounds of ammunition (34 rounds per gun, 40 rounds per man)

 

English-made P53 .577 caliber Enfield rifle

Total weapons: 1,919

Class 1 Weapons: 812 (42.3%)

Class 2 Weapons: 393 (20.5%)

Class 3 or Class 4 Weapons: 714 (37.2%)

 

Colonel George Williamson Roberts

Third Brigade, Colonel George W. Roberts

22nd Illinois: 402 men for duty

267 English-made P53 .577 caliber rifle muskets, 267 U.S. M1861 .58 caliber Springfield rifles, 534 guns in total all with accoutrements, 31,800 rounds of ammunition (59 rounds per gun, 79 rounds per man)

U.S. M1861 .58 caliber Springfield rifle

27th Illinois: 537 men for duty

          573 English-made P53 .577 caliber rifle muskets all with accoutrements, 39,000 rounds of ammunition (68 rounds per gun, 72 rounds per man)

42nd Illinois: 465 men for duty

          527 U.S. M1861 .58 caliber rifle muskets all with accoutrements, 53,480 rounds of ammunition (101 rounds per gun, 115 rounds per man)

51st Illinois: 399 men for duty

          457 Austrian-made .54 caliber Lorenz rifle muskets with accoutrements, 45,000 rounds of ammunition (98 rounds per gun, 112 rounds per man)

Total weapons: 2,091

Class 1 Weapons: 1,634 (78.1%)

Class 2 Weapons: 457 (21.9%)

Class 3 or Class 4 Weapons: 0

Sheridan’s divisional weapons stats:

Total weapons: 6,455

Class 1 Weapons: 2,620 (40.6%)

Class 2 Weapons: 3,049 (47.2%)

Class 3 or Class 4 Weapons: 786 (12.2%)

One item to ponder: Colonel George Roberts’ brigade of four-Illinois regiments was the best armed of Sheridan’s division as 78%, nearly 4 soldiers out of 5, possessed class 1 firearms. There were also only three types of arms requiring two calibers of ammunition service those weapons, the standard .54 caliber and .58 caliber. Another interesting fact is that Roberts’ brigade possessed far more rounds per gun than the other two brigades and each regiment had more guns available than men in the ranks to utilize them. This surplus allowed weapons that became damaged or unserviceable to be quickly replaced. I'd offer that Roberts' brigade performed the best of all of Sheridan's brigades at Stones River; while a number of factors weigh in on battlefield performance (leadership, terrain, regimental experience, and good old fashioned luck), I'd wager that the morale effect of being armed with superior weapons also gave Roberts' men an advantage in their fight. 

 

Brigadier General Jefferson Columbus Davis

          For the data on General Davis’ division, we are also in debt to the cavalrymen of the Army of Tennessee who snatched this report from McCook’s headquarters wagon on December 31st. This report, prepared by Captain Jesse Shriver, Davis’ ordnance chief, is a little older as it dates from November 14, 1862. While the report doesn’t provide the same depth of detail as the semi-monthly ordnance return for Sheridan’s division, it provides enough data to make the point in regards demonstrating the difference in how the divisions were armed. One thing is abundantly clear- Davis’ division had a greater profusion of varying arms than seen in Sheridan’s division, among them some Tower rifles carried by the 35th Illinois.


Colonel Philip Sidney Post

First Brigade, Colonel Philip S. Post

59th Illinois: 33 U.S. M1841 .54 caliber Mississippi rifles, 39 English-made P53 .577 caliber Enfield rifle muskets, 218 U.S. M1842 .69 caliber rifled muskets, total 290 guns

74th Illinois: 750 English-made P53 .577 caliber Enfield rifle muskets

75th Illinois: 112 English-made P53 .577 caliber Enfield rifle muskets, 350 Belgian-made .58 caliber rifles, total 462 guns

22nd Indiana: 342 U.S. M1841 .54 caliber Mississippi rifles, 92 English-made P53 .577 caliber Enfield rifle muskets, total 434 guns

U.S. M1841 .54 caliber Mississippi rifle lock plate

Total weapons: 1,936

Class 1 Weapons: 993 (51.3%)

Class 2 Weapons: 725 (37.4%)

Class 3 or Class 4 Weapons: 218 (12.3%)

 

General William Passmore Carlin

Second Brigade, Colonel William P. Carlin

21st Illinois: 563 Austrian-made .54 caliber Lorenz rifles, 75 U.S. (model unknown) .69 caliber smoothbore muskets, total 638

38th Illinois: 491 English-made P53 .577 caliber Enfield rifle muskets, 50 Belgian-made .58 caliber rifles, 6 U.S. M1861 .58 caliber Springfield rifles, 6 U.S. (model unknown) .69 caliber smoothbore muskets, total 553

15th Wisconsin: 400 Belgian-made .58 caliber rifles

101st Ohio: 633 Austrian-made .54 caliber Lorenz rifles

Total weapons: 2,224

Class 1 Weapons: 497 (22.3%)

Class 2 Weapons: 1,646 (74.1%)

Class 3 or Class 4 Weapons: 81 (3.6%)

Colonel William E. Woodruff

Third Brigade, Colonel William Woodruff

25th Illinois: 7 U.S. M1842 .69 caliber Springfield rifles, 322 U.S. M1842 .69 caliber muskets, 40 U.S. (model unknown) .69 caliber smoothbore muskets, 23 U.S. M1842 .69 caliber rifled muskets, 126 Colt .54 rifles, 1 Austrian-made .69 caliber rifle, 1 Belgian-made .69 caliber rifle, total 520

35th Illinois: 11 Austrian-made .56 caliber muskets, 53 English-made P53 .577 caliber Enfield rifle muskets, 23 Austrian-made .58 caliber Lorenz rifles, 26 U.S. M1861 .58 caliber Springfield rifles, 17 P53 .577 caliber Enfield "Tower" rifle muskets, 298 U.S. M1842 .69 rifled muskets, total 428

81st Indiana: 517 Belgian-made .58 caliber rifles

Total weapons: 1,465

Class 1 Weapons: 79 (5.3%)

Class 2 Weapons: 868 (59.2%)

Class 3 or Class 4 Weapons: 518 (35.5%)

Davis’ divisional weapons stats:

Total weapons: 5,625

Class 1 Weapons: 1,569 (27.9%)

Class 2 Weapons: 3,239 (57.6%)

Class 3 or Class 4 Weapons: 817 (14.5%)

          In the case of Davis’ division, Woodruff’s brigade was the least well-armed brigade as well as the smallest one and did not gain much reputation for its fighting on December 31st. A number of factors weigh in on this (brigade leadership, position on the field, etc.), but Woodruff’s men did possess the highest percentage of class 3 or 4 weapons by a large margin over the other five brigades being examined. Besides being saddled with older weapons, there was quite a variety of different arms in the two Illinois regiments. I feel for the poor ordnance sergeant of the 35th Illinois who had five different types of rifles to service that fired at least three different calibers of ammunition!




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