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!




Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular Posts

Arming the Buckeyes: Longarms of the Ohio Infantry Regiments

Image
     A common question that comes up in conversation about Civil War Buckeye regiments is "What were they armed with?" We are fortunate in that the state of Ohio kept good records of how the regiments were armed when they went into service, this being especially true for those regiments which went into service in 1861 and 1862. The state adjutant general's reports for 1861 and 1862 have been heavily drawn upon to construct this article, as well as consultation with Phil Spaugy who has done extensive research on how Ohio's troops were armed during the war.      Buckeyes carried a fairly wide variety of weapons into the field, and the below article breaks this down into weapons of both domestic manufacture and imported arms. The early days of the war found the state of Ohio practically bereft of longarms; as an example, when the 1st and 2nd Ohio Volunteer Militia left the state in late April 1861, they left unarmed, being armed at Lancaster, Pennsylvania on t...
Read more

Bullets for the Union: Manufacturing Small Arms Ammunition During the Civil War

Image
       Civil War bullets are perhaps the most common item collected from the era; the two armies expended bullets by the millions during the four years’ conflict and spent or deformed bullets of all shapes and sizes have made fascinating and affordable collectibles since the guns went silent in 1865.       I recently acquired a display piece featuring 35 different types of small arms ammunition used during the Civil War, including everything from a small .28 caliber ball up to a .69 caliber three-ring Minie and it triggered some questions: how did the Federal army obtain its small arms ammunition during the war? Where did the lead come from to make the bullets, and where and how was the ammunition manufactured? This post seeks to answer those questions. A typical .58 caliber 3-ring Minie bullet   “Whenever the blasts of war blow in the ears of men who trade in the implements of destruction, they are apt to experience more joy than the true ...
Read more

Dressing the Rebels: How to Dye Butternut Jeans Cloth

Image
     In the early days of the Civil War,  the Southern states found themselves with an abundance of cotton but a shortage of cloth with which to make army uniforms. The trade in cloth prior to the war had largely been to send raw cotton or wool north to New England (or Great Britain) where it was converted into usable cloth; but now that trade was broken and the Southern states were thrown upon their own resources in their efforts to properly clothe the Confederate army.  This collection of Confederate enlisted men's frock coats and shell jackets gives some indication of the variety of shades of butternut worn during the war. All of them are shades of yellow brown, some heavier on the yellow and some heavier on the brown. The blue used around the collar or as rank insignia indicates that the soldier was in the infantry. Surviving Confederate uniforms are considered rather rare and command quite a healthy price in the collecting market. For an in-depth study of h...
Read more

The Wizard of Oz and the Civil War

Image
T he 1939 film The Wizard of Oz has delighted viewers for 85 years and ranks as a personal favorite, especially during the Halloween season. While watching it with the family the other night, I wondered if there were any connections between the film and the Civil War. Not surprisingly, the answer is yes and those connections touch both the blue and the gray.           Interestingly both “witches” in the film not only had Civil War ancestors but had connections with Civil War soldiers from Ohio. Margaret Hamilton, the “Wicked Witch of the West,” was born in Cleveland, Ohio on December 9, 1902, to attorney Walter Jones Hamilton and his wife Mary Jane Adams; Margaret’s grandfather was Judge Edwin Timothy Hamilton. Judge Hamilton had served as a private in Co. D of the 84 th Ohio Infantry during the summer of 1862. The 84 th Ohio, a three months’ regiment, served nearly the whole of its service attached to the Railroad District in western Ma...
Read more

The Vaunted Enfield Rifle Musket

Image
     The English-made Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield Rifle Musket was widely regarded as the best infantry arm in the world at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. Favorable international press describing its efficiency in the Crimean War and in suppressing the Indian rebellion led to the widespread desire of American infantrymen (both Federal and Confederate) to be armed with these accurate and well-made arms. The lock plate of this well-worn P1853 Enfield rifle musket produced in 1862 shows the typical markings of a British-made weapon that made it through the Federal blockade.  ( Army of Tennessee Relics ) Enfield-pattern weapons were imported into the states by the tens and hundreds of thousands during the war years; one estimate stated that the Federal government purchased 500,000 while the Confederates purchased another 400,000. The Confederate government dispatched Captain Caleb Huse to Europe in April 1861 to purchase weapons and Huse focused on se...
Read more

In front of Atlanta with the 68th Ohio

Image
  The arrow corps badge of the 17th Army Corps was worn by many members of the 68th Ohio in the latter days of the war.       Private Edward A. Bigelow of Co. F of the 68th Ohio Volunteer Infantry wrote this brief account of the Battle of Atlanta just two days afterwards to his father back home in Henry County, Ohio. The regiment formed a part of Colonel Robert K. Scott's three regiment all-Ohio brigade consisting of the 20th, 68th, and 78th regiments, being designated the Second Brigade of the Third Division of Frank Blair's 17th Army Corps. Bigelow's letter originally appeared in the Napoleon Press newspaper and was copied in the Toledo Daily Commercial which was providential as no known copies exist today of the wartime Napoleon Press.  
Read more

Charging Battery Robinett: An Alabama Soldier Recalls the Vicious Fighting at Corinth

Image
W riting 30 years after the Battle of Corinth, James A. McKinstry of the 42 nd Alabama recalled his experiences storming Battery Robinett with Colonel William P. Rogers of the 2 nd Texas and expressed guilt that it was perhaps his action that brought about the colonel’s demise. “On seeing a line of Federals approaching, and before giving the situation a thought, I immediately raised my gun and fired full into the breast of a Federal sergeant, who was in front of the column, and only a short distance from us.  'Twas then that Captain George Foster shouted, "Cease firing, men! cease firing!" and waved his handkerchief, then I realized the true situation. 'Twas too late! That fatal volley had been turned on our little band from the muzzles of 1,500 muskets. I was still standing just as I was when I fired my last shot, and within a few feet of Colonel Rogers, when a Minie ball went crashing through my left hip and turned me half round; another went tearing through my ...
Read more

Cook & Brother of New Orleans

Image
    The lockplate of a New Orleans-made Cook & Brother Enfield rifle produced in 1862 shows the fine craftsmanship that became the hallmark of the maker throughout the Civil War. Note the stars and bars flag at left, an emblem used on C&B's production throughout the war and the Cook & Brother, N.O. 1862 markings. Earlier production weapons at New Orleans had the flag located just above the maker's name while later weapons produced in Athens, Georgia would have a modified flag and Athens on the plate followed by the serial number.        In the spring of 1861, two English-born businessmen, Ferdinand and Francis Cook of New Orleans, perceived the need for the South to have its own domestic production of firearms and  set out to prove "that rifles could made here as well as in Yankee land or in Europe." The brothers  elected to produce copies of the British Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield rifle as this was considered the benchmark longarm...
Read more

I Want to See a Battle: A Hoosier at Shiloh

Image
W riting in his diary, Private Manius Buchanan of the 29 th Indiana recalled the eagerness with which his regiment marched towards Savannah, Tennessee with the sounds of the battle of Shiloh ringing in their ears.           “The forced march was kept up until 2 p.m. when we were halted until 4 p.m,” he noted. “The rest was really needed, but the continual question is ‘Why are we stopped here?’ The sound of battle increased in volume and anxiety to be up and doing grows more intense. As I am weak from a late sickness, I am urged to fall to the rear; but no, in common with all, I want to see a battle and fear this will be my only chance.” The regiment would go into action the following afternoon, and of the four neighborhood boys who had enlisted together in Co. B, only Buchanan escaped unscathed. One afternoon's exposure to the horrors of battle was all it took to satisfy this Hoosier's desire to see the elephant. “I wanted to see a battl...
Read more

An Interview with Forrest in May 1864

Image
  “The noise of battle is the only music that ravishes the senses of Forrest.” I t was May 1864. Back east, the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac were locked in the deadly dance of the Overland Campaign while in Georgia, General William Tecumseh Sherman's army squared off against General Joseph E. Johnston and the Army of the Tennessee in the campaign for Atlanta.       Based in relatively quiet northern Mississippi, General Nathan Bedford Forrest bided his time waiting for a Federal advance from Memphis. Earlier in the month, General Samuel Sturgis led a brief campaign into Mississippi but Forrest was sure Sturgis would venture out again. In the meantime, he tried to keep his reorganized command intact despite persistent demands from his superiors that he return the absentees and deserters who inflated his ranks (nearly 1,000 in number) to their original commands.      Around this same time,  an old acquaintance from Me...
Read more