Whitworth Rifle / Sharpshooters

I'm sure there is room for wiggle in the distances covered by Confederate sharpshooters but I don't think we can go so far as to call their shooting skills a "myth."

Just my two cents.

I don't mind engaging in a discussion with someone who disagrees with information in my article, but it would be nice to know that you have first read the article :smile:

So, what specifically do you take issue with in the article?

John Gross
 
Didn't the shot at Adobe walls in1874 that surveyed out to be about 200 yards short of a mile with a Sharps use black powder? I had read that this was one of the longest verified hits of the era, maybe the longest.

It is a famous shot, however, as Billy Dixon wrote in his own words, it was luck. He was also shooting at a group of Indians, with at least some and perhaps all of them mounted on horses. This presented a large target/aiming area for him.

This is what many sharpshooters did in the Civil War. If you have a man, or a group of men, firing enough bullets, over a long enough period of time at a large enough target area, some hits can be expected. This is why artillery batteries were often favorite targets of sharpshooters. With the men, horses, cannons and caissons, it presented a very large target. It should also be noted that when General Sedgwick was killed at Spotsylvania Court House, he was directing troops around an artillery battery.

John Gross
 
The Whitworth was developed pre-war by Joseph Whitworth of England. He found that the P-53 had inconsistent bore sizes (worn out cutting bit) that does not endear it to accuracy. He decided to make a more precise gun with precision but bores and bullets to match. While outwardly appearing to be like an Enfield rifle musket, his gun was more accurate. Besides being more precisely made, the smaller diameter .451 bullet has a superior ballistic coefficient than the .577 Enfield. This meant it could buck the wind better and was lest liable to drift because of the wind. Additionally, the bolt (as the Whitworth bullets were called) were propelled by 70 grains of powder (as opposed to the 60-65 grains for the .577 Enfield). However, the smaller bore Whitworth fouled easily and was not deemed desirable for general issue as an infantry arm in England. Some British regiments received some, but only on a limited scale.

So, to answer the question, the Whitworth was not a target gun per se. However, because it was one of the most accurate guns of its time, it was used by the target crowd in England.

Whitworth rifles are displayed and may be seen at Gettsyburg, Chickamauga, Virginia Historical Society (Richmond, VA), 45th Infantry Division Museum.

BTW, buy yourself a back-issue of The Gun Report that has John Gross's article. It's worth it.
 
One of the roles of the Civil War sharpshooter (usage here refers to designated sharpshooters in the ad-hoc sharpshooter battalions in the ANV, men armed with target guns and the best shot of the regiment who was a county champion who did not elect to join a designated unit and remained with his regiment instead) was to disable artillery.

If a sharpshooter is able to drive away or silence artillery, it disproportionately impacts the enemy. This was common during sieges of the flintlock era and became even more common when the rifle musket came about. When a rifle musket armed infantrymen who knows how to use their guns goes up against smoothbore artillery, they can be its equal and silence the battery. John Billings (Hard Tack and Coffee) mentioned it in his book on Sleeper's Battery (10th Massachusetts Artillery Battery). See chapter 7 of the aforementioned book for a discussion on the silencing of artillery.
 
So, to answer the question, the Whitworth was not a target gun per se. However, because it was one of the most accurate guns of its time, it was used by the target crowd in England.

quote]
I'm sorry, I thought a prior post said the Whitworth found at Gettysburg was a target rifle which I assumed was prewar, right?

What about my earlier question about the CSA's capasity to manufacture bolts for the rifle?
 
I don't think the rifle found at Devil's Den was a Whitworth. Check out my other post that mentioned H. C. P. of the First Texas Infantry.

They had moulds. You should pick up John Morrow's book, The Confederate Whitworth Sharpshooter. It's only THE best book to date about that rifle and its service in the Confederacy.
 
I don't think the rifle found at Devil's Den was a Whitworth. Check out my other post that mentioned H. C. P. of the First Texas Infantry.

quote]

So I see, you just said a target rifle and I assumed the Whitworth part. Thanks for the info.

So the difference between the Whitworth rifle and artillery round is that the rifle round was solid so was fairly simple to mould whilst the artillery bolt was hollow and needed precision. Is that right?
 
For any projectile fired through a barrel, whether it is a rifle round or an artillery shell (except for some modern tank shells that have stabilizing fins that pop out during flight), it must fit the bore. One of the problem with casting projectiles is that the object can distort after casted. Consistency in metallurgy, temperature of the molton metal, temperature of the mold, and post casting handling while the metal is still hot can cause the metal to deform. Some shooters put their casted bullets into a sizer to ensure uniformity in diameter.

As for Whitworth rifle bullets (bolts), they may be casted or swaged (pressure formed). I'm not sure how artillery shells were made for the Whitworth and presume that they are forged (someone correct me if I'm wrong). It would be easier to forge one than to cast and then machine it the flats.
 
Kerr Rifle? I have heard of it and years ago someone had a repro of it. I had thought that it was just renamed the Volunteer rifle. Years ago there was an article in Civil War Times, Ills entitled "The Guns of the Palmetto SharpShooters". Very interesting and all proven to have been carried by members of the unit, but several types. But there was one Kerr in the bunch.

Also, the reason they thought Sedgwick was killed with a whitworth was because eyewitnesses said they heard the destinctive whine/whistle of the whitworth round several times in a row and when Sedgwick got hit they said they heard that incoming whine and then "thud" and Sedgwick fell over. And I might be wrong, but I could have sworn that I read somewhere that they took a whitworth round out of his head.
FB
 
The Kerr rifle was manufactured by the London Armoury Company. The rifling was Kerr's design. The .45 cal barrel was interchangeable with the machine made P.53 Rifle Muskets of Enfield and LAC. It was a popular target rifle with Rifle Volunteers in the UK.

Modern reproductions marketed under the 'Volunteer' label are generic reproductions of a style of rifle know as 'military match rifles'. In the 1860s there were many different makers and rifling patterns.

David
 
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