Carronade
Captain
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2011
- Location
- Pennsylvania
I have a report from Second Lieutenant of the First Dragoons, U. S. Army that states;
"I fired at them at a distance from 800 to 1000 yards, and can say with certainty that several of the Indians got wounded."
He then says that two of the Indians fired back, and their balls falling among his troops, he was compelled to remove his horses from view. These Indians had taken to a high bluff out in California after being tracked in August of 1861 from Fort Crook. What rifle would a small company of 30 men including the guide, carry with them having that range and accuracy, firing above at a height? And what about the two Indians that fired down upon the company?
Remember this is out west on the Pacific Coast in August of 1861.
[Report from Series 1 Volume 50, Part 1, page 25-26].
Thanks,
Lubliner.
Some times a memory just stays put. Back in 1991 I read the book 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' about the Revolutionary War. It was contemporaneously written soon after that time (?), but it mentions a soldier up in New York taking a bead on a target 500 to 800 yards off, and hitting it. That would be in the 1780's when most of the patriots had spent years in the forest hunting game. Some times a memory flees.
Lubliner.
Once in a while someone scores a hit at unusually long range. It's probably the rarity of those instances that gets them into memoirs or history books. No one bothers writing about the times they took a shot at some annoying Indians or whoever and missed.