ACW battery?

[Cavalier]

@redbob I haven't seen that picture before. Very cool! Thanks very much.

John

 

[redbob]

@redbob I haven't seen that picture before. Very cool! Thanks very much.

John

My pleasure.

 

[Story]

Considering the 21st century logistics, costs and effort a full 1:1 scale battery gathering would really be worthy of a dedicated video.

Didn't something close to this happen at Gettysburg 130th or 135th?

 

[The Ninth Ohio]

Considering the 21st century logistics, costs and effort a full 1:1 scale battery gathering would really be worthy of a dedicated video.

Didn't something close to this happen at Gettysburg 130th or 135th?

View attachment 494967​

They may have had the numbers, but I'd be shocked if anyone actually did it by the book.

 

[Steven Rockwell]

From the first video, they look well short. 2 guns 24 horses/mules.

If a 6 gun battery had minimum of 120 horses, their section is just about half of what a real section should had, as would been 40+ horses.

Just thinking about the numbers of horses used is staggering. Even if we go with the battery having only 2/3 of their TO&E of horses, that's 80 per battery. And how many batteries were in the combined US and CS Armies at any given time? And then you add in cavalry mounts, horses for commanders and staff officers, runners, quartermasters, ordinance, engineers, ambulances, replacements waiting to be allocated, and it's pretty easy to go cross-eyed at the idea of counting them all. Granted a lot of the mounts for pulling wagons would have been mules, but even if they are taken out of the equation, it would still be an almost unfathomable number of horses used.

And then they need to be continually bought so the military can replace them, so they are being bred somewhere.

 

[Story]

Tangential but I *think* it's in this book where Miles' problems with acquiring horses (and training Federal horse buyers) is chronicled

https://www.amazon.com/Quartermaster-Montgomery-Lincolns-General-Builder-ebook/dp/B01CO34NU8?tag=civilwartalkc-20