Discarded rifles after Gettysburg

[John Winn]

Because I don't know anything about arms, if a muzzle loader had two rounds, loaded correctly and was fired, would it fire or explode?

It would fire although it's debatable if the top powder load would actually explode or just burn going down the barrel. Almost all firearms were (and are) proofed using much heavier charges than normal to make sure they wouldn't burst with a hot powder charge (not all black powder was exactly the same either). Others with more experience might beg to differ but that's my somewhat-educated opinion.

 

[Rusk County Avengers]

AND a big THANK YOU @Rusk County Avengers for coming up with the original article!

Ahhh, but @Don Dixon with the original note the article quoted!

 

[BrianB]

I suspect that the key here is a failure to put a percussion cap on the nipple. An inexperienced, poorly trained, and panicky soldier could easily forget that one vital step, pull the trigger, fail to realize that the gun has failed to fire, then loaded a second round.

 

[Waterloo50]

I just found this on FB the other day. I don't know if it is true. It seems like it could be reasonable but I'd like to post it and see what others say.View attachment 368410

I'd read a similar article a few years ago which stated the same Kind of findings, my thoughts were that panicked troops could have easily picked up another weapon and load it without realising that it was already loaded and In some case perhaps those of a more nervous disposition just lost focus and started stuffing everything down the barrel. I do however think that 23 rounds in a barrel seems a tad unlikely.

 

[Gettysburg Guide #154]

Wasn't there a 4 year old boy shot and killed by his brother who picked up one of these guns?

According to Greg Coco's book, "A Strange and Blighted Land", "On July 5 a young man, Edward McPherson Woods, the son of Alexander Woods of Gettysburg 'was accidentally shot . . . by the discharge of a gun in the hands of an elder brother. The gun had been picked up on the street and was loaded. In handling it, it was discharged, the load passing through the lads body and causing death shortly after . . . . [He] was aged 3 years, 7 months and 1 day . . . .'" Sadly, it was not the only instanced where souvenir hunting on the battlefield resulted in a fatal injury.

As for what a soldier would do if he realized that he had overloaded his weapon, there is a story related after the war by Sgt. Simon Hubler of the 143rd PA Volunteers. During the fighting on the first day at the McPherson Farm, one of Hubler's men approached Hubler saying that his rifle was double loaded, and he was afraid to fire it. Hubler took the gun, perhaps aiming it in the general direction of the Confederates and fired. Hubler reported that the recoil nearly knocked him over. Hubler was sure that there were several more than 2 charges in the gun. Hubler told his man that he would need to fire it himself in the future.