Petersburg/Richmond Gatling Guns

[FedericoFCavada]

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

View attachment 423502

A factual sales promotion for controlling violent riots.

Example from that letter:

" The reputation, character and effectiveness of the gun, are too well known to be refuted.
Four or five men only are required to operate it, and one Gatling with a full supply of ammunition, can clear a street or track and
keep it clear " .

That's exactly how a British naval brigade used the Gatling gun in Alexandria, Egypt ... (a few years later during 1882).

Gatling Gun inn Alexandria

The Naval Brigade clearing the streets of Alexandria with the Gatling Gun

www.londonancestor.com

 

[FedericoFCavada]

A factual sales promotion for controlling violent riots.

Example from that letter:

" The reputation, character and effectiveness of the gun, are too well known to be refuted.
Four or five men only are required to operate it, and one Gatling with a full supply of ammunition, can clear a street or track and
keep it clear " .

That's exactly how a British naval brigade used the Gatling gun in Alexandria, Egypt ... (a few years later during 1882).

View attachment 423529

Gatling Gun inn Alexandria

The Naval Brigade clearing the streets of Alexandria with the Gatling Gun

www.londonancestor.com

I believe that the Russians were the first imperial power to employ the Gatling gun, in Central Asia and the Far East.
The British, I think? I have it that while the UK acquired Gatlings by 1871, their first use was at Ulundi against the Zulu in 1879, after the stinging defeat at Isandlwana, and two years after the Great Strike of 1877 in the U.S. railroad sector.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

I believe that the Russians were the first imperial power to employ the Gatling gun, in Central Asia and the Far East.
The British, I think? I have it that while the UK acquired Gatlings by 1871, their first use was at Ulundi against the Zulu in 1879, after the stinging defeat at Isandlwana, and two years after the Great Strike of 1877 in the U.S. railroad sector.

I think you are correct.

I do believe the Russian Tsar was the first to purchase the guns in large quantities.
( During one of their Wars with the Ottoman Turks in the 1870s)

I have it that while the UK acquired Gatlings by 1871, their first use was at Ulundi against the Zulu in 1879, after the stinging defeat at Isandlwana,

That sounds right.

IMO, that may have been why the UK was employing the Gatling Gun all over their empire by 1882.

I wonder what would have happened at Rorke's Drift & Isandlwana if the Brits would have had a few Gatlings ?

 

[Specster]

The War Department officially ordered only a few gatling guns "for testing" during 1866.

What was different ?
Actually nothing.


The "old school" Generals & Admirals have always been opposed to embrace new methods and new technology.
The old tall ship crowd screamed the new steam powered ships would never work. Years later, the new old men used the same argument about aircraft carriers and submarines.

The Army was no different.

also they were improved by then. Early ones were prone to jamming.

 

[danny]

I think the toilet was probably the most useful for mankind!

But Butler must have had a lot of faith (or hope) in the Gatling Gun to put so much of his own money into it.

How did it change things at Petersburg? I haven't read up much about that area of the war.

I believe Butler was a big fat bust at Petersburg. No spoons to steal

 

[SeaTurtle]

According to records Butler mounted 8 onboard boats and Admiral Porter purchased 1 for test on naval vessels.

Is there any surviving evidence of the Gatlings performance in naval tests/combat during the ACW? When it comes to the ACW I only ever hear of Gatlings on land. I'd be really interested to know how seriously anybody took them as naval weapons during the war.

They were certainly carried at sea by different navies after 1865...

 

[Nathan Stuart]

View attachment 400389
photo by @FarawayFriend from thread https://civilwartalk.com/threads/foto-friday.153456/post-1964224
I just read that Butler had half a dozen (or a dozen?) Gatling Guns at Petersburg. Is that true? If it is true, did it make a difference or was it a technology a bit ahead of its time?

If this rapid fire weapons technology had been widely adopted (and developed) earlier in the Civil War by either side, one can only imagine whether it would have altered any battlefield outcomes or indeed shortened the period of conflict.

 

[RochesterBill]

If this rapid fire weapons technology had been widely adopted (and developed) earlier in the Civil War by either side, one can only imagine whether it would have altered any battlefield outcomes or indeed shortened the period of conflict.

As noted earlier, until the development of smokeless gunpowder, they were of limited utility on the battlefield.

The biggest liability was the short range. Any decent artillerist manning just a brass Napoleon could take it out from a completely safe distance, and the huge cloud of smoke made it impossible to camouflage.

In any case the smoke made it impossible for the shooters to see anything and were just firing blindly. In a fixed defensive position, if well bunkered, it might have had some value since you could just lay down an enormous amount of lead making a given area impassable for brief periods but you would be burning through huge piles of ammo as you did it. Logistical limitations made that untenable for very long. You couldn't just sit there using up wagonload after wagonload of very expensive ammunition while blindly firing into a field where you couldn't see any targets or even know for sure if they were still there.