No Sword & a Double-shotted Pistol

Joined
Aug 9, 2011
Location
Lockhart, Texas
I'm reading Journey to Pleasant Hill, the Civil War Letters of Captain Elijah Petty, Petty was a lawyer from Bastrop, Texas and led Co. F, 17th Texas Infantry, Scurry's Brigade, Walker's Division. On November 5th 1863, he wrote his wife from Bayou Boeuf, Louisiana:

"I was so sure that we would have to fight for a few days. In fact it was so imminent that I double shotted my six shooter and otherwise made the necessary dispositions for the fight of which was throwing my sword away or sending it to the rear with the wagon which is equivalent."

Petty had been wounded in the battle at Milliken's Bend five months earlier, and died leading his company at the battle at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana in April, 1864. I suppose that he found his sword a nuisance in the nasty assault and melee at Milliken's Bend. I don't know if he carried it at Mansfield or Pleasant Hill. Or if his pistol was double-shotted. But he was a compulsive writer of letters, a devoted father and husband, and obviously a brave man.
 
I have that book but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. I really should. My great-grandfather, Arnold G. Miller of Atascosa County, Texas, and his two brothers, fought in Louisiana in the 5th Texas Mounted Rifles of Bagby's Brigade in Tom Green's Division.
 
I'm reading Journey to Pleasant Hill, the Civil War Letters of Captain Elijah Petty, Petty was a lawyer from Bastrop, Texas and led Co. F, 17th Texas Infantry, Scurry's Brigade, Walker's Division. On November 5th 1863, he wrote his wife from Bayou Boeuf, Louisiana:

"I was so sure that we would have to fight for a few days. In fact it was so imminent that I double shotted my six shooter and otherwise made the necessary dispositions for the fight of which was throwing my sword away or sending it to the rear with the wagon which is equivalent."

Petty had been wounded in the battle at Milliken's Bend five months earlier, and died leading his company at the battle at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana in April, 1864. I suppose that he found his sword a nuisance in the nasty assault and melee at Milliken's Bend. I don't know if he carried it at Mansfield or Pleasant Hill. Or if his pistol was double-shotted. But he was a compulsive writer of letters, a devoted father and husband, and obviously a brave man.


Sounds like an interesting read I wasn't aware of, and now have to find. We need to see if we can get an officer or two to do this at a Pleasant Hill reenactment. From the scuttlebutt I've always heard, amateur archeologists, (or relic hunter to some folks) have pulled a lot of swords out from the battlefield at Pleasant Hill, mostly the pre-war militia type of sword, and presumably Union dropped from the tales I've heard.

Thanks for sharing this interesting account! Now I we could get infantry officers at P. Hill to carry sidearms instead of swords only...
 
Sounds like an interesting read I wasn't aware of, and now have to find. We need to see if we can get an officer or two to do this at a Pleasant Hill reenactment. From the scuttlebutt I've always heard, amateur archeologists, (or relic hunter to some folks) have pulled a lot of swords out from the battlefield at Pleasant Hill, mostly the pre-war militia type of sword, and presumably Union dropped from the tales I've heard.

Thanks for sharing this interesting account! Now I we could get infantry officers at P. Hill to carry sidearms instead of swords only...

I've twice taken part in the reenactment at Pleasant Hill, both times with my older son. First as Rebs back in 1999, and then as 165th NY Zouaves a few years later. Pleasant Hill and Mansfield will be the two-punch climax of my new novel, With Might and Main, about the 17th Texas Infantry in Walker's Division. That's me and son Todd in our new Zoauve suits at Pleasant Hill in 2004.

Todd & Phil Touching Elbows.jpg
 
I used to be plum religious about attending the Pleasant Hill reenactment, but after going in 2015 I told myself I wasn't coming back till they straightened some things out. I'm still waiting.

I've heard they're trying hard to get things going proper, and I've thought of "going home" but after I was told of one thing they had acquired I changed my mind in a hurry as they weren't taking what looked to me a golden opportunity the acquisition gave them to improve the event better than ever before, and just running like it used to be. No sense in going back to the old ways if your going to pass up a golden opportunity to improve it at the same time and bring us closer in authenticity to the battle.

Of course it didn't help my disposition that year or since when I showed up to find I wasn't allowed to park in the parking lot adjacent to the camp by the powers that be, after I had been allowed there since getting into reenacting and was one of the two people who took the time of day to go over there to Louisiana and fence it all in and was always one of the very few people who would spend hours after the Sunday battle helping get vehicles and their trailers out of the mud there for years. I'm still highly ticked off about the treatment I got, and folks wonder why I'm not the P. Hill devotee I was.
 
Curious about the double-shotted pistol; was that common practice? Double shotting was common in cannons, particularly naval action or the classic double canister, but I had not heard of it in small arms.
 
Curious about the double-shotted pistol; was that common practice? Double shotting was common in cannons, particularly naval action or the classic double canister, but I had not heard of it in small arms.

Loading buck and ball loads into 69 caliber smoothbore muskets was common, seemingly the preferred load, and that is essentially a double load with one big round ball and three buckshot balls. Prior to this single comment in a letter home by Captain Petty, I've not read of double loading a revolver. Maybe another reader can add another source. By the way, Captain Petty was killed by a round of grape shot that hit him square in the chest at Pleasant Hill.
 
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