Handguns Pistol training for cavalrymen?

[major bill]

I am sure all our favorite movie cowboy heroes while on hose back could shoot a revolver out of the hand or outlaw he was chasing at 100 yard. So all our movie cowboy heroes were all crack shots, but what about Civil War cavalrymen? This comes down to a few questions.

1. How many cavalrymen were crack shots when the joined the army? How many cavalry recruits were even fairly familiar with handguns?
2. How much training with pistols did they receive before being sent to the combat zone? How many rounds did the army authorize for this training?
3. Did most cavalrymen had the extra ammunition to practice while on duty?
4. What would be the effective pistol range against a moving target while dismounted? The effective range with a pistol while on a horse?

Being a good shot with a pistol requires a fair amount of training to become proficient and additional practice after being properly trained. I some some doubts this was the case for most Civil War cavalrymen.

 

[Nathan Stuart]

Confederate guerrillas fighting in the western theater became very proficient with using their pistols in close contact skirmishing and raiding.

 

[major bill]

Hitting anything at less than point blank range while on a moving horse would have been very difficult.

 

[Pollaco]

Hitting anything at less than point blank range while on a moving horse would have been very difficult.

I never could understand how they could handle a gun (or sword) with some proficiency with those big cumbersome gauntlets.

 

[DixieRifles]

I found a book about Jesse James at a garage sale. It was a high school level book but it was historical and well resourced. I made a few calls and found out that some drop-out sold the book rather than return it to his school's library.
It gave an example of Jesse's expertise with the pistol. It said he could gallop at full speed between two trees and unload both pistols with direct hits. He had to shoot fast or start shooting farther out. Even though, it didn't say the size or distance of the trees, I find that rather remarkable.

 

[major bill]

But is the book telling the truth or repeating exaggerations? We can not know for sure.

 

[turner ashby kidd]

The gauntlets with proper care,as well as sweat and rain will form or shape to fit the fingers. Thus allowing the wearer to perform a multitude of tasks without hindrance such as bridling a horse or saddling. Pistols or sabers present no problem.
One part of Cavalry competition is hitting a pistol target while moving at a gallop. With practice or experience one can be remarkable, without it can't hit a 20 foot target standing on the ground.
Would imagine Jesse had plenty of experience riding and shooting..

 

[Pollaco]

It wouldn't be a problem hitting a decent size target while wearing gauntlets but can you imagine trying to put the caps on the nipples at full gallop.

 

[Booner]

Cole Younger supposidly shot and killed a union trooper at 70 yards with his .36 caliber colt pistol. He attributed his shooting ability to a lot of practice.
If find that a little doubtful. I would think having target practice, even way out in the countryside, would bring a lot of unwanted attention to what he was doing.
No doubt the Missouri guerrillas had a lot of experience shooting pistols though.

 

[Pollaco]

Not to mention you'd be near deaf later on or at least hard of hearing. But I doubt they even knew about hearing loss back then or even gave it a second thought.But it would be expensive to practice your way to prominence too.Gunpowder. lead, and caps were not that plentiful.

 

[Waterloo50]

But is the book telling the truth or repeating exaggerations? We can not know for sure.

I agree but I think that people do tend to become very proficient at developing certain skills especially when their life depends on it or 'necessity is the mother of invention'.
Anyhow, these guys don't seem to have a problem with it.

 

[SeaTurtle]

Hitting anything at less than point blank range while on a moving horse would have been very difficult.

That's one of the reasons some ACW cavalry carried shotguns. Better chance of hitting something.

 

[SeaTurtle]

It wouldn't be a problem hitting a decent size target while wearing gauntlets but can you imagine trying to put the caps on the nipples at full gallop.

My understanding is that cavalrymen didn't often reload while in combat. That's why you find photos of ACW cavalry carrying multiple revolvers. Easier to just shoot one dry then swap to another pre-loaded gun, rather than trying to reload cap-and-ball on horseback.

 

[major bill]

I have ran many pistol ranges and qualified thousands of men and women. Most of them went through a fair amount of ammunition to become even reasonably proficient. So I would have to assume that the Army needed perhsps 500 to 1000 rounds per man to get them reasonably proficient. Did the army provide this amount of ammunition for training?

 

[C. Cash]

For Cavalry in the Western Theatre, the pistol was just a secondary arm for close range. Many early Cav. units were outfitted with Double Shotguns and a hodgepodge of available rifles/ carbines. As the War progressed these Cavalry abandoned the shotguns and adopted Enfield Carbines/Rifles and Lorenz rifles, as well as other captured pieces. Many retained their pistols of course. Some carried multiple pistols.

 

[Kurt G]

Private Huff of the 5th Michigan cavalry is often cited as the man who mortally wounded JEB Stuart with a pistol . I have read that the distance was anywhere between 10 and 50 yards . He was supposedly a crack shot , possibly because he had served with Berdan's sharpshooters , but being a crack shot with a long gun doesn't mean you are an expert with a handgun .

 

[Don Dixon]

From page 58 of the 1864 edition, reprinted from 1861, of BG Philip St. George Cooke's Cavalry Tactics: or, Regulations for the Instruction, Formations, and Movements by the Cavalry of the Army and Volunteers of the United States. Cooke, by the way, was J.E.B. Stuart's father-in-law.

"TARGET PRACTICE. 74. —The target is six feet high and two feet wide ; a black stripe three inches wide is painted at the centre, from top to bottom; and two feet and a half from the top a white square of three inches is painted on the black. When practicable a man is placed behind a ball-proof obstacle, within reach by a wand, of the target; with this he points out the position of each hit, immediately after it is made; so that the person firing can see from his place. When each has finished his shots, his hits are marked, measured, and noted, as well as the misses. The squad first fires at twenty yards, each man fires to the front, rear, right, and left; one shot each a day. The firing is next at thirty yards, and is carried regularly by the decimal increase up to one hundred yards. An officer is always present at target firing."

All firing training, see pages 56-7, was one handed. Firing with two hands was not trained by anyone until Jeff Cooper, et al, developed the modern technique of the pistol following World War II. If you look at WWII training films, firing with the pistol is with one hand. Films of FBI training show the same.

That was the standard, but most Civil War soldiers were not properly trained with any of their weapons. And, most westerners after the war couldn't shoot either. Many of the gunfighters weren't noted as being particularly good shots; Wild Bill being the notable exception. They were noted, however, as being "cool" men who were prepared to take the time to align their sights and kill their man.

I have ran many pistol ranges and qualified thousands of men and women. Most of them went through a fair amount of ammunition to become even reasonably proficient. So I would have to assume that the Army needed perhsps 500 to 1000 rounds per man to get them reasonably proficient. Did the army provide this amount of ammunition for training?

LOL. Soldiers on either side didn't get 500 to 1,000 rounds in training during the Civil War, and most soldiers in the modern U.S. Army don't get that many now. Many personnel don't even fire that many on a target/qualification range in a career.

Regards,
Don Dixon

 

[bayonet]

I have ran many pistol ranges and qualified thousands of men and women. Most of them went through a fair amount of ammunition to become even reasonably proficient. So I would have to assume that the Army needed perhsps 500 to 1000 rounds per man to get them reasonably proficient. Did the army provide this amount of ammunition for training?

Pity me, as a Range Instructor it took a whole case (yes case not box!) one day to qualify some knucklehead. One of the Bosses got on my case about it as if it was my fault. I snapped back "Not my fault I didn't hire the Bonehead"! That ended that discussion.

 

[turner ashby kidd]

Firing with two hands was not trained by anyone until Jeff Cooper, et al, developed the modern technique of the pistol following World War II. If you look at WWII training films, firing with the pistol is with one hand. Films of FBI training show the same.

I recently learned this watching these training films.
Have wondered why my father taught me to fire the .45 revolver with one hand. Now I know.
His formal training was pre-WWII at VMI. Seeing the line of FBI guys firing one handed in the films now looks kinda silly.

 

[nc native]

Cole Younger supposidly shot and killed a union trooper at 70 yards with his .36 caliber colt pistol. He attributed his shooting ability to a lot of practice.
If find that a little doubtful. I would think having target practice, even way out in the countryside, would bring a lot of unwanted attention to what he was doing.
No doubt the Missouri guerrillas had a lot of experience shooting pistols though.

It's possible that he could accomplish this feat. Wild Bill Hickok shot Davis Tutt in the heart at seventy five yards during their famous gunfight in Texas in 1865 with a Colt Navy .36. Wild Bill practiced with his pistols every day when he was a lawman, if they were loaded and not used during a particular day, he would unload them by shooting at targets and load them again the next morning.