Sharpshooter in a tree question

[gary]

I'm sure everyone here is familiar with Winslow Homer's famous painting as well as engraving, Sharp Shooter On Picket Duty in the Army of the Potomac:

Well, there is a similar illustration in Gone For a Soldier: The Civil War Memoirs of Private Alfred Bellard as well as one engraving made famous in Battles and Leaders.

So, my question is how did they reload? In the Homer image, the Yankee is using a target telescope rifle. Where did he put his accoutrements? Mininally he would need a bullet flask, powder measure, bullet pouch and maybe patches as well as a ramrod. If he had one of those super heavy 50 plus pound target rifles, he would also need a false muzzle and bullet starter. Being in a tree is hard enough, but being able to reload and not from a cartridge box like Bellard's infantryman must have been a bear.

 

[huskerblitz]

Not a definitive answer, but I thought most sharpshooters used breech-loading weapons.

 

[huskerblitz]

This site may help.
http://clevelandcivilwarroundtable.com/articles/means/sharpshooter.htm

 

[leftyhunter]

I'm sure everyone here is familiar with Winslow Homer's famous painting as well as engraving, Sharp Shooter On Picket Duty in the Army of the Potomac:

View attachment 150283

Well, there is a similar illustration in Gone For a Soldier: The Civil War Memoirs of Private Alfred Bellard as well as one engraving made famous in Battles and Leaders.

View attachment 150284

So, my question is how did they reload? In the Homer image, the Yankee is using a target telescope rifle. Where did he put his accoutrements? Mininally he would need a bullet flask, powder measure, bullet pouch and maybe patches as well as a ramrod. If he had one of those super heavy 50 plus pound target rifles, he would also need a false muzzle and bullet starter. Being in a tree is hard enough, but being able to reload and not from a cartridge box like Bellard's infantryman must have been a bear.

I can't answer the reloading question. On the other hand as long has a picket gets off the first long range shot and gives the other pickets a heads up he has done his job.
Firing from a tree with blackpowder will reveal the snipers position. Much safer to be behind cover where one can shoot and scoot.
Japanese snipers fired from trees in Guadalcanal using smokeless powder. Few if any collected a pension.
Leftyhunter

 

[mofederal]

Tying themselves in trees did not help either.

 

[diane]

There was a sharpshooter at Chickamauga Forrest dealt with - this guy had a little platform hidden up in the branches of a tall tree and was doing pretty good work. The general ordered him to climb down or get shot down, so he did the former, and Forrest climbed the tree to use the platform for scouting out the field. Has anybody heard stories like this - a sharpshooter building a little structure?

 

[AUG]

Not a definitive answer, but I thought most sharpshooters used breech-loading weapons.

Berdan's U.S. Sharpshooters used breech-loading Sharps rifles, but most sharpshooters still used muzzle-loading weapons. Confederate sharpshooters preferred the short two-band Enfields, three-band P53 Enfield, and of course the Whitworth, though only in extremely limited numbers.

 

[gary]

Building a structure? Lt. Foster at Vicksburg built a lincoln log type tower that overlooked the Confederate positions.

Reloading from a tree would be difficult. Besides firearms safety (muzzle control), wouldn't the branches interfere with the ram rod? I concede if there is a lower branch one can place the buttplate against to hold the gun, it would be a lot easier but still, to wrestle with the powder flask and powder measure (we're talking non-military type rifles pressed into military service), that's a handful. I can't imagine using a 40-50 pound target telescope rifle with its false muzzle with its paper patch holder and bullet starter. Where would one put the ramrod too since those guns didn't have pipes/thimbles to hold the ramrod on the gun?

Diane - where did you read that account of Forrest?

 

[diane]

Building a structure? Lt. Foster at Vicksburg built a lincoln log type tower that overlooked the Confederate positions.

Reloading from a tree would be difficult. Besides firearms safety (muzzle control), wouldn't the branches interfere with the ram rod? I concede if there is a lower branch one can place the buttplate against to hold the gun, it would be a lot easier but still, to wrestle with the powder flask and powder measure (we're talking non-military type rifles pressed into military service), that's a handful. I can't imagine using a 40-50 pound target telescope rifle with its false muzzle with its paper patch holder and bullet starter. Where would one put the ramrod too since those guns didn't have pipes/thimbles to hold the ramrod on the gun?

Diane - where did you read that account of Forrest?

Gary, I believe it was in This Terrible Sound by Cozzens. I'll have to double check that as it's been a while but it struck me as something...well, weird! That perch was where Forrest observed the Union disarray and advised Bragg to pursue them. In fact, it was this same battle where Forrest shot a sharpshooter out of a different tree - this guy was really doing his job, too, and keeping the whole of the general's escort pinned down. I sure don't know much about snipers but it seems if one got a really good position in a tree he could do a heck of a lot of damage...before they got him, anyway. On this particular problem, the escort were all marksmen themselves but had to expose themselves to fire in order to take an effective shot at the Union man. Since he had picked off some of them, they were reluctant to risk it. Forrest took a rifle and did just that - made certain where the shooter was then stood up and took his very accurate shot.

 

[Billy Yank]

"One shot. One kill."

 

[Championhilz]

The following reminiscence was written by Lieutenant Colonel James Gordon of the 2nd Mississippi Cavalry:

I did not care for the bullets from the enemy in front, they were honest foes, but to have a skulking assassin in my rear picking at me and distracting my attention was more than I could endure, and I resolved to get rid of him, so I selected a sandy-haired, freckled-faced fellow in the ranks, who had an impediment in his speech, and, touching him and the comrade beside him, pointed out the spot where the sharpshooter hid, told them to go and kill him and bring me his gun. They started off at a double quick. I watched them close in on him, and as he attempted to retreat, they fired and he fell. My stuttering friend returned, holding up a beautiful Sharp Rifle and he said, 'By-by-by G-d, Colonel, I ga-ga-got his gun,' and I may add the brave fellow carried it gallantly through the war and had it at his home in Desoto County the last time I saw him.

Gordon, James. [Lt. Col., F&S] "The Battle and Retreat from Corinth." Publications of
the Mississippi Historical Society. Volume 4 (1901): 63-78.

 

[gary]

It was suggested to me that the sharpshooter, in anticipation of hunting from a tree, may have made his own paper cartridges and simplified the loading process. No flask or wrestling with them while simultaneously trying to keep the rifle from falling, no separate ball pouch to fumble with or anything fancy like paper patches, false muzzle or bullet starter. Ok, that seems plausible but where would the paper come from? I was told the company clerk had plenty.

 

[gary]

I contacted the Cleveland CWRT and they have lost contact with Sid, the author of the suggested article. I also wrote Stan Saperstein to see what input he has.

 

[Patrick H]

I'm sure everyone here is familiar with Winslow Homer's famous painting as well as engraving, Sharp Shooter On Picket Duty in the Army of the Potomac:

View attachment 150283

Well, there is a similar illustration in Gone For a Soldier: The Civil War Memoirs of Private Alfred Bellard as well as one engraving made famous in Battles and Leaders.

View attachment 150284

So, my question is how did they reload? In the Homer image, the Yankee is using a target telescope rifle. Where did he put his accoutrements? Mininally he would need a bullet flask, powder measure, bullet pouch and maybe patches as well as a ramrod. If he had one of those super heavy 50 plus pound target rifles, he would also need a false muzzle and bullet starter. Being in a tree is hard enough, but being able to reload and not from a cartridge box like Bellard's infantryman must have been a bear.

I think both artists used considerable artistic license. Homer would probably say his sharpshooter hung his accoutrements on the other side of the tree trunk. In the second illustration, I question how the shooter could even balance in that position, but it's a heck of an illustration nonetheless.

 

[diane]

I think both artists used considerable artistic license. Homer would probably say his sharpshooter hung his accoutrements on the other side of the tree trunk. In the second illustration, I question how the shooter could even balance in that position, but it's a heck of an illustration nonetheless.

That's why I wondered about little structures, like hunters do. The drawings are certainly more for drama than accuracy!

 

[Chattahooch33]

"One shot. One kill."

There was a guy that thought he was portraying a 'civil war sniper' at a reenactment I participated in once. He kept screaming that out.

Stupidest damned thing I have ever heard at a reenactment.

 

[Chattahooch33]

Sam Watkins in Co. Aytch gives an account of taking down a federal sharpshooter that was in a tree. Sounded like the smoke didn't affect too much due to the distance.

 

[Republican Blues]

There was a guy that thought he was portraying a 'civil war sniper' at a reenactment I participated in once. He kept screaming that out.

Stupidest ****ed thing I have ever heard at a reenactment.

I used to do a Sharpshooter impression.. not that solitary stuff, but Co. A, 2nd Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters... lots and lots of skirmish drill, none of that One Shot One Kill ****...

 

[Booner]

It was suggested to me that the sharpshooter, in anticipation of hunting from a tree, may have made his own paper cartridges and simplified the loading process. No flask or wrestling with them while simultaneously trying to keep the rifle from falling, no separate ball pouch to fumble with or anything fancy like paper patches, false muzzle or bullet starter. Ok, that seems plausible but where would the paper come from? I was told the company clerk had plenty.

I'm wondering if it took a special kind of paper for a paper-patched bullet; it seems to me it did but with a war on, maybe anything was used.
I would also think that if one were to shoot from a tree, he's got support on the ground to help protect him. At least thats what I would want.

 

[gary]

There was a guy that thought he was portraying a 'civil war sniper' at a reenactment I participated in once. He kept screaming that out.

Stupidest ****ed thing I have ever heard at a reenactment.

Concur. There's very few incidents I know of where someone gloated about killing another human being. Many soldiers merely write that they had no more threat from that quarter and implied that the enemy was taken care of.

I'm wondering if it took a special kind of paper for a paper-patched bullet; it seems to me it did but with a war on, maybe anything was used.
I would also think that if one were to shoot from a tree, he's got support on the ground to help protect him. At least thats what I would want.

No special paper but just the writing paper the company clerk had. Now, for the Confederates, getting paper was an issue but when it came to cartridges, most Confederates used Enfields or if they had Whitworths, premade english cartridges. It would be very rare for any Confederate sharpshooter to have a special rifle for which he would have to roll his own.