The Good Idea Fairy visited me after posting this on the Chassepot rifle, for you folks who game Trans-Mississippi Theater.
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/bolt-action-rifles-of-the-civil-war.186304/#post-2419525
This notion is also based on what I remember of this book (or one like it)*
The Lost Cause: The Confederate Exodus to Mexico
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0806119616/?tag=civilwartalkc-20
From all accounts, the first fielding by the French saw the Austrians being overwhelmed by the new rifle's firepower.
https://www.forgottenweapons.com/chassepot-best-of-the-needle-rifles/
If the French got off their duffs and developed the Chassepot earlier, and the Confederates had 1,000 run into Galveston would a Texas Mounted Infantry Regiment @ 1,350 strong* have made a difference in the Texas battles of 1865?
* Assuming one out of every four men is a horse-handler, three would be armed with Chassepots and the fourth a standard muzzleloader.
* See also
Mexican Projects of the Confederates
J. Fred Rippy
The Southwestern Historical Quarterly
The Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Vol. 22, No. 4 (Apr., 1919), pp. 291-317 (27 pages)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/30241764?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/bolt-action-rifles-of-the-civil-war.186304/#post-2419525
This notion is also based on what I remember of this book (or one like it)*
The Lost Cause: The Confederate Exodus to Mexico
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0806119616/?tag=civilwartalkc-20
From all accounts, the first fielding by the French saw the Austrians being overwhelmed by the new rifle's firepower.
https://www.forgottenweapons.com/chassepot-best-of-the-needle-rifles/
If the French got off their duffs and developed the Chassepot earlier, and the Confederates had 1,000 run into Galveston would a Texas Mounted Infantry Regiment @ 1,350 strong* have made a difference in the Texas battles of 1865?
* Assuming one out of every four men is a horse-handler, three would be armed with Chassepots and the fourth a standard muzzleloader.
* See also
Mexican Projects of the Confederates
J. Fred Rippy
The Southwestern Historical Quarterly
The Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Vol. 22, No. 4 (Apr., 1919), pp. 291-317 (27 pages)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/30241764?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
Bringing the