The Shotgun in the War

Tom Hughes

Sergeant Major
Joined
May 27, 2019
Location
Mississippi
shotgun.JPG

When the war broke out in 1861, most Southerners brought guns from home and took them to the seat of war.
The shotgun was a popular firearm. It was what most people owned on the farm.
I dug this above specimen of a double barrel shotgun on a high ridge in Vicksburg, MS several years back.
The ridge had been occupied by Confederate soldiers and the remains of the entrenchments had all but eroded down the hillside, exposing artifacts.
This appears to be the right hand side of the hammer and lock plate to the shotgun.
Many Confederates had shotguns in the trenches at Vicksburg "to handle the close-in jobs".

Thanks for looking!
 
Shotguns were in service in all branches of the Confederate army at the beginning of the war but as the war continued, the infantry gradually phased out the use of the shotgun for the rifle after sufficient numbers were acquired to equip the troops. However, some of cavalry units continued to use the sawed-off shotgun as a primary weapon due to shortages and the fact that it was deadly and useful for short range fighting. I remember reading a description of Rosser's cavalry about the time they joined Early in the Shenandoah for the fighting in 1864 and it was noted that many of the troopers still carried shotguns rather than carbines or repeating rifles.
 
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The Missiouri State Militia which is a misnomer has it's men were paid full time and we're eligible for federal pensions post war were issued shotguns among other various arms.
No doubt shotguns were far more widely used among Homeguards on both sides.
Leftyhunter
 
Worth noting that the 69 caliber smoothbore muskets that many Confederates carried throughout the war, when loaded with 'buck and ball' (1 ball, 3 buckshots), were essentially long barreled shotguns. Having shot several such rounds at the black powder range, I'll testify it's a gratifying load to fire.
There was at least one Pennsylvania Regiment that also used buck and ball and named their Regimental newspaper " buck and ball".
Leftyhunter
 
Did Shotgun slugs exist at the time or where they a later development ?
Per WIki shotgun slugs the first modern shot gun slug was invented I'm 1898. The basic purpose of a shot gun slug is to provide an effective big game round when the range must be limited if hunting in an area where one doesn't want a projectile to go over say three hundred yards due to safety concerns.
Occasionally law enforcement agencies use shotgun slugs for the same reason.
Shotguns were used by some Confedrate Cavalry Regiments and more so by Partisan Rangers.
Leftyhunter
 
Did Shotgun slugs exist at the time or where they a later development ?

I am unsure of their application in sporting arms, however, depending on the bore size of the shotgun it would be capable of firing .69 caliber ball ammunition like a slug. The Confederates also produced a few variations of Nessler type projectiles that were designed to improve the accuracy of smoothbore weapons. For quite some time these have been considered shotgun projectiles, but in all likelihood they were mostly issued with smoothbore muskets.
 
The Confederates also adapted some thousands of shotguns into infantry weapons. Often these arsenal modifications were limited to installing musket sized cones on them, and possibly adding sling swivels to them. Others were also fitted with bayonets; most commonly saber bayonets secured with a double pronged lug.

Here are a couple that I have owned. The top example is from an unknown maker and known to collectors as the "Hardin type I"; the designation first applied to it when published in Albert Hardin's "The American Bayonet 1776-1964".
bayonet.jpg

The lower example has more recently been identified as a product of Cook & Brother of New Orleans, Louisiana. In Hardin's book it is referred to as the "type II".
cook shotgun bayonet.jpg
 
The smooth-bore arms used shot--buckshot in this instance, with between nine and twelve pellets for the most part, or large round "pumpkin ball" slug, or with a mix of sizes like the "buck and ball" load.

Historically, soldiers equipped with a smooth-bore .69 caliber musket (a rough equivalent of a 16-gauge shotgun, while the old Brown Bess/ India pattern English musket is roughly twelve gauge, or even a ten-gauge in the earlier examples--recall that the balls would be very undersized, so the U.S. martial musket .643 or .65 ball was "19 to a pound" or 18 or 19 "gauge" for use in a larger bore...) would have received an ammunition allotment of 1/2 single ball cartridges and 1/2 "buck-and-ball" cartridges. There is a description of smooth-bore armed New Jersey troops awaiting combat at Gettysburg making their own all buckshot cartridges from their issued buck-and-ball ammunition.

A sentry often used an all buckshot cartridge, particularly in instances where lickspittle officers would not allow the musket to be "unloaded" merely by firing or discharging the piece in a safe direction. The alternatives were a single ball cartridge, without ramming the ball so that it was "loose" and could be extracted easier, or a buckshot cartridge in which the wadding could be removed with a ball puller, and the shot and powder poured out of the barrel. Having to dig out the bullet of a rammed single ball cartridge would have presented a more onerous proposition.

A double-gun in the hands of cavalry or bushwhackers or partisans/guerrillas would have been a formidable multi-shot weapon indeed. The only problem with many of the arms "brought from home" in addition to the non-standard, non-military calibers complicating logistics was that frequently civilian arms were simply not as sturdily or robustly constructed as even the most pitiably out-of-date/ obsolete smooth-bore.
 
What was the load in them days , a paper cartridge with small projectiles loaded with a ram rod ?
All of the above!

A paper cylinder, with a row of three buckshot, choked off and tied with a string. Then another row, and up to three, to four rows of shot or 3x3=9 or 3x4=12 pellets. These pellets are about .310, or what one would use as a "squirrel rifle" bullet with a thin patch. Each weighs about 45-grains, or about the same as a modern day .22 bullet. Of course, multiple pellets hitting nearly simultaneously caused devastating wounds at close ranges, and at longer ranges as the shot spread out, even a few hits from just a couple pellets could incapacitate a person. Given the horrendous medical technology and absence of antibiotics, such woulds could ultimately prove fatal, or very slow to heal.

The "buck and ball" cartridge was a .65 caliber lead ball and three .310 lead spheres backed by 110 grains of black powder. Only a close range load, but devastating, and of course enabling a "hit" at typical short combat ranges.

Some other foreign armies issued multi-shot ammunition as far as I know. One example is that both Denmark and Sweden in the age of flintlock muskets issued double-ball cartridges for smooth-bores, to be used if the infantry were attacked by cavalry.
 
One of the few firearms I’d be accustomed to would be a shotgun due to our strict gun laws. I’ve fired a 12 gauge a few times doing clay pigeon shooting it has a decent enough kick , my pop also had a ussr made single barrel shotgun for years. He had to surrender it to the police after the red tape got too much with the gun license. I’d like a bit more freedom particularly with antique firearms but won’t happen anytime soon.
 
I am unsure of their application in sporting arms, however, depending on the bore size of the shotgun it would be capable of firing .69 caliber ball ammunition like a slug. The Confederates also produced a few variations of Nessler type projectiles that were designed to improve the accuracy of smoothbore weapons. For quite some time these have been considered shotgun projectiles, but in all likelihood they were mostly issued with smoothbore muskets.

Specifically, North Carolina. We have no idea how the cartridges for these were constructed. There are two variants known of this so-called "Nessler ball." (the original "Nessler" was developed by Franco-Belgian officials to get some extended use out of smooth-bore muskets during the different technological developments that resulted in the Pritchett and Minié/Burton ogival-conoidal lead bullet designs. Such "real" Nessler bullets were used by Russia, France, and Sardinia during the Crimean War, in which the British .70 caliber P51 Enfield rifle really stood out as the arm of the future. The North Carolina "Nessler" is not a "true" Nessler bullet, and apparently relied on a collapsing skirt like the Austro-Hungarian Lorenz bullet to fill the inside-the-bore "windage.")

There are theories that the Carolina Nessler may have been issued to anyone with a smooth-bore, be it a .69 caliber musket or a shotgun. At some point, I hope to make up a enough of these from an Eras Gone mould to do a real, substantive "experimental archaeological" test! :cannon: :thumbsup:
 
One of the few firearms I’d be accustomed to would be a shotgun due to our strict gun laws. I’ve fired a 12 gauge a few times doing clay pigeon shooting it has a decent enough kick , my pop also had a ussr made single barrel shotgun for years. He had to surrender it to the police after the red tape got too much with the gun license. I’d like a bit more freedom particularly with antique firearms but won’t happen anytime soon.

Unfortunate. The muzzle loader in Texas is not even considered a "firearm." There are techniques for leaning into the kick or recoil of a heavy recoiling shotgun. There are also firearms that are simply too hard kicking for me to wish to contemplate. I skirmish with a .69 caliber musket, and the "service load" is simply "too much gun for me." I'd be worried about getting a detached retina or something after a steady use of those beasts with the "as issued" load! Then again, I just don't like getting kicked in the shoulder much...:cry::nah disagree:
 
Give Doc the shotgun... they will be less apt to get nervy... if he is on the street howitzer.

Tombstone (Wyatt)
 
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