Why the guns at Gettysburg were found Loaded

The reasons why rifles where found with several loads, are quite simple.

The holes in the nipples can be fouled pretty quick. We who shoot black powder percussion weapons know this too well.
In the heat of battle, the soldier dont notice that only the cap have went off, then reload and again only the cap go off, and such again and again a few times, until he maybe notice the ramrod dont go so far down the barrel. Then he discards the rifle and maybe pick up another from a fallen soldier..

The recoil of a .58 loaded with 65 grains of powder is not especially high, so in a battle you can easily reject to notice that only the cap have gone off. This combined with extreme noise and smoke, its pretty easy to understand.
 
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The reasons why rifles where found with several loads, are quite simple.

The holes in the nipples can be fouled pretty quick. We who shoot black powder percussion weapons know this too well.
In the heat of battle, the soldier dont notice that only the cap have went off, then reload and again only the cap go off, and such again and again a few times, until he maybe notice the ramrod dont go so far down the barrel. Then he discards the rifle and maybe pick up another from a fallen soldier..

The recoil of a .58 loaded with 65 grains of powder is not especially high, so in a battle you can easily reject to notice that only the cap have gone off. This combined with extreme noise and smoke, its pretty easy to understand.
If they are firing in salvos, the individual might not notice his weapon did not discharge. An inexperienced soldier would not know what to do in such a contingency.
 
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If they are firing in salvos, the individual might not notice his weapon did not discharge. An inexperienced soldier would not know what to do in such a contingency.

Exactly. An inexperienced soldier and raw recruit in the heat of battle could easily load 2-3 times without even knowing there are already charges in the barrel that had not gone off.
In a firing like he might even be to embarrassed to do anything else but load.
 
I can tell you from experienc, firing in volleys one may not notice that their weapon did not discharge. When I reenacted, my first event as a rifleman, I actually had two misfires and didn't notice until finally, after my third load, I had a nice loud BOOM erupt from my musket.
 
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