The Damage A .58 Caliber Rifled Musket Can Do

[Cumpston1862]

Gents-

It seems every time I am at a LH or some kind of inter-action with the public someone always askes what kind of power the Civil War rifled musket really had. When I or a pard explains the destructive power of the rifled musket the person asking the question often times seems unimpressed or is skeptical.

So at a live shoot this past Saturday I put together a little visual that demonstrates what a rifled musket could do. I put a broken CS beltplate on a 4 x 4 piece of wood and started shooting at about 40 yards away. Even at 40 yards it was a difficult target to hit but I finally clipped it at the corner. The plate went flying off the board and the .58 caliber minie from my armisport 1861 Springfield went clear through the piece of wood. What's more the minie pulled several small shards from the buckle completely through the wood as it was passing through. A nasty wound that would certainly have been mortal.

The first picture is the front of where the minie entered and the second picture is the brutal exit wound.

[GenuineInformation]

Re: The Damage A .58 Caliber Rifled Musket Can Do

Thanks, Louis, for this telling visual reminder!

[Nathan Dodds]

Re: The Damage A .58 Caliber Rifled Musket Can Do

I want to go deer hunting with a .58 musket. I think it would give a reasonable idea of what would happen to a human. Nice test! I wonder if it would have penetrated the center of the plate?

[Skutatos]

Re: The Damage A .58 Caliber Rifled Musket Can Do

There are a number of hospital photographs depicting the kinds of wounds these weapons caused:

WARNING! Some of these images are very graphic in nature and as such are probably not safe for work or around children.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/medicalmuseum/sets/72157614294677868/

You can't look at these photos without developing a better appreciation for the kind of suffering they went through.

[Cumpston1862]

Re: The Damage A .58 Caliber Rifled Musket Can Do

Gents-

Even though I mentioned it in my first post I should have taken the picture so you could see the 3.5" of wood the minie had to go through after it clipped the beltplate. That really puts a perspective on it.

The distance I fired this was at 40 to 50 yards which is pretty close. I wanted to hit the plate at a 100 yards but I had a hard time getting this result. I am hoping to do this again very soon hopefully with a hit more in the middle of the plate. But truthfully I don't think the bullet would have any trouble going through that beltplate further away.

The bits of metal from the plate that the bullet dragged through the wood was impressive and shocking. If there was another man directly behind the man this bullet hit he would probably be dead too. At least at 50 yards.

It made me think of Sam Watkins saying in his book that he killed two men with one shot as one was right behind the other in the fighting at Kenesaw Mountain in 1864.

I also fired some .69 caliber buck and ball loads into some targets this past weekend. I was very curious as to the distribution of the .31 caliber buckshot on this kind of discharge. It was equally impressive. I will try and post some pictures of that tomorrow.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: The Damage A .58 Caliber Rifled Musket Can Do

Hallo!

There has traditionally been a certain measure of disbelief and even contempt held for CW era muzzeloaders among modern shooters. And even a similar level even among reenacting popular culture.

The .58 RM was given rather extensive testing for accuracy, range, rapiity of fire, and penetration. Plus, a number of small arms were tested in skirmish firing and volley firings.

Some of that has surviced and is available for viewing in the Records of the Firings, and Opinions of the Board Assembled at the Washington Arsenal for the Trial of Small Arms According to Special Orders No. 23 War Department, February 1, 1860.

In regards to penetration the tests showed penetration through 11.2 one inch thick soft pine boards spaced one inch apart at 30 yards, 11 boards at 100 yards, 6.4 boards at 300 yards, and 5.8 boards at 500 yards.

It was perhaps beyond their science at the time to determine it, but the ballistic and hydrostatic shock and damage done by a nominal 500 bullet coming in under a nominal 900 feet per second would soon be born out by battlefield casualties.

Just an aside...

In the Way Back Daze, the N-SSA used to 'saw off' telephone poles with RM fire to demonstrate the lore about trees being cut down by musket fire.

And a second aside...

My brothers-in-law hunt blackpowder season with CW arms. Over the years, and at the ranges found here in Ohio (under 100 yards), not one out of dozens of deek taken retained the Minie ball- their all having passed through and exited.

IMHO, looking at the casualties and death numbers for the CW, their weapons were quite lethal enough. I believe some of the "disconnect" comes from most lads having only fired blanks out of the weapons and know not what they can do.

Curt

[Blanket Head]

Re: The Damage A .58 Caliber Rifled Musket Can Do



Attached are two images of plates from the USAHEC's collection in Carlisle, PA. The first is a belt plate found on Lookout Mountain. The second is a cartridge box belt plate w/ accompanying provenance. Both pieces are part of the MOLLUS-MASS collection.

An affadavit filed 1879 by 1st LT. Horatio Roberts for Spooner's widow stated:

"After said Joseph Spooner was wounded, I examined his chest and found it was black and blue aaround the region of the heart, a space of about six inches in circumference and the skin was broken. He returned to the company from the regimental hospital. I advised him to go back and remain until he was well, but being one of those strong able bodied men he said he proposed to remain with the Company and did so, doctoring himself as best he could."

Spooner died in 1876 at the age of 38.


Kaleb Dissinger
Curator of Uniforms & Equipage
US Army Heritage Museum

[Cumpston1862]

Re: The Damage A .58 Caliber Rifled Musket Can Do

Gents-

A question to Curt and to Kaleb.

Curt; You would be the person to ask on this question. In a .69 caliber buck and ball load were the 3-.31 caliber buckshot soldered or somehow attached to the .69 caliber ball when manufactured? I have heard yes and no. If they were attached how?

In the firing I did on Saturday we put the .69 caliber ball in and than we wrapped the 3-.31 caliber buckshot into some cartridge paper and rammed them against the ball.

Which brings me to a question to Kaleb; Is that a .69 caliber ball and a .31 caliber buckshot in the eagle breastplate? If yes than according to what I saw on Saturday the man wearing that breastplate must have been shot at VERY close range. The buckshot I fired on Saturday scattered several inches or even more at 40 yards.

[Blanket Head]

Re: The Damage A .58 Caliber Rifled Musket Can Do

Louis,
Our arms curator believes it is a .54 caliber round. Due to it really being mangled, and the whole deal behind glass in the original MOLLUS display case, that is his best guess. That bright spot you supposed to be buck shot is just a reflection in the image.

Regards,

Kaleb Dissinger

[GarrettG1993]

Re: The Damage A .58 Caliber Rifled Musket Can Do

I'm not sure if it is a reflection of the larger shot or not, it could be one of the hooks from the plate that was force foreward through the plate due to the angle the slug impacted it at.
I've never seen a buck and ball round with the buck attached to the ball. Original cartridges have the round ball at the end of the cartridge, snugged down on the end by a tie cord that forms the nose of the round, then the cord is run under the round ball, and the buckshot is placed in and secured by the cord under the round ball. The paper might help form a wad to keep the spread down some.
Regarding placement of the buck rounds, a 12 gauge shoutgun from about 20 yards can hit a torso with 6 buckshot pellets in a grouping about 18 inches square, but that doesn't take into consideration what choke may or may not have been in use at the time. All but one pellet, which lodged in the scapula exited.

Regards,
Garrett Glover

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: The Damage A .58 Caliber Rifled Musket Can Do

Hallo!

Correct...

The three "buck" were loose, and more-or-less held in place by the string wrap/tie.

The purpose was for the three buck to spread out from the ball and cause greater damage, or inflict a wound elsewhere if not on the man to the right or left of the ball's target.

Period muskets, if I remember the term correctly... were "cylinder" choked, which is no "choke" at all.

Curt

[impasko]

Re: The Damage A .58 Caliber Rifled Musket Can Do

Based on the damage Louis did with his .58 cal minie to the buckle at 40-50 yards, one has to wonder from what distance the fellows who were wearing the examples Kaleb shared were shot from, to have the plates stop the round as well as they did.

~Ian Pasko

[Cumpston1862]

Re: The Damage A .58 Caliber Rifled Musket Can Do

Gents-

Thank-You Curt and Kaleb for the replies. Also thanks to Nathan for the link on flicker with the pictures of the wounded...very heart rendering.

Ian in regards to your question about the distance those original plates were hit we can only guess. There are so many variables we don't know. The wind would have been a factor and how many grains from the cartridge the soldier actually poured down his barrel when he loaded it are two that come to mind immediately.

Often times in the heat of battle a soldier was so nervous he bit the cartridge off on the powder and "ate" some or missed some when he was pouring it down the barrel so the grains probably varied greatly.

[impasko]

Re: The Damage A .58 Caliber Rifled Musket Can Do

Louis,

Good point, that hadn't even occurred to me.

~Ian Pasko

[Elliott'sSprout]

Re: The Damage A .58 Caliber Rifled Musket Can Do

I found the photo that was found in the dead soldier's hands to be the most powerful of them all. Chilling to think about it.