Fighting in open ranks

[Beaner]

Ok, all tactic experts on the A. C.,

I have read several accounts, diaries, and journals written by participants who fought in the Civil War. Many of these individuals mention the Confederate soldiers fighting in open ranks. This makes sense, considering the Federal numerical superiority. How would you deploy into open ranks? How would you advance in open ranks? How would you reform from open ranks? Has anyone ever used this formation at an event? If we understand it, it maybe useful at our event.

Dave Prince
4th Texas Co. E.
"Skirmish at the Mill"
http://www.4thtexas.com (event site)

http://www.4thmichigan.com

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Fighting in open ranks

Mr. Prince-

I wouldn't try firing in open ranks if you are in the rear rank. For safety's sake... think about it. You might hit the guy you are standing in front of in the back of the head with a blast.
Perhaps that is why it isn't really used at events??

In real combat, you MIGHT be able to "Fix Bayonet-Charge!" in open ranks, but even shooting back then in real line combat, you might hit your comrade in the back if you weren't careful- unless you intended to do that...

Never heard of this one... but I believe you. Can you provide citations/sources for this and how it is referenced?

Thanks- Johnny Lloyd

[hendrickms24]

Re: Fighting in open ranks

I believe that open order is referring to firing in skirmish formation so just look at the manuals to see the way it was done.

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Fighting in open ranks

"Open ranks" could be period speak for "skirmisher drill" ... sounds plausable.

That was needling me the whole day here at work.

Thanks- Johnny

[charliegeorge]

Re: Fighting in open ranks

I know it isn't civil war but here is a video of skirmish deployment, ignore all the farbisms around it and just concentrate on the skirmishers.
It's a pretty well done deployment with a reserve and the rest of their troops in skirmish.
It was shot in Poland this month.

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/ostro%C5%82%C4%99ka/video/x2yy2u_bitwa-pod-ostrok_travel

[lhsnj]

Re: Fighting in open ranks

It sounds like the person might be describing an encounter with some Sharpshooter Bttn. Here is an excerpt I found:

Union Captain James McKnight’s Regular Army battery had already been overrun once that foggy October 19, 1864, morning at Cedar Creek. Now, as part of Brigadier General George W. Getty’s division, they waited on a low hill outside Middletown, Virginia, as another Rebel attack materialized out of the mist. The gunners gaped at the Confederate skirmishers loping up the hill, howling their trademark yell. “I could not believe they were actually going to close with us:’ said one gunner, “until the men on the remaining gun of the left section abandoned it and retreated toward the old graveyard wall.

Their front line was not in order, but there was an officer leading them, and I distinctly heard him shout: ‘Rally on the Battery! Rally on the Battery!” The Yankee gunners managed to get off a last shot of double canister, but “as the Rebel veterans understood this kind of business they ‘opened out’ so that the charge did not hit any of them. "In a moment the Southerners were in among the gunners, “amid smoke, fog. wreck, yells, clash and confusion....man to man, hand to hand, with bayonet and musket butt on their side and revolvers, rammers, and hand spikes on ours!”

The Federal artillerymen’s confusion was understandable—skirmishers in the Civil War were just not supposed to assault a strongly defended position. Those Confederates, however, were no ordinary Skirmishers but the elite Corps of Sharpshooters of Maj. Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur’s division - the shock troops of the Confederacy They were, as one former member put it, “the spike-head of Toledo steel” that led the advance and covered the retreat of the army. The sharpshooters were, in fact, not skirmishers in the normal sense but powerful combat units in their own right. As a tactical innovation, they were 50 years ahead of their time, presaging both the open-order techniques of the late 19th century and the German Stosstruppen of World War I. Unfortunately, the Southern corps d’élite has received only a passing mention from historians.


This is the opening to an article in America's Civil War magazine from July 2002. The article "Shock Troops of the South" by Frederick L Ray. It has some nice background on the evolution of the sharpshooters.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Fighting in open ranks

"Opening ranks" implies a sizable separation between the front and rear ranks; I don't really "buy" such a tactical deployment as something that was common. Perhaps "opening files"--meaning, the interval between adjacent men--is what was meant. If so, the way that was done is described in the period drill manuals in the part titled, "Instructions for Skirmishers".

[Gary of CA]

Re: Fighting in open ranks

Hardee's or Casey's would be a good source as both were used for open order skirmish drills.

[Beaner]

Re: Fighting in open ranks

Thanks all, for the help on this. We'll look at the manuals. If it seems possible and safe we'll look into to using it.
Dave Prince

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Fighting in open ranks

Skirmishing per period manuals and practice is certainly both possible and safe.

[Todd Watts]

Re: Fighting in open ranks

Could this be just another term for "fighting on your own hook?" This saying was used back then and evidently meant the men were firing "at will" and using whaever stance or cover they individually pleased. There is a letter from a 21st MI Inf man named Arza Bartholemew in which he told how his Reg't was driven into a fence row at Stones River and each man "fought on his own hook" for a time before they were driven into a swamp.

[BobbyHughes]

Re: Fighting in open ranks

Skirmishing per period manuals and practice is certainly both possible and safe.

Kevin,

I agree whole heartedly! Thats about the only way we take the field, using Hardee's Instructions for Skirmishers.

[RJSamp]

Re: Fighting in open ranks

Has anyone seen the PAINTINGS (water color?) from the period of the Regulars fighting at Chickamauga? They are in two ranks, but they definitely have some elbow room and the rear rank is a couple of paces (not quite 4 step Open Order) to the rear......

I know it's a painting/interpretation as opposed to a picture.....but it's much different than period illustrations showing lines of infantry in tight formation with the knapsacks and blanket roll on top (in the great coat straps!) all perfectly aligned.....

Food for thought.

The veterans by 1863-4 were seeking cover on their own volition....regardless of orders.....regardless of formation....the conscripts stood out in the open and became quick casualties......

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Fighting in open ranks

RJ-

Could the artist that painted that not be a military-experienced man and not have painted it accurately..?

Food for thought... :D Johnny

[Beaner]

Re: Fighting in open ranks

Does anyone have a link to the picture?

Dave Prince
4th Texas Co. E