How Did They Do That?

            Watching World War II movies and TV shows were mandatory in our household. Dad, being Marine Corps veteran of the Pacific Theater, never left the Marine Corps or Guadalcanal. Watching a movie with him was a participation event. Every time John Wayne pulled a grenade pin with his teeth, Dad would yell, “You cain’t do thet!” (He was right. Grenade pins were bent to keep them from accidentally slipping out when carrying them.) Every time a grenade actually exploded and on target, he would growl an expletive, usually in two syllables, because as a rural Tennessean he could not say one syllable words. I remember one time while we were watching “Combat,” starring Vic Morrow, Cage, the BAR man (Browning Automatic Rifleman), charged a German machine gun emplacement while firing the weapon from his hip. “You cain’t run an’ fire thet gun like thet! Lie down!” (The recoil from a BAR could knock the shooter down if it was not properly braced.)

            His running commentaries inadvertently taught me that details are important. Accurate portrayals are important. Writing about a Civil War battle on the ground level that I do requires me to read the drill manuals and to know the weapons and how they operated.

            One thing that has always puzzled me could soldiers fire three aimed shots a minute and, could they really load while running at the “double quick.” I shoot black powder rifles and sidearms. Using a patch and ball and starting loading, I can get off two rounds in a minute and a half. When using an Enfield with a greased minie ball which was not in a cartridge I averaged about the same. Considering that I am no means an expert, and that no one was firing back at me, I do not consider that bad timing.

            So how could a man get off three aimed rounds a minute as prescribed in some of the manuals during a drill where no one was under fire? I think I found the answer. The types of cartridges used determined the rate of fire. During the Civil War the armies used a variety of packaged ammunition such as round ball, minie balls, Enfield cartridges, and patent cartridges. In the movies the infantrymen tear cartridges with their teeth and load by putting the entire round down the bore, which they could do if armed with a smoothbore musket and not the rifled musket.

            The smoothbore paper cartridge was greased. The shooter did not have to unwrap the ball to load it because with the cartridge paper still around it, it could fit down the bore. A musket (shot gun) had no lands and grooves in it to grip the round. Theoretically, a person could get three to four rounds off a minute, as long as the weapon did not foul from the coarse powder. Once the weapon was loaded the soldier had to cap it, which could be done while moving, but probably not at a run.

It could also be loaded while marching at the common time (90 steps per minute), quick time (110 steps per minutes) and possibly at the double quick at (120 steps per minute) because the soldier could charge the cartridge without and ram it home without having to unwrap the bullet. The Prussian army, I believe under Frederick the Great, actually drilled in loading while advancing. The men were armed with muskets.

The conical minie ball used in rifles muskets (rifles) came in a self contained cartridge with two paper wrappings. The powder was in one wrapper and the greased minie ball sat on top of that wrapper with the cone (tip) of the round pointed upward. A separate paper went around that and the wrapped powder charge. In theory the grease from the round would not affect the powder and the extra wrap made the cartridge stronger. However in practice, it slowed the rate of fire and made it virtually impossible to load while at a steady walk. The shooter could charge the powder while walking but then had to halt to unwrap the minie and thumb it into the bore before drawing the rammer to push the ball home. Unwrapping the ball under fire consumed time particularly when a fellow was under fire. While writing this, it occurred to me that this is why so many “dropped” bullets have been found on battlefields,

The British Enfield conical round was a bit smaller than the .58 caliber minie- .577 as a rule. It was placed on the powder point down then lubed on the outside of the cartridge. The rifleman tore open the cartridge and charged the powder, then inverted it and placed the round with the ball in the muzzle.   The wrapped bullet was small enough to fit in the bore without unwrapping it. The man then tore off the empty paper, threw it aside and rammed the cartridge home. This increased the loading and firing time and theoretically could be done while moving. 

The patent cartridge consisted of a combustible cartridge with the minie ball inserted base down but without a separate wrapper. The round was small enough that men said they could load at least the first round by inserting the entire thing in the muzzle and thumping the rifle butt on the ground. It loaded the fastest of any of the pervious ammunition types which I described. Of the four, a soldier could load and fire a patent cartridge faster than the minie or the Enfield round and could conceivably load it on the double quick.

When loading while at the double quick, as some of the Civil War veterans said they did, they more than likely halted to load then double quicked into combat. Loading while at the double quick probably meant they loaded and charge their in four steps, not nine (depending upon which manual they used) and then marched at the double quick with some of them still having their ramrods in the bores of their weapons. I have communicated with Mr. Joseph Bilby, a nationally recognized expert on Civil War rifles and muskets and Mr. Phil Spaugy, an historian of the 19^th Indiana, and a very active member of the North-South Skirmish Association who also has a tremendous working knowledge of Civil War muskets and rifles and both concur that the men would have had to halt to load the weapons before or after running to their objective.

What I would really like to know if there is anyone who has seen a re-enactment unit load and fire live rounds while at the common time, quick time, or double quick step. I would welcome any additional documents information about loading while on the move in formation. I genuinely want to know “How did they do that?”