Download or read book The Destroying Angel The Rifle Musket as the First Modern Infantry Weapon written by Brett Gibbons and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2018-08-30 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the battlefields of the Crimean War, William Howard Russell described the new weapon in the hands of British troops -- the rifle-musket -- as "the Destroying Angel" that swept away their Russian foes. In a response to the popular belief among current historians that the rifle-musket's impact on military history was very limited, Brett Gibbons argues that the rifle-musket was in fact the first modern infantry weapon. Drawing upon a wealth of previously unidentified primary sources, Gibbons examines the rifle-musket and it's role in not just the American Civil War, but also the Crimean War, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and the Italian Wars of Unification. He compellingly demonstrates that the rifle-musket forever changed the way battles are fought, and just as importantly, revolutionized the way soldiers are trained. Gibbons considers a number of historical battles, from well-known actions like the "Thin Red Line" at the Battle of Balaclava to obscure yet ferocious actions during the Indian Rebellion, to illustrate the varying impact of the rifle-musket in both trained and untrained hands. Drawing upon his broad domain knowledge as an expert on 19th century arms and a U.S. Army Ordnance officer, Gibbons compellingly demonstrates that the rifle-musket deserves a better reputation than it currently has from military historians.
Download or read book The Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle written by Peter Smithurst and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-07-20 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle was the first rifled firearm issued to every soldier in the British Army, and gave the infantry a revolutionary increase in firepower. First issued in 1853, the Enfield proved itself worthy during both the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny, where its long range, durability, and interchangeable parts made it a perfect campaign rifle. However, it was during the American Civil War that the Enfield saw the greatest use, with over a million rifles being sold to the armies of both the North and South. This title takes an in-depth look at the design, the history, the mechanics, and the use of one of the most important firearms of the 19th century.
Download or read book Myths of the Civil War written by Scott Hippensteel and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-11-15 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the spirit of Robert Adair’s cult classic The Physics of Baseball, here is a book that tackles the long-cherished myths of Civil War history—and ultimately shatters them, based on physics and mathematics. At what range was a Civil War sniper lethal? Did bullets ever “rain like hail”? Could one ever step across a battlefield by stepping only on bodies and never hard ground? How effective were Civil War muskets and rifles? How accurate are photographs and paintings? In this genre-bending work of history, Scott Hippensteel puts the tropes of Civil War history under the microscope and says, “Wait a minute!” Combining science and history, Hippensteel reexamines much that we hold dear about the Civil War and convincingly argues that memoirs and histories have gotten it wrong. This is a work of history and science for our era of “fake news”—and for well beyond. Readers will never look at the Civil War the same way again.
Download or read book The English Cartridge written by Brett Gibbons and published by . This book was released on 2020-05-15 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle-musket is one of the iconic weapons of the mid-19th century, used extensively in the American Civil War, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and other conflicts. While the history of the Enfield rifle is well known, it was the ammunition developed for this rifle that was truly revolutionary. Brett Gibbons traces the history of the muzzleloading cartridge used in the Enfield rifle from the early development of the Minié bullet in France, to the dramatic yet ultimately unsuccessful attempt by the Confederate States to adopt the Enfield cartridge for the Southern armies in the American Civil War. The role of the Enfield "greased cartridge" in the outbreak of the Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858 is carefully handled. Crossing several oceans and continents, from the sweltering heat of Central India in the summer of 1857 to the trenches of Petersburg in 1864, Brett Gibbons ties together the fascinating history of Enfield rifle-musket ammunition. Each development of the Enfield cartridge from 1853 to 1864 is covered, with over 60 helpful illustrations.
Download or read book The Rifle Musket in Civil War Combat written by Earl J. Hess and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Challenges the longstanding view that the rifle musket revolutionized warfare during the Civil War, arguing instead that its actual impact was real but limited and specialized.
Download or read book Firepower written by Paul Lockhart and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How military technology has transformed the world The history of warfare cannot be fully understood without considering the technology of killing. In Firepower, acclaimed historian Paul Lockhart tells the story of the evolution of weaponry and how it transformed not only the conduct of warfare but also the very structure of power in the West, from the Renaissance to the dawn of the atomic era. Across this period, improvements in firepower shaped the evolving art of war. For centuries, weaponry had remained simple enough that any state could equip a respectable army. That all changed around 1870, when the cost of investing in increasingly complicated technology soon meant that only a handful of great powers could afford to manufacture advanced weaponry, while other countries fell behind. Going beyond the battlefield, Firepower ultimately reveals how changes in weapons technology reshaped human history.
Download or read book My Hundred Guns written by Jason Jones and published by L&V Publishing. This book was released on 2023-09-11 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In My Hundred Guns, Jason Jones takes us on a highly personal journey through the world of firearms, concentrating on the classic era of military and civilian rifles, shotguns, and handguns. With his own rich collection as a touchstone (spoiler: it’s more like 150 guns), Jones explores the history and evolution of modern firearms, and the pleasures of owning, restoring, maintaining, and recreationally shooting them. Mauser, Lee-Enfield, Colt, Browning, Garand, Tokarev, Mannlicher, Schmidt-Rubin, Carcano, Savage, Glock, Kel-Tec … the major names and designs are touched on in this witty, well-informed, somewhat off-kilter pilgrimage. Jones also examines the guiding ideals of gun design and manufacture; the “Zen of firearms” and their maintenance; “gun guys & gals”; guns as pop-culture icons; and contemporary gun-control debates. Illustrated with over 100 images, My Hundred Guns features a wide range of resources, from books and quotes about firearms, to today’s online communities of gun aficionados. Links throughout take readers to online videos from “Lyudmila & Vasily’s Shooting Adventures,” wherein the author and his range companion, Sherry, shoot the classics for your viewing pleasure. My Hundred Guns is a unique, colorful, and entertaining account of the world of modern firearms, and one person’s (peaceful) obsession with them. Jason Jones is a writer, educator, and photographer based in western Canada.
Download or read book Merchants of Death written by Helmuth Carol Engelbrecht and published by Ludwig von Mises Institute. This book was released on 1937 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Flintlock Musket written by Stuart Reid and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-01-20 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The flintlock or firelock musket is one of the most iconic weapons in history: used on the battlefields of the English Civil War, it was then carried by both sides at Blenheim, Bunker Hill, Waterloo and the Alamo, and dominated warfare for more than 150 years, with military service as late as the American Civil War in the 1860s. Featuring specially commissioned full-colour artwork, this engaging study examines the role that the flintlock played in close-order combat on European and other battlefields around the world. Employing first-hand accounts to show how tactical doctrines were successfully developed to overcome the weapon's inherent limitations, Stuart Reid offers a comprehensive analysis of the flintlock's lasting impact as the first truly universal soldier's weapon.
Download or read book Soldiers from Experience written by Eric Michael Burke and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2022-10-26 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2022 Civil War Books and Authors Book of the Year Award In Soldiers from Experience, Eric Michael Burke examines the tactical behavior and operational performance of Major General William T. Sherman’s Fifteenth US Army Corps during its first year fighting in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. Burke analyzes how specific experiences and patterns of meaning-making within the ranks led to the emergence of what he characterizes as a distinctive corps-level tactical culture. The concept—introduced here for the first time—consists of a collection of shared, historically derived ideas, beliefs, norms, and assumptions that play a decisive role in shaping a military command’s particular collective approach on and off the battlefield. Burke shows that while military historians of the Civil War frequently assert that generals somehow imparted their character upon the troops they led, Sherman’s corps reveals the opposite to be true. Contrary to long-held historiographical assumptions, he suggests the physical terrain itself played a much more influential role than rifled weapons in necessitating tactical changes. At the same time, Burke argues, soldiers’ battlefield traumas and regular interactions with southern civilians, the enslaved, and freedpeople during raids inspired them to embrace emancipation and the widespread destruction of Rebel property and resources. An awareness and understanding of this culture increasingly informed Sherman’s command during all three of his most notable late-war campaigns. Burke’s study serves as the first book-length examination of an army corps operating in the Western Theater during the conflict. It sheds new light on Civil War history more broadly by uncovering a direct link between the exigencies of nineteenth-century land warfare and the transformation of US wartime strategy from “conciliation,” which aimed to protect the property of Southern civilians, to “hard war.” Most significantly, Soldiers from Experience introduces a new theoretical construct of small unit–level tactical principles wholly absent from the rapidly growing interdisciplinary scholarship on the intricacies and influence of culture on military operations.
Download or read book Artillery Through the Ages written by Albert C. Manucy and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1994-04 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A description of types of artillery used in warfare throughout history, including the ancient engines of war; gunpowder introduced to Europe; the bombards; 16th century cannon; the 17th century and Gustavus Adolphus; the 18th century; U.S. guns of the early 1800s; rifling; the Civil War; and the change to modern artillery. Also includes the characteristics of cannon; projectiles; tools; the practice of gunnery; glossary; and selected bibliography. Many of the types of cannon described in this book may be seen in areas of the National Park system; some parks with especially fine collections are listed. Illustrated with detailed drawings.
Download or read book Shock Troops of the Confederacy The Sharpshooter Battalions of the Army of Northern Virginia written by Fred L. Ray and published by . This book was released on 2006-03 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The term sharpshooter had a more general meaning in the mid-19th Century than it does today. Then it could mean either a roving precision shooter like the modern sniper (a term that did not come into use until late in the century) or a light infantryman who specialized in the petite guerre: scouting, picketing, and skirmishing. The modern sharpshooter (the term comes from the German scharfschutzen, not the use of Sharps rifles) appeared in Central Europe around 1700. At the beginning of the Civil War, thanks to Hiram Berdan, the Army of the Potomac had a definite advantage in sharpshooting and light infantry, and this came as a rude shock to the Confederates during the 1862 Peninsular campaign. In response the Confederates organized their own sharpshooters, beginning with those of an obscure Alabama colonel, Bristor Gayle. Confederate general Robert Rodes organized the first battalion of sharpshooters in his brigade in early 1863, and later in each brigade of his division. In early 1864 General Lee adopted the concept for the entire Army of Northern Virginia, mandating that each infantry brigade field a sharpshooter battalion. These units found ready employment in the Overland campaign, and later in the trenches of Petersburg and in the fast-moving Shenandoah campaign of 1864. Although little has been written about them (the last book, written by a former sharpshooter, appeared in 1899), they played an important and sometimes pivotal role in many battles and campaigns in 1864 and 1865. By the end of the war the sharpshooters were experimenting with tactics that would become standard practice fifty years later. Although most people think of Berdan's Sharpshooters when the subject comes up, the Confederate sharpshooter battalions had a far greater effect on the outcome of the conflict. Later in the war, in response to the Confederate dominance of the skirmish line, the Federals began to organize their own sharpshooter units at division level, though they never adopted an army-wide system. Making extensive use of unpublished source material, author Fred Ray has written Shock Troops of the Confederacy, which tells the complete story of the development of the Army of Northern Virginia's sharpshooter battalions, the weapons they used, how they trained with them, and their tactical use on the battlefield. It also tells the human story of the sharpshooters themselves, who describe in their own words what it was like to be in the thick of battle, on the skirmish line, and at their lonely picket posts.
Download or read book History of the Twenty first Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers in the War for the Preservation of the Union 1861 1865 written by Charles Folsom Walcott and published by . This book was released on 1882 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Evolution of Naval Armament written by Frederick Leslie Robertson and published by . This book was released on 1921 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The British Expedition to the Crimea written by Sir William Howard Russell and published by . This book was released on 1877 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Memorial History of Hartford County Connecticut 1633 1884 written by James Hammond Trumbull and published by . This book was released on 1886 with total page 726 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Life and Times of Frederick Douglass written by Frederick Douglass and published by . This book was released on 1882 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frederick Douglass recounts early years of abuse, his dramatic escape to the North and eventual freedom, abolitionist campaigns, and his crusade for full civil rights for former slaves. It is also the only of Douglass's autobiographies to discuss his life during and after the Civil War, including his encounters with American presidents such as Lincoln, Grant, and Garfield.
