This is a scan of an original manual from 1862. It is a Confederate copy of the standard US text printed in Richmond. It has all of the original text with additional notes pertaining to CS service. While much of it pertains to artillery, there is a section devoted to "small arms, swords, sabres, &c." This section begins on page 48. (The book on site 'turns' the pages by clicking your directional arrow keys or by using your mouse.) It starts with a history of small arms as was known at the time. Might be interesting to compare it to modern views on the subject.
I'm posting this here because I thought the section describing the various arms then in service, their maintenance and cleaning procedures as practiced at that time might also be of interest to many.
It is not always clear in it's meanings. For example, the section describing the cleaning of the barrel's exterior tells you to put the barrel on a board to prevent bending(?!) then warns against doing an apparently common practice of polishing or "burnishing" the barrel. It ends there not having ever told us what to do to clean the barrel exterior. From our view we must wonder if they were dealing with barrels in the white or not.
Still and all, I thought this might be of interest to historically minded front stuffer shooters.
Here's the link to the manual (I believe this link will open it at page 48 for you)... http://archive.org/stream/fieldmanualforus00conf#page/48/mode/2up
Other items of interest; description of small arms and their basic statistics beginning pg. 51. It also notes that .577 was made standard for all rifles & rifle muskets in CS service.
penetration of small arms ammunition, pg. 70
How to make [musket] cartridges- pg.74 also on that pages bullet weight and charges for the different small arms then in CS service. (It is a long and varied list. Obviously a pain for logistics!)
Manpower- literally, what a man was expected to accomplish under different conditions, for example, marching at "quick time" in 1", 110 steps, for 110yds. - p135.
Want to know what small arms, parts & accoutrements cost them? P146.
All kinds of neat stuff in here.
I'm posting this here because I thought the section describing the various arms then in service, their maintenance and cleaning procedures as practiced at that time might also be of interest to many.
It is not always clear in it's meanings. For example, the section describing the cleaning of the barrel's exterior tells you to put the barrel on a board to prevent bending(?!) then warns against doing an apparently common practice of polishing or "burnishing" the barrel. It ends there not having ever told us what to do to clean the barrel exterior. From our view we must wonder if they were dealing with barrels in the white or not.
Still and all, I thought this might be of interest to historically minded front stuffer shooters.
Here's the link to the manual (I believe this link will open it at page 48 for you)... http://archive.org/stream/fieldmanualforus00conf#page/48/mode/2up
Other items of interest; description of small arms and their basic statistics beginning pg. 51. It also notes that .577 was made standard for all rifles & rifle muskets in CS service.
penetration of small arms ammunition, pg. 70
How to make [musket] cartridges- pg.74 also on that pages bullet weight and charges for the different small arms then in CS service. (It is a long and varied list. Obviously a pain for logistics!)
Manpower- literally, what a man was expected to accomplish under different conditions, for example, marching at "quick time" in 1", 110 steps, for 110yds. - p135.
Want to know what small arms, parts & accoutrements cost them? P146.
All kinds of neat stuff in here.
