The terrible effect of such weapons in the hands of men who had been selected, one only from each infantry brigade, because of his special merit as a soldier and skill as a marksman, can be imagined. The fork of a rest-stick carried for that purpose. When firing, these men were never in haste the distance of a line of men, of a horse, an artillery ammunition chest, was carefully-decided upon the telescope adjusted along its arc to give the proper elevation the gun rested against a tree, across a log, or in Once the siege had fully developed, trenches were built with wooden walls, firing steps, and slots in the earthworks for sharpshooters to use, as in this Harper's Weekly woodcut of Vicksburg. When using a Whitworth, Vanderford wrote: The cartridge was made with great care the bullets of compressed lead, 1.5 inches long, and of precisely uniform weight the charges of powder precisely of the same weight, the grains somewhat coarse, of uniform size, finely glazed the cartridge wrapped in parchment and coated with paraffine. The axis of the telescope and that of the rifle barrel were exactly parallel in vertical line whatever the elevation of the muzzle the aim was always made by sighting through the glass. The front, or object-glass, end of the telescope, was furnished with an arc sliding easily, but close, in a guide-piece fastened upon the barrel of the gun. A telescope, about ten inches long, fitted with lenses of great power and exquisite finish, could be instantly hinged upon the breech end of the barrel, the eye piece adjusted so as to be at the proper distance from the left eye of the rifleman. The Whitworth rifle was made in England and was imported by the Ordnance Bureau of the Confederate States at a cost of about $1000 in the equivalent of gold for each rifle and 1000 rounds of ammunition. A report dated Jindicates that 13 Whitworth rifles with telescopic sights were sent from the arsenal in Augusta, Georgia, to Charleston, South Carolina.Ĭharles Vanderford, who had been a sharpshooter in the Army of Tennessee, later described his weapon: An arms and ammunition report dated Jfrom General Johnston's command of the Army of Mississippi indicates there were 32 Whitworth rifles in that command, and these were later assigned to the Army of Tennessee. As an indication of the quality of these weapons, some had been stamped on the trigger guards "2d quality." Most of them were made prior to the spring of 1862, and therefore before serious organizing of sharpshooter battalions. Instead the Confederates had to accept essentially civilian models, such as had been made for sale to British rifle volunteers. The vast majority of Whitworth rifles, moreover, were made for the British Army and were therefore unavailable to the Confederate government. In fact, the 0.45 caliber Whitworth ammunition weighed less than the 0.577 Enfield ammunition carried by line infantrymen. Still, they were the weapon of choice for snipers, and, as they were essentially the same weight and size as the standard infantry rifled musket, they were easier to use and transport than the heavy target rifles that Federal snipers used. There were some Whitworth rifles already in service in the Confederate Army, but these were expensive and had to be imported through a blockade that was growing increasingly effective. Lacking an adequate industrial base, the Confederate Ordnance Department was unable to supply weapons as sophisticated as the Sharps or Colt rifles to their sharpshooters.
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