Civil War Guns

"Very soon after the outbreak of the war for the Union," opens Colonel William Ripley's Vermont Riflemen in what was undoubtedly the understatement of the war, "it became painfully apparent that, however inferior the rank and file of the Confederate armies were in education and general intelligence to the men who composed the armies of the Union, however imperfect and rude their equipment and materiel, man for man they were the superiors of their Northern antagonists in the use of arms." In a war which opened with victory to the rifleman in the early campaigns, Johnny Reb, who lived on corn pone and boiled squirrel, brought down with his long mountain rifle, was a far more effective soldier than the Yankee mechanic. Beef roast obtained from the butcher shop does not sharpen the eye and aim like possum and quail for vittles. Southern levies, whether the first dandy troops composed of sons of gentlemen who had done nothing much in their 20 years but learn to ri...