Confederate Long-Range Rifles

The Yankees were not the only ones with long-range rifles. During the siege of Charleston, South Carolina, the Union forces were under continual small arms fire from long range. Their artillery batteries were pounding the city, but one by one a blue-clad sponger and rammer would drop suddenly, a bullet through his head as he stood beside the smoking muzzle of his cannon. The 144th Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry served in this fighting. Some men stationed in Fort Wagner, a Union artillery strong point from which Charleston was being shelled, complained “Nor was the danger alone from (Confederate) shells, for on a Rebel picket line among the sand hills in front of Fort Wagner the sharp shooters had established themselves. These sharp shooters were provided with the Whitworth rifle with telescopic attachment and from their little sand-bag batteries, established in the sand hills, they watched through the hours of the day for the opportunity to pick off the Union soldiers. These guns were able to reach with fatal result at a distance of 1,500 yards. The casualties averaged about two killed and eight wounded each day during the siege.”
By Act of Congress in Richmond in 1862, a formal Confederate sharpshooter regiment was organized on the same basis as the 1st and 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters. But many skilled marksmen in the Confederate Army

Fine cased Whitworth of Dr. L. P. Clarke collection, Sheffield, England, has full assortment of loading tools, bullet mould and flask, and elaborate cleaning rod heads. Typical of most Whitworths is round steel patch box, three bands, and checkered grip and forestock. Lock has safety slide.

Long hexagonal bullets designed by Sir Joseph Whitworth had great sectional density and retained velocity and accuracy at long ranges. Paper patching prevented lead from fouling bore and kept rifle cleaner for more shots. While bullets were sometimes wrapped separately, complete cartridges were also used. When rolled they resembled those for standard Enfield Ml853 Long Rifle (shown, bottom) but slight ridges on sides revealed bullet shape to eye and finger.

were also issued superior rifles, the English-made Whitworths, capable of fantastic accuracy at long range. The claim of “fatal results at 1,500 yards” was no foolish boast.
This “wonder rifle,” accurate at seven times the range of the average musket, was the development of Sir Joseph Whitworth, engineer, steel maker, and one of the leading scientific men of his age. A modified Minie rifle had been adopted for the British service in 1853, but the combination of soft lead bullet expanding into the bore, and the irregularities of barrel manufacture, led to difficulties. The Commander-in-Chief, Lord Hardinge, asked Whitworth to experiment with rifles and come up with something better. He devised a long, hexagonal bullet of hard cast lead, which would expand in the bore slightly and fill the corners of the hexagonally rifled barrel. There were no rifle grooves. The bore was a long hexagonal prism which turned once in 20 inches, twice as fast a twist as the usual musket rifling. Whitworth reduced the bore to .450 inches from .577 inches of the Enfield, but retained the same bullet weight. The long, heavy bullet had excellent “sectional density,” as the cross-section area to weight ratio is called, and because of the reduced air resistance of the reduced frontal area, it continued to carry well beyond ordinary Enfield ranges.
At short ranges the Enfield and Whitworth rifles were nearly equal. It was at ranges beyond 500 yards —two and a half city blocks—that the long Whitworth hex slug showed its value. At 500 yards the Whitworth required 1° 15' of elevation; the Enfield, 1° 32'. Mean deviation from the point of aim for the Whitworth was but .37 feet; of the Enfield, 2.25 feet. At 1,100 yards, Whitworth elevation was but 3° 8'; that for the Enfield, 4° 12'. Mean deviation for the Whitworth was just 2.62 feet, and of the Enfield three times as much, 8 feet. Beyond 1,100 yards the Enfield would not group on the target. At 1,400 yards the Whitworth with five degrees of elevation exactly would give a mean deviation of 4.62 feet. At 1,800 yards, over a mile, with 6° 40' elevation, the Whitworth would strike within a mean deviation of 11.62 feet.
Whitworth rifles weren’t British general issue, but a quantity were made at the Enfield Royal Arsenal. The Rifle Brigade was for a time armed with them. The Whitworth “sniper” rifle differed from the usual Enfield. The metal of the barrel was Sir Joseph Whitworth’s own invention—molten steel, cast into a bar and compressed while in the fluid state. The compression set up internal stresses which resisted the force of the explosion.
Fittings on his rifles were like those of the standard 3-band Enfield, and the muzzle would take the socket triangular bayonet. The small of the stock was often checkered, and the wood was of good quality, with usually some figure in the butt.
The scope sights fitted were less cumbersome than those on the heavy Union rifles and therefore less liable to damage in campaigning. Regular iron sights were also attached, but the scope was short, with the front end where the elevation adjustment was made attached to a plate at the rear barrel band. The ocular lens was nearly six inches to the rear of the hammer. These rifles could, when the sniper was able to recline comfortably, be shot from the back position with the head supported by the elbow of the left arm and the muzzle resting on the thigh or between the feet of the marksman. A thin cross wire served as the reticule. Both ocular and objective lenses were of the same diameter and as a consequence the light gathering power of the scope was poor. Looking through a Civil War rifle scope is a little like peering into a dark tunnel. At the other end the image looms more or less clear, depending on whether spiders have crept into the tube past the non-sealed lenses, or the last man who had the rifle before hadn’t fooled with the equipment out of curiosity.