If they will not meet us on the open sea (a Trent TL)
- Thread starter Saphroneth
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The really ironic thing is that the general giving the order might well be John Hutton Gibson, Southern tobacco millionaire and paternal grandfather of Mel Gibson.
DISCLAIMER: I don't know whether Mel Gibson's grandfather was actually prejudiced against minorities in real life. No offence intended, Mel- loved you in Payback.
10 August 1863
Saphroneth
Banned
10 August (morning)
As dawn breaks, the Royal Navy force opens fire. They concentrate almost entirely on the outer layer of Charleston defences - Fort Wagner, Fort Gregg, Fort Chatfield and Fort Beauregard being the largest and most prominent.
Fort Gregg is hit hard by the very first shot, the one-ton mortar shell of Superb's mortar, and one of its own seacoast mortars never even manages to fire as it tumbles into the crater left by the shell.
After the initial surprise has worn off, the Charleston forts return fire - mostly the outer layer in question, but Fort Sumter has two heavy rifles on the barbette and they can see some of the attacking enemy (though the range is long - well over two miles). The two rifles are not very much in comparison to the avalanche of fire hitting the various outer ring forts, but they do make the Sumter gunners feel better.
In comparison to the masonry works that mostly formed the defences in the Trent War, the earthwork construction of the Charleston batteries makes them somewhat better at resisting the British fire. This is a purely relative matter - the Armstrong 110 pounder is able to put shell right though even the base of the walls - but internal bursts merely move the earth around rather than having a shattering effect, reducing the extent to which heavy fire results in a complete collapse.
Fort Wagner scores two hits in quick succession on HMS Falcon with 10" and 8" seacoast guns, and the damage cuts down the mainmast and fouls the sloop's guns. She withdraws in obvious difficulty, a cheering moment for the whole of the defenders - though one marred a few minutes later when the Great Eastern's broadside firing at extreme range disables the 32-pounder gun on the barbette.
The Pisces also takes a hit, this time from one of the seacoast mortars, and discovers to the dismay of the crew that the Confederacy have at least a few of Martin's Shell. The fire takes some twenty minutes to extinguish, disabling the Zodiac class ironclad for half an hour and resulting in a reduction in performance afterwards, and would have been a more serious problem had the hit not been right forward and much of the molten iron not gone into the sea.
At about nine in the morning, there is a shattering explosion as a shell reaches the magazines of Fort Chatfield at Cummings Point - taking advantage of the damage already done by mortar fire. Several tons of gunpowder go up, and the entire fort heaves up before collapsing into the crater.
This causes a long pause, then firing begins again - somewhat less effectively on both sides, as smoke and fatigue begin to tell.
Within another thirty minutes, the liner Victoria is ordered to leave the line. Owing to her large size and aggressive handling, she has been the focus of much smoothbore battery fire, and this has included three or four hot shot which struck almost together. The result of this is a fire on the gundeck, and Stopfort orders her in no uncertain terms to withdraw out of range until she is no longer actually ablaze.
By the hour before noon, the outer batteries of Charleston have been effectively neutralized, though not without cost - in addition to the Falcon's damage and the near loss of the Pisces, both the Snipe and Steady are listing and have taken significant casualties (the Snipe was unlucky to have an 8" shell burst just before it would have hit, showering the light gunboat with shrapnel) and the liner Victor Emmanuel has a particularly well aimed 7" shell lodged in her scuttles - though fortunately for the crew, and in particular the handlers, the shell's fuze turns out to be improperly fitted. (Incidentally, later in life many of the belowdecks crew of Victor Emmanuel will be unusually devout.)
Several other ships have taken more minor damage, and the Royal Oak has a hole in her funnel near the top.
Three of the transports with the RN fleet begin landing troops to the south of the disabled Fort Wagner, intending to take Cummings Point to set up Armstrong batteries on it.
This causes debate in Charleston, where Ingraham is trying to work out when to commit his ships. Some of the more hotheaded miltia officers are demanding he send the ironclads out now, though he points out the (entirely reasonable) point that none of them will last very long with the entire Royal Navy squadron firing on them.
Instead, the idea of sending the ships in when the Royal Navy enters the harbour (as they must, he feels) appeals to him more. Perhaps this is partly because it means delaying the moment, or because Fort Sumter is actually armed as well as a fairly major ship of force.
On board the Royal Navy flagship (Royal Oak), Stopfort examines the reports he has had so far over lunch. Victoria's situation is unfortunate, and he considers pausing for the day, but his overall opinion is that it is important to ensure the batteries cannot be re-established overnight.
The next stage of the defences includes the best armed forts, though they are pre-war forts and as such share the weaknesses of all masonry forts - Sumter and Moultrie - and a number of batteries established either side of Moultrie which were not able to bear effectively on the Royal Navy forces during the early bombardment. Stopfort's first instinct is to send his ironclads in ahead as they are invulnerable to most fire, but it is pointed out that there may be mines in the channel and he concurs.
While he does not have any of the Royal Navy's new minesweeper gunboats with him (a considerable oversight) he does have enough gear in the cavernous holds of the Great Eastern to jury-rig something close on the gunboats he does have.
ED: changed the RN flagship to the correct Royal Oak, something I keep forgetting!
As dawn breaks, the Royal Navy force opens fire. They concentrate almost entirely on the outer layer of Charleston defences - Fort Wagner, Fort Gregg, Fort Chatfield and Fort Beauregard being the largest and most prominent.
Fort Gregg is hit hard by the very first shot, the one-ton mortar shell of Superb's mortar, and one of its own seacoast mortars never even manages to fire as it tumbles into the crater left by the shell.
After the initial surprise has worn off, the Charleston forts return fire - mostly the outer layer in question, but Fort Sumter has two heavy rifles on the barbette and they can see some of the attacking enemy (though the range is long - well over two miles). The two rifles are not very much in comparison to the avalanche of fire hitting the various outer ring forts, but they do make the Sumter gunners feel better.
In comparison to the masonry works that mostly formed the defences in the Trent War, the earthwork construction of the Charleston batteries makes them somewhat better at resisting the British fire. This is a purely relative matter - the Armstrong 110 pounder is able to put shell right though even the base of the walls - but internal bursts merely move the earth around rather than having a shattering effect, reducing the extent to which heavy fire results in a complete collapse.
Fort Wagner scores two hits in quick succession on HMS Falcon with 10" and 8" seacoast guns, and the damage cuts down the mainmast and fouls the sloop's guns. She withdraws in obvious difficulty, a cheering moment for the whole of the defenders - though one marred a few minutes later when the Great Eastern's broadside firing at extreme range disables the 32-pounder gun on the barbette.
The Pisces also takes a hit, this time from one of the seacoast mortars, and discovers to the dismay of the crew that the Confederacy have at least a few of Martin's Shell. The fire takes some twenty minutes to extinguish, disabling the Zodiac class ironclad for half an hour and resulting in a reduction in performance afterwards, and would have been a more serious problem had the hit not been right forward and much of the molten iron not gone into the sea.
At about nine in the morning, there is a shattering explosion as a shell reaches the magazines of Fort Chatfield at Cummings Point - taking advantage of the damage already done by mortar fire. Several tons of gunpowder go up, and the entire fort heaves up before collapsing into the crater.
This causes a long pause, then firing begins again - somewhat less effectively on both sides, as smoke and fatigue begin to tell.
Within another thirty minutes, the liner Victoria is ordered to leave the line. Owing to her large size and aggressive handling, she has been the focus of much smoothbore battery fire, and this has included three or four hot shot which struck almost together. The result of this is a fire on the gundeck, and Stopfort orders her in no uncertain terms to withdraw out of range until she is no longer actually ablaze.
By the hour before noon, the outer batteries of Charleston have been effectively neutralized, though not without cost - in addition to the Falcon's damage and the near loss of the Pisces, both the Snipe and Steady are listing and have taken significant casualties (the Snipe was unlucky to have an 8" shell burst just before it would have hit, showering the light gunboat with shrapnel) and the liner Victor Emmanuel has a particularly well aimed 7" shell lodged in her scuttles - though fortunately for the crew, and in particular the handlers, the shell's fuze turns out to be improperly fitted. (Incidentally, later in life many of the belowdecks crew of Victor Emmanuel will be unusually devout.)
Several other ships have taken more minor damage, and the Royal Oak has a hole in her funnel near the top.
Three of the transports with the RN fleet begin landing troops to the south of the disabled Fort Wagner, intending to take Cummings Point to set up Armstrong batteries on it.
This causes debate in Charleston, where Ingraham is trying to work out when to commit his ships. Some of the more hotheaded miltia officers are demanding he send the ironclads out now, though he points out the (entirely reasonable) point that none of them will last very long with the entire Royal Navy squadron firing on them.
Instead, the idea of sending the ships in when the Royal Navy enters the harbour (as they must, he feels) appeals to him more. Perhaps this is partly because it means delaying the moment, or because Fort Sumter is actually armed as well as a fairly major ship of force.
On board the Royal Navy flagship (Royal Oak), Stopfort examines the reports he has had so far over lunch. Victoria's situation is unfortunate, and he considers pausing for the day, but his overall opinion is that it is important to ensure the batteries cannot be re-established overnight.
The next stage of the defences includes the best armed forts, though they are pre-war forts and as such share the weaknesses of all masonry forts - Sumter and Moultrie - and a number of batteries established either side of Moultrie which were not able to bear effectively on the Royal Navy forces during the early bombardment. Stopfort's first instinct is to send his ironclads in ahead as they are invulnerable to most fire, but it is pointed out that there may be mines in the channel and he concurs.
While he does not have any of the Royal Navy's new minesweeper gunboats with him (a considerable oversight) he does have enough gear in the cavernous holds of the Great Eastern to jury-rig something close on the gunboats he does have.
ED: changed the RN flagship to the correct Royal Oak, something I keep forgetting!
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Saphroneth
Banned
Stuff to follow:
Next is a small land battle on the land south of the harbour entrance, as a few regiments of SC Militia try to disrupt the landing.
Good news for them - they've struck at a time when there's only about the first four or five companies with feet dry, everyone else is too busy helping with the landing or still arriving in boats.
Bad news for them - that's half the 67th Regiment of Foot, who drew Snider-Enfields when they arrived back from China in 1862 and have had quite enough time to get quite good with them.
After, as the heavy guns are moved up to emplace a battery on Cummings Point, the RN's minesweeping gunboats go in. Basically they've taken four or five boat anchors per gunboat and are going to drag them along the shoal water to the north of the channel, to try and destroy the cables used to control the mines. (Any cables running from the south of the channel are somewhat less of a problem.)
Since this is obviously a high risk activity for the gunboats, the RN will be attempting to distract everyone by also shelling the bejeezus out of the waterfront to try and suppress any guns, and they also have the Pisces leading the gunboats as her draft is shallow enough to lead them (and to go in water so shallow that any mines will be visible!)
This is likely to mean a small boat action off Fort Sumter between ironclads and with gunboats and torpedo boats.
Good news for them - they've struck at a time when there's only about the first four or five companies with feet dry, everyone else is too busy helping with the landing or still arriving in boats.
Bad news for them - that's half the 67th Regiment of Foot, who drew Snider-Enfields when they arrived back from China in 1862 and have had quite enough time to get quite good with them.
After, as the heavy guns are moved up to emplace a battery on Cummings Point, the RN's minesweeping gunboats go in. Basically they've taken four or five boat anchors per gunboat and are going to drag them along the shoal water to the north of the channel, to try and destroy the cables used to control the mines. (Any cables running from the south of the channel are somewhat less of a problem.)
Since this is obviously a high risk activity for the gunboats, the RN will be attempting to distract everyone by also shelling the bejeezus out of the waterfront to try and suppress any guns, and they also have the Pisces leading the gunboats as her draft is shallow enough to lead them (and to go in water so shallow that any mines will be visible!)
This is likely to mean a small boat action off Fort Sumter between ironclads and with gunboats and torpedo boats.
Great update... but I'm going to have to be that guy again:
I don't have hard data or plans on Victoria, but the general arrangement seems to have been similar to the one on Warrior, with magazines in the hold and handling rooms on the orlop deck. Without penetration statistics for the 7in rifle this is mostly guesswork, but I think the water would have slowed a shell too much for it to penetrate below the waterline and reach in the magazine. If a 7in shell was able to go through the ship's side plus a bulkhead (again, don't know if this was possible), it might well have exploded in one of the handling rooms and killed everybody in there without the explosion setting off the associated magazine. On the other hand, the ship would still have had its second magazine, and I'm pretty sure the captain would have been expected to order replacements for the dead powder monkeys and carry on fighting his ship instead of withdrawing.
I need to learn to just enjoy things, don't I?
Did Victorian wooden screw battleships have the ability to flood their magazines? From what little I've read, it seems to be a later development. I presume you really need Victoria to be unavailable, otherwise she would just have pounded the forts to pieces. Unfortunately, I've looked through the information on magazines and I can't see a way of putting a ship out of action temporarily in the way that magazine flooding would in the later period.
I don't have hard data or plans on Victoria, but the general arrangement seems to have been similar to the one on Warrior, with magazines in the hold and handling rooms on the orlop deck. Without penetration statistics for the 7in rifle this is mostly guesswork, but I think the water would have slowed a shell too much for it to penetrate below the waterline and reach in the magazine. If a 7in shell was able to go through the ship's side plus a bulkhead (again, don't know if this was possible), it might well have exploded in one of the handling rooms and killed everybody in there without the explosion setting off the associated magazine. On the other hand, the ship would still have had its second magazine, and I'm pretty sure the captain would have been expected to order replacements for the dead powder monkeys and carry on fighting his ship instead of withdrawing.
I need to learn to just enjoy things, don't I?
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Saphroneth
Banned
That's certainly interesting information - I'd based the idea on a remembered reference to a ship withdrawing with flooded magazines in the Crimea. Unfortunately it seems I misremembered - it was the Albion, and (in Before the Ironclad) she has to cease firing at Sevastopol when her magazine was closed ahead of the flames reaching it.
No, just my attempt to represent random chance and a freak hit - there's still two other liners knocking about and they've pounded the first defence layer flat in a morning. There's no narrative necessity to it, I'm just trying to show that in a big engagement like this even the heaviest unarmoured ship can take fairly serious damage by sheer chance.
Perhaps my best bet is to make it a (7" rifle) hot shot which penetrates her sides, sets her afire and risks the magazine, and that she has to leave the line for an hour or so to put the fire out and make repairs.
And perhaps also have it happen to one of the twodeckers present.
No, just my attempt to represent random chance and a freak hit - there's still two other liners knocking about and they've pounded the first defence layer flat in a morning. There's no narrative necessity to it, I'm just trying to show that in a big engagement like this even the heaviest unarmoured ship can take fairly serious damage by sheer chance.
Perhaps my best bet is to make it a (7" rifle) hot shot which penetrates her sides, sets her afire and risks the magazine, and that she has to leave the line for an hour or so to put the fire out and make repairs.
And perhaps also have it happen to one of the twodeckers present.
It's quite appreciated, keeps me honest and informs me (as well as everyone else) about the period. Flooding magazines is extremely difficult to track down when it was invented.
I'd be tempted to split your ideas in two:
1) Victoria is hit by multiple hot shot from smoothbores. Rifled guns didn't tend to have hot shot, as far as I can tell- perhaps because you needed a small degree of windage to start with and the expansion caused by heating would risk the gun jamming. It's set ablaze, and has to retire. I think it's unlikely to risk the magazine, or more accurately if the fire's spread all the way down to the orlop deck you have problems that will take more than an hour to sort out. A decent fire on the gun deck would probably persuade Stopfort to order her out of the line even if her captain didn't want to go: £150,578 was a lot of money for a ship.
2) A 7in shell penetrates to the handling room of one of the two-deckers and lodges in one of the scuttles, but fails to detonate thanks to a poorly-produced or badly-fitted fuse. The ship's chaplain notices the handling room crew being unusually attentive at church service next morning.
The thing is that it's not physically possible to keep every tiny factoid about the period in your head at one time, which makes this the literary equivalent of 'takes a village to raise a baby'. And I wouldn't dream of quibbling with the overall plot and the standard of the writing. I'm just aware that every amendment to existing text takes time that could be used writing new stuff, so allow me to feel a little bit bad about proposing them.
EDIT:
Oh, Saph. You mischievous devil.
RE-EDIT:
The PDF is for subscribers only, but I managed to put this together piece by piece from the New York Times of 7 February 1895:
'The British Admiralty recently directed that magazines of all vessels were to be fitted with additional flooding arrangements, and a system was adopted permitting an inrush of water in large volumes. Now it has been discovered that the air does not escape sufficiently quick to enable the magazines to be flooded as rapidly as the water inlets are capable of. It has been decided to fit to each magazine an automatic stop valve, which will remain open to allow the air to escape until the magazine is flooded, when the pressure of the water will close the valve and render it watertight. Several types of valves have been [?] to the Admiralty, and [tests?] are to be carried out for the purpose of ascertaining which is the most suitable for magazines'
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Saphroneth
Banned
Ah, wonderful, that does at last answer the question of when magazine flooding was possible as opposed to just closing the door and hoping for the best.
I've also added the changes you suggest.
Oh, don't worry, I spend far more time farting around on the internet or writing about Pokemon than I do actually putting together the text for this - I write fast, research is the bit which often takes more time.
Dahlgren's Tests
Saphroneth
Banned
Test record 221
Testing officer: John Dahlgren
Target: 5 layers of 2" laminated iron, improved quality, backed by 24" of oak and pine sandwich. Placed against clay bank.
Weapon: VIII-inch SB columbiad, reinforced breech.
Range: 102 yards.
Shot: Solid steel shot, batch XV. 69 lb weight.
Powder charge: 24 lbs powder
Results of test: Gun exploded with tremendous force.
Conclusion: Discover manufacturing technique of British 68 pound SB gun of 112 cwt. Urgently.
(Short funny due to insomnia.
I remain entertained by the idea of Dahlgren steadily blowing up many of his own cannon trying to find either efficacious armour or an effective gun...)
Testing officer: John Dahlgren
Target: 5 layers of 2" laminated iron, improved quality, backed by 24" of oak and pine sandwich. Placed against clay bank.
Weapon: VIII-inch SB columbiad, reinforced breech.
Range: 102 yards.
Shot: Solid steel shot, batch XV. 69 lb weight.
Powder charge: 24 lbs powder
Results of test: Gun exploded with tremendous force.
Conclusion: Discover manufacturing technique of British 68 pound SB gun of 112 cwt. Urgently.
(Short funny due to insomnia.
I remain entertained by the idea of Dahlgren steadily blowing up many of his own cannon trying to find either efficacious armour or an effective gun...)
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What were the French guns of the period like? Maybe the USA might have more success trying to find out how they are manufactured? Or buy some?
Saphroneth
Banned
The French guns were okay - they were using RMLs at this point but were already on the way to early RBL guns. The 6.4" RML didn't have the same penetration as a 68 pounder, though, which was just a ridiculously effective gun as the metal quality was so good.
The thing is, though, the 68 pounder was sold on the open market - I've seen a mention (though with no reference) that there were some in the Charleston defences themselves! - but the pace of development is very fast at this time. OTL the USN basically kept building bigger and bigger smoothbores until they hit 20" guns, which would have been effective about once per battle and then taken half an hour to reload... TTL they're going to need to actually do something about enemy armoured ships, and the question is whether they'll go with big smoothbores or with smaller rifles.
10 August 1863
Saphroneth
Banned
10 August (11:20)
As British troops land on Morris Island, one of the sandbank islands forming the southern edge of the entrance to Charleston Harbour, the local militia commander (Dunovant) determines to attack their beachhead before they have become fully established.
In addition to his own 12th SC Infantry, he also has the 5th and the 17th - recently recruited or re-upped, these total three thousand men as disease and desertion has not yet had time to reduce their ranks.
Around four hundred of the force have had rifle training of the quality given by Cleburne, the rest are fairly typical for the quality of an average infantryman of the late American War.
Double-timing along the coast just inland, the South Carolina troops are sighted by the southern picket at about six hundred yards and the alarm goes up.
It is a relatively vulnerable time for the British landing, as only one battalion has yet landed (the 67th regiment of foot) and of these about half are facing Fort Wagner in case it turns out to still be able to fire on them, while the naval situation is confused due to the effort involved in landing one of the big 110-lbers intended to set up a British battery on Cummings Point.
However, Dunovant discovers that there is bad news as well - the 67th have reequipped with the Snider-Enfield, and they have had enough time to train with it.
The first rifle fire begins from the British pickets at 550 yards range, and it is apparent to the most experienced SC troops that something is up - in the first place, the British riflemen seem to be lying down, and in the second place there seem to be an awful lot of them.
Making a count of the shots fired over the space of thirty seconds, Dunovant assures his men there can't be more than three or four hundred of them.
In fact, this is just the 1st company. They are firing measured shots at long range to whittle down the South Carolina troops, while behind them 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th companies - the entirety of the battalion that is on the southern flank - form into four spaced company lines behind a sandy hillock.
Casualties mount as the Carolinan troops close in, with each British rifleman having the time to fire about twenty shots as the Confederates move forwards, and by the time the forces are 200 yards apart the Confederates have taken well over a hundred casualties on what - against Federal troops - would be an approach march. The Confederate sharpshooters have inflicted some casualties themselves, but firing prone has been giving the British an advantage.
At two hundred yards the Confederate infantry accelerate to a trot, preparing for their charge - at which point, to a trumpet call, the 1st company withdraws.
It is at this point Dunovant realizes something is badly wrong. He can only see perhaps ninety British troops retreating, and - far worse and more worrisome - they are retreating according to a plan.
It is at this point that four hundred British riflemen come over the hillock, in a double-thickness firing line with gaps to allow 1st company to withdraw through them. According to the doctrine subscribed to by the commander of the 67th, the rapid rate of fire of the Snider-Enfield is best used for a concentrated burst of accurate fire at short range. This is one reason why only 1st company was engaged at first - the smoke they have produced is relatively minor, while only 1st Company's rifles have been dangerously heated or jammed by repeated rapid firing.
As the Confederates close to a hundred and fifty yards, more orders go out. The first rank falls prone, the second kneels. The rifle muzzles come up, and there is a slight quiver as they pick their targets - then the 67th Regiment of Foot opens fire.
The results are devastating. All of these men have the range, most of them are veterans who have no particular psychological problem with shooting to kill, and they are able to fire ten aimed rounds per minute.
Within two minutes, eight thousand rounds have gone downrange, and the militia charge has disintegrated into knots of men falling back, or running, or trying to find cover and return fire with their relatively slow and clumsy muzzle-loaders. Or, as is quite common, simply dead or badly wounded.
Meanwhile, the first Armstrong 110 pounder lands on the beach, ready to be dragged to Cummings Point.
This engagement is often seen as the prototypical one for British rifle doctrine of the late 1860s and the 1870s, though this is a considerable simplification.
As British troops land on Morris Island, one of the sandbank islands forming the southern edge of the entrance to Charleston Harbour, the local militia commander (Dunovant) determines to attack their beachhead before they have become fully established.
In addition to his own 12th SC Infantry, he also has the 5th and the 17th - recently recruited or re-upped, these total three thousand men as disease and desertion has not yet had time to reduce their ranks.
Around four hundred of the force have had rifle training of the quality given by Cleburne, the rest are fairly typical for the quality of an average infantryman of the late American War.
Double-timing along the coast just inland, the South Carolina troops are sighted by the southern picket at about six hundred yards and the alarm goes up.
It is a relatively vulnerable time for the British landing, as only one battalion has yet landed (the 67th regiment of foot) and of these about half are facing Fort Wagner in case it turns out to still be able to fire on them, while the naval situation is confused due to the effort involved in landing one of the big 110-lbers intended to set up a British battery on Cummings Point.
However, Dunovant discovers that there is bad news as well - the 67th have reequipped with the Snider-Enfield, and they have had enough time to train with it.
The first rifle fire begins from the British pickets at 550 yards range, and it is apparent to the most experienced SC troops that something is up - in the first place, the British riflemen seem to be lying down, and in the second place there seem to be an awful lot of them.
Making a count of the shots fired over the space of thirty seconds, Dunovant assures his men there can't be more than three or four hundred of them.
In fact, this is just the 1st company. They are firing measured shots at long range to whittle down the South Carolina troops, while behind them 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th companies - the entirety of the battalion that is on the southern flank - form into four spaced company lines behind a sandy hillock.
Casualties mount as the Carolinan troops close in, with each British rifleman having the time to fire about twenty shots as the Confederates move forwards, and by the time the forces are 200 yards apart the Confederates have taken well over a hundred casualties on what - against Federal troops - would be an approach march. The Confederate sharpshooters have inflicted some casualties themselves, but firing prone has been giving the British an advantage.
At two hundred yards the Confederate infantry accelerate to a trot, preparing for their charge - at which point, to a trumpet call, the 1st company withdraws.
It is at this point Dunovant realizes something is badly wrong. He can only see perhaps ninety British troops retreating, and - far worse and more worrisome - they are retreating according to a plan.
It is at this point that four hundred British riflemen come over the hillock, in a double-thickness firing line with gaps to allow 1st company to withdraw through them. According to the doctrine subscribed to by the commander of the 67th, the rapid rate of fire of the Snider-Enfield is best used for a concentrated burst of accurate fire at short range. This is one reason why only 1st company was engaged at first - the smoke they have produced is relatively minor, while only 1st Company's rifles have been dangerously heated or jammed by repeated rapid firing.
As the Confederates close to a hundred and fifty yards, more orders go out. The first rank falls prone, the second kneels. The rifle muzzles come up, and there is a slight quiver as they pick their targets - then the 67th Regiment of Foot opens fire.
The results are devastating. All of these men have the range, most of them are veterans who have no particular psychological problem with shooting to kill, and they are able to fire ten aimed rounds per minute.
Within two minutes, eight thousand rounds have gone downrange, and the militia charge has disintegrated into knots of men falling back, or running, or trying to find cover and return fire with their relatively slow and clumsy muzzle-loaders. Or, as is quite common, simply dead or badly wounded.
Meanwhile, the first Armstrong 110 pounder lands on the beach, ready to be dragged to Cummings Point.
This engagement is often seen as the prototypical one for British rifle doctrine of the late 1860s and the 1870s, though this is a considerable simplification.
That's seriously fast for aimed rounds - that's comparable to the rate of fire of someone in the early stages of modern military training (using a magazine)!
How close to OTL is this?
This isn't contemporary, but using a Lee-Enfield a trained rifleman could get off 30 shots in a minute, so this sounds quite plausible even with less advanced technology.
Well if memory serves a 'Good' British infantryman with a muzzle loader could put out 3 aimed rounds per minute.
If we are talking breach loaders here or something with a magazine it is just a case of operate the reloading mechanism and fire again. I can see it being 10 rounds per minute in this instance as it would only take 2-3 seconds (max) to operate the mechanism in a magazine rifle.
Saphroneth
Banned
I find the idea of ten aimed rounds a minute being the maximum with a magazine unlikely given the Mad Minute of WW1 - which was more like 25 aimed rounds per minute with a Lee-Enfield.(Twenty was, as I recall, the annual requirement.)
It's certainly indicative of pretty good training, and probably the aiming took a slight back seat for this "mad two minutes" - but that's perfectly fine as the aim here is to break the enemy, not kill them, and volume of fire is as important as accuracy for that purpose.
Based on OTL P1853 Enfield accuracy, or OTL Martini-Henry accuracy, that firing session could produce something like five to eight hundred wounding hits even at greater range. This close there's the distinct possibility of a single round hitting more than one person, so it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that the average British soldier on that battlefield wounded or killed two to three of the enemy.
After that, frankly, those Confederate regiments are ruined for the forseeable campaign.
I don't think any of them would even want to go back on the field after that, even if they hadn't taken all that many losses in the process. I mean, getting gunned down by deadly accurate fire from a row of redcoats from beyond your own range of returning fire wouldn't exactly give the men a bold, fighting spirit
On a different topic, has the good Dr Gatling been up to anything interesting in the Union? Even if he hasn't been working on the weapon that bears his name, there's still a lot of interesting stuff he could be doing, like his tractor designs and the like