ACW shotgun units

OK, in a similar vein as outfits like Berdan's Sharpshooters were established for crack rifle marksmen, could similar units have been setup by either side comprising specifically shotgunners ?
 
OK, in a similar vein as outfits like Berdan's Sharpshooters were established for crack rifle marksmen, could similar units have been setup by either side comprising specifically shotgunners ?

I am not sure that such a unit would be terribly practical in the Civil War. Shotguns are a pretty short ranged weapon in a war where engagement distances were significantly increased from those of previous wars... I am sure would be some situations were such a unit would be useful.. but would there be enough to justify its existence?

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Bill
 
It is hard to see forwhat purpose, but I guess it is conceivable, if a breechloading shotgun is produced and purchased early, for the Navy to take enough of an interest. Shotguns really aren't much good for anything on the conventional battlefield, and I can't see either military putting that much effort into either urban combat or trench fighting. OTOH, Navy boarding parties are well familiar with the idea of using scattershort weapons (a carronade basically functions as a shotgun most of the time, and 18th-century navies used blunderbusses and duck's-foot pistols at least at times). now, if a bright and well-connected guy demonstrates a quick-firing shotgun to the US Marines in the early days of the war, I think it might find favour as a deck-sweeper. They still thought in terms of boarding actions back then.

Alternatively, very late in the war shotguns may be everything that city-recruited Confederate militia unit has, but I don't think that's where you wanted to go with this.
 

wormyguy

Banned
They might have some kind of limited usefulness with cavalry, but I don't really see how they could be used effectively during a Civil War pitched battle.
 
I am not sure that such a unit would be terribly practical in the Civil War. Shotguns are a pretty short ranged weapon in a war where engagement distances were significantly increased from those of previous wars... I am sure would be some situations were such a unit would be useful.. but would there be enough to justify its existence?
Shotguns were very popular with cavalry, especially in the Confederacy after the effects of the Union Blockade started to kick in and standard carbines became scarcer.

Give me an hour or two and I could find more info to back myself up here.
 
Hmm maybe if you make an alternate timeline with extensive tunnels built by sneeky confederates under their trenches or something and the union sends in their best fitted with shotguns :D but yeah, seriously maybe either side comes up with an early version of the stormtrooper?
 
Shotguns were very popular with cavalry, especially in the Confederacy after the effects of the Union Blockade started to kick in and standard carbines became scarcer.

Give me an hour or two and I could find more info to back myself up here.

Actually, shotguns were a stop-gap measure which Confederate cavalry used in the first year of the war because standard carbines were not available. After about the summer of 1862 you really didn't see them in use anymore, because by that time the Confederate cavalry had captured enough Union equipment, or imported enough through the blockade, to get rid of their shotguns and re-equip with carbines or even, in some cases (like Forrest's cavalry), with standard infantry muskets. Later in the war, between what the Confederacy could make itself and what it could smuggle in or capture, they had plenty to equip their cavalry and there was never a need to go back to shotguns.

Shotguns could be useful as a "shock" weapon in a cavalry charge, with the cavalry discharging their shotguns into the enemy unit before charging home. But in an engagement with other cavalry armed with carbines, shot-gun armed cavalry were hopelessly outmatched...the enemy could easily keep out of range of the shotguns and harass the shotgun cavalry with carbine fire at long range. So as soon as they could do it, the shotgun cavalry ditched their shotguns and got carbines.

One possible use for a unit armed with shotguns would be in trench warfare. During World War I, shotguns were issued to American troops in some cases because they were useful in the close-quarters fighting of a trench raid. So we might see a special "trench-raider" unit, armed with shotguns, created during the siege of Vicksburg, or at Petersburg, by one side or the other. That would be about the only way I could see a shotgun unit really being useful and not simply a "stop-gap" measure.
 
Shotguns are only effective at close-range and are relatively simple to operate. You don't need to be a crack shot to use one. Maybe in situations where troops can expect to get hand to hand or in raids, but I really can't see them being used in a full unit unlike the aformentioned sharpshooters.
 
The problem I see here is reloading time. A civilian muzzleloader shotgun takes at least as long, probably longer to reload than a military muzzleloader rifle, and at shorter engagement ranges that's a more serious disadvantage. For all the scatter effect you can get in trench fighting I'd rather have a bayonet at the end of a less effective rifle, or a revolver that gives me five or six tries.
 
The problem I see here is reloading time. A civilian muzzleloader shotgun takes at least as long, probably longer to reload than a military muzzleloader rifle, and at shorter engagement ranges that's a more serious disadvantage. For all the scatter effect you can get in trench fighting I'd rather have a bayonet at the end of a less effective rifle, or a revolver that gives me five or six tries.

Yes, if the shotguns are standard civilian muzzleloaders, you are probably right. The shotguns the Americans used in World War One were pump-action, magazine-fed shotguns.

Of course, there's nothing that says a military shotgun, double or even triple barreled, breech-loading and firing cartridges (BTW, the Confederacy did produce some cartridges during the war for the Morse Carbine, so such a thing was not beyond the reach of either side), and equipped with a bayonet, could not have been produced with the technology of the day.
 
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