,..something I encountered on the internet while looking for something else,..which often seems to happen.
I've been sitting here reading it and thought some of you might find it interesting. "Adair" is General John Adair, who commanded 1100 Kentucky riflemen in The Battle of New Orleans.
They're near enough now, gentlemen,' he said to Carroll and Adair. An officer in gay regimentals and riding a splendid gray charger was near the centre and a little in front of the British line. General Adair walked a few steps to where a man � the ensign of his right company � stood with his thumb on the lock of his rifle, and said to him :
"Morg, see that officer on the gray horse?"
"Yes, sir."
"Snuff his candle!"
"The officer was then about forty rods [220 yards] off. Before the words were quite out of Adair's lips, Morg's rifle cracked like a stage-driver's whip. The offi- cer leaned forward, grasped the mane of his horse, then toppled sideways and fell head-first to the ground.
"Then, as quickly as one can draw a breath, the order, 'Fire! Fire ! !' rang along the whole line, and the breast- work, from the extreme right of Carroll's Tennesseeans to the swamp, was almost one solid blaze. We were formed four deep, in open order, with plenty of room to move to and fro. As fast as one line fired, its men would step back to the rear and load. By the time the fourth line had fired the first one would be ready again, and so on. There were nearly two thousand rifles in the whole line � 1,986, I believe, was the exact number who could see the enemy. A few of Coffee's men were deployed out into the swamp, where the thick cypress- trees and long moss completely hid the enemy from their view.
"However, their fire was not needed. The enemy's column did not last much more than fifteen minutes. By that time half of them or more lay dead or wounded on the ground, no officer on horseback could be seen, and such as had escaped death or wounds were running as fast as their legs could carry them to the rear � any- where to get out of reach of those awful rifles _____________________________________________
*'They couldn't stand it. In five minutes the whole front of their formation was shaken as if by an earth- quake. Not one mounted oflicer could be seen. Either rider or horse or both, in every case, was down; most of them dead or dying. I had been in battle where rifles were used up on the Northwest frontier under Harrison. But even so, I had never seen anything like this. ______________________________________________
The Creole soldiers mostly had coffee. It was not a ration then, and since the blockade became effective, it and tea also were scarce and high-priced. But the Cre- oles managed to get some. It was sent or brought to them by their friends in the city. The Tennesseeans and Kentuckians did not have much coffee. But there was plenty of whiskey and they drank grog with their breakfasts.
[i]They're near enough now, gentlemen,' he said to Carroll and Adair. An officer in gay regimentals and riding a splendid gray charger was near the centre and a little in front of the British line. General Adair walked a few steps to where a man � the ensign of his right company � stood with his thumb on the lock of his rifle, and said to him :
"Morg, see that officer on the gray horse?"
"Yes, sir."
"Snuff his candle!"
"The officer was then about forty rods [220 yards] off. Before the words were quite out of Adair's lips, Morg's rifle cracked like a stage-driver's whip. The offi- cer leaned forward, grasped the mane of his horse, then toppled sideways and fell head-first to the ground.
Heck of a shot.
The Death of General John Sedgwick by Martin T. McMahon, Brevet Major-General, U.S.V.; chief-of-staff,Sixth Corps.
On May 8th, 1864, the Sixth Corps made a rapid march to the support of Warren, near Spotsylvania Court House.
..."General, do you see that section of artillery? Well, you are not to go near it today. He answered good-naturedly, "McMahon, I would like to know who commands this corps, you or I? I said, playfully,"Well, General, sometimes I am in doubt myself"; but added, "Seriously, General, I beg of you not to go to that angle; every officer who has shown himself there has been hit, both yesterday and to-day."
..., "a man who had been separated from his regiment passed directly in front of the general, and at the same moment a sharp-shooter's bullet passed with a long shrill whistle very close, and the soldier, who was then just in front of the general, dodged to the ground. The general touched him gently with his foot, and said, "Why, my man, I am ashamed of you, dodging that way," and repeated the remark, "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." The man rose and saluted, and said good-naturedly, "General, I dodged a shell once, and if I hadn't, it would have taken my head off. I believe in dodging." the general laughed and replied, "All right, my man; go to your place."
"For a third time the same shrill whistle, closing with a dull, heavy stroke, interrupted our talk, when, as I was about to resume, the general's face turned slowly to me, the blood spurting from his left cheek under the eye in a steady stream."
"At three hundred yards from the works the troops trailed arms and broke into quickstep. Brigade-Major Whitaker, near the right and in advance of the column, was attending to the alignment. A single rifle-shot came from the American line. Major Whitaker fell from his horse, shot through the head. And at a distance of nearly three hundred yards! As if to warn us of the fate in store! He happened to be looking to the right at the moment, exposing the left side of his head to the terrible marksman. The bullet cut about half its diam- eter in the upper rim of his left ear, passed through his head, out at the right temple, and went on.
"Instantly the whole American line, from the swamp to a point past its centre toward its right, was fairly ablaze. In less time than one can write it, the Forty- fourth Foot was literally swept from the face of the earth. In the wreck and confusion that ensued within five minutes the regiment seeemed to vanish from sight � except the half of it that lay stricken on the ground! Every mounted officer was down at the first fire. No such execution by small arms had ever been seen or heard of. Then the destruction smote the Fourth Foot and Seventh Fusiliers. General Gibbs strove heroically to hold the men to their work and to urge them forward. In vain. Never before had British veterans quailed. But it would be silly to deny that they did so now.
''Subsequent examination of the field gave a clew to the cause of panic. It was the wonderful accuracy and murderous effect of the American fire. The casualties by cannon-fire were very few. Nearly all fell to the rifles. Of those killed an appalling proportion, particu- larly at the point nearest the lines, were shot through the head. The American hunting-rifles carried small balls. One of our ounce musket-balls melted up and poured in their moulds would make three of them. But through the head or viscera they were as fatal as any. Hitting in the face or forehead, they made little purple spots, from which blood oozed slowly, but life went out as the ball went in! I had seen many battle-fields in Spain and the East, fresh with carnage. But nowhere had been such a scene as the spot where the Forty-fourth was butchered. Yet it was to be repeated on even a larger scale in a few minutes.
Imagine shooting what they used back in the day. A hand forged musket and a hand made ball.
In the 1870's, at a place called Adobe Walls in the Texas Panhandle, during a fierce indian attack, a buffalo hunter named Billy Dixon knocked an indian off his horse at a reported range of 1538 yards. His rifle was a Sharps 50-90.
On June 29, 1775, shortly after the start of the American Revolutionary War, Timothy Murphy and his brother John enlisted in the Northumberland County Riflemen, specifically Captain John Lowdon's Company. Their unit saw action in the Siege of Boston, the Battle of Long Island, and "skirmishing in Westchester".[1] After this, Murphy was promoted to the rank of sergeant in the Continental Army's 12th Pennsylvania Regiment and fought at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. Murphy was an "expert marksman", defined as being "able to hit a seven inch target at 250 yards".[1] In July 1777 this skill led to Murphy joining Daniel Morgan's newly formed "Sharpshooter Corps".
Later that year, he was selected as one of 500 handpicked riflemen to go with General Daniel Morgan to Upstate New York to help stop General John Burgoyne and the British Army. As the battles around Saratoga raged, the British, having been pushed back, were being rallied by Brigadier General Simon Fraser. Benedict Arnold rode up to General Morgan, pointed at Fraser and told Morgan the man was worth a regiment. Morgan called on Murphy and said: "That gallant officer is General Fraser. I admire him, but it is necessary that he should die, do your duty." Murphy climbed a nearby tree, took careful aim at the extreme distance of 300 yards, and fired four times. The first shot was a close miss, the second grazed the General's horse, and with the third, Fraser tumbled from his horse, shot through the stomach. General Fraser died that night. British Senior officer Sir Francis Clerke, General Burgoyne's chief aide-de-camp, galloped onto the field with a message. Murphy's fourth shot killed him instantly. Murphy also fought at the battle of the Middle Fort in 1780.[1]
I found the link I'm posting from while looking for some excerpts from Harry Caudill's, "Night Comes to the Cumberlands".
The thread about scalping caused me to think about it.
In Caudill's book, he mentions that the Kentuckians who participated in the Battle of New Orleans shocked some of their fellow soldiers by going out onto the field after the hostilities ceased and taking scalps.
He cites a ballad which was popular during the period with lyrics which were still known by some of the old folks of the Appalachians as late as the 1960's.
We shot 'em in their big round eyes, We shot their chins and noses, We shot all the buttons off, Their coats as red as roses,
And when the shootin' was complete, Ya shoulda h'yar'd 'em cryin', 'Cause we went out to take their hair, And set their scalps to dryin'.
Caudill also mentions that the Kentuckians took a special interest in the officers,...which seems to be attested to here:
Gibbs then took the desperate resolve to oblique his column around their right flank. With "left shoulders forward" the devoted Fusiliers and Monmouthshires swept round the flank of the surging Highlanders at the double � Gibbs leading them in person, his big black stallion curvetting splendidly. It was but a fleeting pic- ture. The moment he appeared at the head of his ob- liquing column, horse and rider fell together; the horse shot in the forehead and instantly killed, Gibbs with four bullets in him � one just to the right of the right nostril, one nearly in the middle of his throat, one in the breast about three inches above the pit of the stom- ach, and one in the left groin � any one of the four necessarily fatal!
man, those guys could shoot!! Too bad that "waste of good infantry" lasted into the Civil War and even WWI as well..... Thanks for posting it Bristoe.....
have never heard of, nor seen any other source for the story, that Kentucky militia scapled British regulars at the battle of New Orleans.....would like to see a source, preferably more than one.
not that they wouldn't do it, but I sort of doubt it in a battle against white regulars with no Indians present on the British side.
the battlefield is very compact, and Packenham's men were forced to walk straight up the narrow plain between the river levee on their left and the swamp on their right....no room to maneuver, no cover, no place to hide from the riflemen and the murderous artillery, which probably accounted for most of the slaughter.
the field is perfectly preserved and worth a visit if you're in New Orleans.....20 minutes down river from the French Quarter.
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have never heard of, nor seen any other source for the story, that Kentucky militia scapled British regulars at the battle of New Orleans.....would like to see a source, preferably more than one.
Well,...it's not that difficult to believe.
The frontier Kentuckians had been fighting with the local Indians for a few generations, and it's generally understood that both sides took scalps.
Appalachians of that period probably had as much in common with Native Americans as they did Europeans. They had been living in very rough, frontier conditions for several generations by the beginning of the 19th century,...pretty much totally isolated from the outside world.
and the murderous artillery, which probably accounted for most of the slaughter.
Not according to this account from one of the Brits.
Subsequent examination of the field gave a clew to the cause of panic. It was the wonderful accuracy and murderous effect of the American fire. The casualties by cannon-fire were very few. Nearly all fell to the rifles. Of those killed an appalling proportion, particu- larly at the point nearest the lines, were shot through the head. The American hunting-rifles carried small balls. One of our ounce musket-balls melted up and poured in their moulds would make three of them. But through the head or viscera they were as fatal as any. Hitting in the face or forehead, they made little purple spots, from which blood oozed slowly, but life went out as the ball went in.
That would be Scots-Irish to be more exact. [/quote]
Yeah,...those too,..but many of the first European inhabitants of the Appalachians were run away Irish indentured servants.
A very early American census expedition in the late 1700's found Americans of European ancestry living 200 miles west of the known western expansion,..and they had been there for a few generations.
don't dispute that kaintucks....and yankees as well...took scalps in that war. also routinely executed British troops captured fighting with Indian allies.
but the Battle of New Orleans, as you would imagine, is a big deal here and that's a story I would think would have shown up in the sources....particularly English ones, to show what bad people the Americans were. no such stories exist in the museum or in any of the many accounts by locals of the fighting.
but most of the American troops didn't have rifles....the regulars, 7th US and Marines had smoothbores, as did most of the New Orleans militia. Beale's Rifles were the only US regulars with rifles. and the British had 500 riflemen of their own.
Jackson's artillery is conceded by virtually all accounts to have done the majority of the execution on the British, despite the American pride in their long rifles.
Proudly representing oil companies, defense contractors, and firearms manufacturers since 1980. Because merchants of death need lawyers, too.
and the murderous artillery, which probably accounted for most of the slaughter.
Not according to this account from one of the Brits.
Subsequent examination of the field gave a clew to the cause of panic. It was the wonderful accuracy and murderous effect of the American fire. The casualties by cannon-fire were very few. Nearly all fell to the rifles. Of those killed an appalling proportion, particu- larly at the point nearest the lines, were shot through the head. The American hunting-rifles carried small balls. One of our ounce musket-balls melted up and poured in their moulds would make three of them. But through the head or viscera they were as fatal as any. Hitting in the face or forehead, they made little purple spots, from which blood oozed slowly, but life went out as the ball went in.
They were .223 AI's.
"The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that lightening ain't distributed right." - Mark Twain
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