Posted on 09/10/2003 12:00:26 AM PDT by SAMWolf
free dixie,sw
Gettysburg: An Alternate History
Peter Tsouras
Unlike other works of alternate history, which tend to effect only one change in a historical situation, Tsouras' narrative on Gettysburg poses five major changes. These changes are:
(1) what if Stuart had turned up sooner, on the evening of 1 July 1863?
(2) what if Ewell had conducted a more vigorous pursuit onto Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill on the night of 1 July?
(3) what if Longstreet had persuaded Lee in allowing a wider Confederate envelopment of the Union left flank on 2 July?
(4) what if the Confederates had mounted a larger, better coordinated assault against the Union center on 3 July?
(5) what if the Union had mounted a major counterattack after the failure of Longstreet's assault?
Tsouras has encompassed the most intriguing possibilities about the battle in this account, but it probably would have been better to "de-link" the alternate events by means of an anthology. By putting all five alternatives into play in the same sequential account, plus other alternate events like Meade and Lee becoming casualties, the alternative nature of this account threatens to snowball out of control.
Tsouras' alternate history does help to highlight certain aspects of the two armies that will be interesting to military readers. First, the early return of Stuart demonstrates the reliance that Lee placed on that trusted commander, rather than just his five brigades of cavalry. Actually, Lee retained several other brigades of cavalry under his control but failed to make use of them in Stuart's (historical) absence. For Lee, Stuart was his Reconnaissance and Security (R&S) asset, not the actual cavalry units. Instead of just moaning, "where is Stuart, where is Stuart?" the historical Lee should have been re-constituting his R&S capability from other cavalry available. This failure to adapt was a major command failure on Lee's part - which has been obscured in actual histories of the campaign - which tend to affix great blame on Stuart. A second military issue that is revealed in this alternative history is the superior Union artillery organization (as opposed to technical and numerical superiority, which is frequently mentioned). The Union artillery at Gettysburg was under the firm central control of Major General Hunt, who coordinated both the artillery reserve and corps artillery. On the other hand, the Army of Northern Virginia maintained much weaker control over its artillery, lacking a central artillery reserve or a senior officer willing to coordinate the artillery of its three corps. Military readers will see in this issue the antecedents of the argument between "decentralization" and "centralization" in fire support with the latter winning in this case. Indeed, Tsouras' alternative clearly places the Union artillery center stage because three times it is the artillery that saves the Army of the Potomac when the Confederates achieve breakthroughs. The need to mass and redeploy artillery quickly was less urgent in the actual battle, but a major asset of the Union army nevertheless. Have this one on my "To Read List"
free dixie,sw
There's a MAJOR error on that page - regarding the Spencer carbine.
On July 1, 1863, only 6 Spencer carbines existed. They weren't mass produced until a few months later. NO trooper of Buford's had a Spencer carbine that day. In fact, NO ONE had one until the fall.
Buford's troopers were entirely armed with SINGLE SHOT, breechloading carbines. The only repeaters that were on the Gettysburg battlefield were in some of Gen. Custer's companies, on July 3, and they were Spencer RIFLES. As I said, the carbine model was not mass produced until Sept-Oct of 1863.
The comment and first post of this thread were taken from a different source and not from the Bufordboys site. I would like to thank Mr. Petruzzi for pointing out the error about the Spencer Carbines. I also apologize for not catching this when putting the thread together.
HI Darksheare.
I don't know if "normal" is a word that applies to you and I. ;-)
During our battle analysis of Gettysburg during MIOBC at Ft. Huachuca, the Spencer rifle was identified as the key to Buford's success in holding Gettysburg. He would not have been able to hold his ground long enough to allow Reynolds to bring up the infantry without it, and the volume of fire it produced led the confederates to believe they had encountered a much larger force. It was one of the main factors leading to Heth's decision to fully deploy his forces for battle rather than trying push stright into Gettysburg.
SAMWolf and Darksheare, normal?
Not in my book! LOL. However, I wouldn't have it any other way!
General Buford sure had a way with words.
Thanks, Sam, for an inspiriing Cavalry thread! I can just hear Gary Owen playing in the background!
BTW, Sam Elliot did a great job of portraying Gen. Buford in the movie "Gettysburg."
I would add to the list of "what ifs" you posted, what if someone like one of the Union's boy cavalry generals had been at Gettysburg instead of Buford, with his keen eye for terrain, ability to foresee the unfolding of the battle and his superb understanding of cavalry tactics? Shoot, if Custer had been in command he probably would have charged the confederates - and been massacred years earlier.
Part One presented the rather considerable obstacles faced by the Spencer Rifle Company in getting orders and starting production. This is only part of the story. The new repeater's field service deserves a look as well. There were other repeaters in use by mid 1863, notably Colt's revolving rifle and Henry's magazine rifle. The latter began the long line of lever action Winchesters that continues to this day. However, Spencer's weapons were the first repeaters to see action in significant numbers. They were specifically designed to meet the needs of the military. The Henry gun was a sporting arm. It fired an under powered 44 caliber round and was really too delicate for use in the field. The Colt was designed as a military rifle, but it was e xcessively difficult to load, especially in battle. Spencer's design solved the problems of these other repeaters. When the Boston repeaters were issued, troops lucky enough to get them were unreserved in their praise. Of the few complaints only one was well justified. It was that they were heavy, especially the rifles. After the first battle, however, this comment was seldom heard again.
The first recorded use of a Spencer repeater in combat is by Sergeant Francis Lombard of the 1st Mass. Cavalry. The occasion was a skirmish near Cumberland, Maryland on October 16th of 1862, just after the great battle at Sharpsburg, Md. He was carrying a prototype given to him by Christopher Spencer, although the record is sketchy on the exact type. Unfortunately, Lombard was killed at New Hope Church, outside of Richmond Va., in November of 1863. The details of his repeater and its use are now lost to history.
It is safe to assume that Lombard's was not the only pre-production Spencer to have seen combat. It definitely was not the only one in the field. Colonel T. E. Chickering, of the 41st Mass. and almost certainly of the family that owned Spencer's armory, wrote the company on January 13, 1863 from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He claimed that his Spencer carbine had out shot the unit's pickets in an impromptu target match. Supposedly, the guards were armed with muskets. Production Spencer carbines were not to be delivered for another ten months.
Spencer Rifle
It is difficult to pinpoint just when the first government purchased Spencers arrived in the field. Ordinance Department records show that the initial delivery on the Army contract took place on the last day of December, 1862. This preceded the Navy's initial delivery on February 3rd, 1863, even though the Navy order was earlier by several months. Both of these dates are almost certainly later than the actual deliveries. The services did not consider an item delivered until the certificates of inspection and acceptance were processed through the Ordinance Department in Washington. This took an unknown, but rather long time. Dated unit returns exist showing Spencer serial numbers in the field that are considerably higher than the quantity supposedly on hand at that time.
Army units began to receive their Spencer rifles in January of 1863. The 5th and 6th Michigan cavalry were probably the first units in the Federal Army to get repeaters. The 5th, 6th and 7th Independent Ohio Sharpshooters in the Army of the Cumberland were also early recipients. The Navy issued their first deliveries to ships in the Mississippi flotilla and the east coast blockading fleet at about the same time. Colonel John Wilder's Lightning Brigade, a mounted infantry unit in the Army of the Cumberland was another early recipient of Spencer rifles. Interestingly, about a third of the army's rearmed units were cavalry. In a tacit admission of the increasing use of cavalry as mounted infantry, several mounted companies turned in handy single shot carbines for awkward (at least on horseback) repeating rifles.
The first use of issued Spencers is also hard to determine with certainty. Among the first operations to include them were naval landings along the Carolina coast in early 1863. These were not strongly opposed and no major battles developed. The Mississippi flotilla used their Spencers early against the numerous bushwhackers who had taken to hiding in the dense cover along rivers and sniping at passing Federal boats. Again, these were nothing like pitched battles.
Colonel John Wilder was certainly among the first field commanders to use repeaters effectively on the battlefield. Wilder's Lightning Brigade probably saved the battle of Hoovers Gap, Tennessee, on June 24th '63. They filled and held the center of a thin and under supported Federal line and held against a vastly superior Confederate force. Braxton Bragg's Confederates believed that a fresh corps was coming up, so great was the volume of fire put out by the Lightning Brigade. The southerners fell back to reinforce and reorganize. Bragg's troops then counter-attacked but could not carry the field. When the Confederates finally yielded, the Federals had shot away almost their entire ammunition supply of 142 rounds per man. This was the first major battle for the new repeaters. It was also the first of many instances where the fire power of Spencers in the hands of cool veteran troops staved off defeat. Interestingly, the Confederate losses were not unusually high, 19 killed and 126 wounded out of an entire brigade.
With the introduction of substantial numbers of repeaters to front line units, a change in the style of command, and the types of commanders rapidly took place. Officers with unusually large amounts of bravado (and possibly disregard for the welfare of their troops) began to succeed using tactics that heretofore would have been near suicidal. This change did not find its way up the chain of command, though. Overall battle tactics remained pretty much as they had been at the outbreak of the war. It is interesting to note that Spencer armed companies, with a few notable exceptions, were not singled out as skirmishers or reserves to be thrown forward at critical points.
Possibly the best example of a commander whose career was made by Christopher Spencer's guns is George A. Custer. At the battle of Brandy Station, in June of 1863, Colonel Custer participated in one of his first charges. It passed over a mile up Fleetwood hill. Beyond support and mounted on fast tiring horses, the operation quickly degenerated into a stampede with great loss. A week later at the battle of Aldie, he again participated in one of the grand charges that would become his trademark. The Confederate center was the point of attack. Although this operation covered less distance, it still lacked support and his troops took a terrible pounding.
There had been no Spencer armed troops in either battle. However, after Aldie, the Spencer armed 5th and 6th Michigan Cavalry were taken from picket duty in the defenses of Washington and assigned to Custer's brigade.
On July 3rd, 1863, Irvin Gregg's Cavalry Corps once again met Jeb Stuart's Confederate troopers. The venue was just east of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Confederates were attempting to flank the Federal army in support of Pickett's ill fated charge. This time the ambitious Michigan commander put together a grand cavalry spectacle. The difference was that the Michigan troopers were dismounted as skirmishers in support of Custer's mounted attack. The southern cavalry was finally stopped by a bold federal charge. That evening, Lieutenant Farnsworth, who was every bit as bold as Custer, was killed in a similar charge against the south end of the Confederate line. None of his troops had Spencers, and none were dismounted in support. These sorts of tactics relied heavily on the firepower of repeaters for any hope of success. In fact, Custer remarked in a letter to the Spencer company that, once his entire command had been armed with repeaters, he would not hesitate to engage the enemy when outnumbered almost two to one.
Spencer Carbine
As one can readily imagine, word of such spectacular results against great odds spread like wildfire through the army. Every commander tried to requisition the new rifles for his troops. Custer pulled every political string he could find to have his entire bri gade armed with Spencers. The brass in Washington however, remained cool to the idea of equipping the whole army with $40 repeaters, especially when they already had over a million $18 musket s on order. The limited supply of rifles was doled out to units with especially good records of front line service. The prized repeaters were even issued as rewards to individual soldiers for conspicuous valor.
By the summer of 1863, the Spencer company was finishing up the Army' s 7500 rifle order with no more federal contracts on the way. In spite of the clumsiness of rifles when used on horseback, the Spencer lever action had obvious advantages for mounted troopers. To keep the company going, the Ordinance Department was offered a deal for 22 inch barrel carbines. The short guns were much easier to make, so the price could be cut to less than that of the most accepted carbine in the army, the Sharps. Sharps' single shot carbine was being purchased at $28.50 when Spencer offered repeaters for $25.00. Washington was fin ally beginning to grasp the advantage of repeaters, especially at $25.00. They quickly accepted the deal. The first repeating carbine was not delivered until October of 1863.
When the short guns appeared, they were an immediate success. (Altho ugh the 2nd Ohio did complain that the new Spencers were excessively heavy and wanted their Burnsides back.) The first units to get the new carbines were those with outstanding service records. Many of these turned in Spencer rifles.
Front line units in the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac were at t he top of the priority list for repeating carbines, but commands in the west also received them. By the time General Wilson undertook his famous raid through the deep south, there were enoug h repeaters in the Army of the Tennessee that he could equip the entire party with them. He did this by calling in all Spencers from units not participating and issuing single shot weapons to them. This raid was immortalized by John Wayne in the movie The Horse Soldiers, but without the Spencers Wilson had found indispensable.
As with all other Federal weapons, Spencers were soon captured by the South and put to use against their former owners. The new guns were a great success, especiall y along the boarder, where Spencer rimfire ammunition was fairly easy to come by. Federal supp ly lines proved a ready source . These were more or less constantly raided by Confederate cavalry right up to the end of the war. The first reported Confederate use of a Spencer was by Sergeant W.O. Johnson, Co. C of the 49th Va. Infantry on July 3rd, 1863. He used one of the repeaters in fight ing around Culps Hill at the battle of Gettysburg. How an infantry sergeant managed to captur e a Spencer so quickly, and with an apparently adequate supply of ammunition, is a mystery. In the east they had been issued only to the 5th and 6th Michigan cavalry. Up to that date, there had been no major engagements between northern cavalry and southern infantry in the Gettysb urg campaign. Unfortunately for the Confederates, copper was in such short supply by 1863 that the south was never able to provide domestically manufactured cartridges. Once capt ured ammunition was exhausted, the guns were sent to the nearest depot for storage. It was always hoped that a supply of cartridges could be obtained by some unknown means, then repeaters wou ld be issued again to the Confederate mounted service. Thousands of the best weapons to be used in the conflict waited out the war as mechanical POWs. Several cavalry units in the Confederate army were at least partiall y equipped with Spencer repeaters. The 43rd Va. Cavalry had an unusually good supply of the best federal arms. The unit operated on the boarder and their commander, John Mosby, specialized in appropriating Yankee goods for Southern service. Beginning in 1864, there were always several troopers armed with Spencers in the ranks, even thought Mosby himself preferred revolving pis tols for raiding operations. Returns of the 43rd for November of 1864 show 167 Spencer rif les and carbines on hand. Terry's Texas Rangers also appear to have been fairly well equ ipped with them by late 1864.
Probably the greatest tribute to Christopher Spencer's repeaters was given by the men that had carried them. At the end of the war, many used their final pay to purchas e the very guns they had carried. General Edwards of the 37th Massachusetts Infantry wrote to the Ordinance Department in June 1865:
"Our regiment was armed with the Spencer rifle on the 14th day of July, 1864, and we first had the opportunity of testing them in an engagement at Summit Point (Wes t) Virginia."......" At whatever position we have ever been placed, we have always found them to be our best and truest friend. At Sailors Creek, Virginia, April 6th 1865, we came off victorious over Custis Lee's brigade, that had enveloped us so closely on three sides that the bayonet was freely used." "The rifles now mostly are property of the men, and show the marks of hard service and exposure to all kinds of weather, but are still in as good serviceable condition as ever."
Snippy and I did some quick research on the Spencer Rifle and Carbine and Snippy found this article. What we both found is that depending on the source, almost all say that the Spencer CARBINE was not available at Gettysburg. Some sources have Buford's troops equipped with the Spencer RIFLE however. IMHO, I have to agree with Mr. Petruzzi since his site BufordBoys is the best researched site I've seen on Union Cavalry and Buford in particular.
<=== Mash ThisYep. His "speech" always bring a tear to my eye when I watch the movie.
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