While doing genealogy I was researching the Battle of Hoover’s Gap, an 1863 fight in the Tennessee Campaign that some (Confederate) ancestors were involved in and, of more historical interest, the first known use of Spencer repeating carbines by the Union. What I thought was interesting was how they were used.
If you’ve read anything about the Tullahoma campaign you know it was something like "Confederate Battle Tactics by Monty Python- “Alright then, this cavalry needs exhausting, let’s send them riding hard through cold rain for no good purpose until men and horses are thoroughly exhausted unless you’re in a regiment that’s a prime number and your name begins with a K or a W in which case you’re to write a letter home, and of course we want them as far away as possible from where the Union forces is as that would come dangerously close to recon and serve a useful purpose”. The men of Wheeler’s Cavalry Corps returned to camp thoroughly exhausted and half of them with colds (it wasn’t winter but it was unseasonably cool June and had record rainfall). They settled in for a long rest since it was night and raining in a time when night and rain were the two times you were least likely to be attacked. When Thomas’s men came running through it was a complete disaster; the men of the 51st Alabama experienced nearly 30% casualties (not many fatalities but lots of captures) and other regiments weren’t far behind. They thought they were being overrun by the entire Army of the Tennessee due to the number of shots (the only real purpose of the repeating function of the rifles during the battle) but the main thing that caused such panic and chaos and disaster for the south was that Thomas and his staff had figured a much more important advantage for that campaign: Spencer repeating rifles could fire in rain since you didn’t have to worry about paper cartridges.
I wonder if this aspect was used much in other battles. I could research it but I’m lazy.
It’s amazing to me how resistant both north and south were to the weapons due to the “waste of ammo” feature.
In Europe, they were generally replaced by flintlocks by the 1720s or so. In Asia, particularly Japan, they were in use until the mid-late 19th century, IIRC.
They were invented in the early 19th century, but didn’t really become practical until the late 1840s or so, but by the time they became something we might recognise as a modern cartridge, brass cartridges were being developed and soon overtook the brass ones. The .577 Snider cartridge (introduced c.1865) was originally a paper cartridge but was soon produced with brass instead, and the Sharps rifle used during the US Civil War used either paper or brass cartridges, AIUI.
Shotgun shells were still available made from cardboard until fairly recently (1970s? 1980s?) too, FWIW
For the type of paper cartridges that were inserted whole into the weapon, Martini Enfield’s post above nailed it.
There were also “paper cartridges” that were basically just rolled up tubes of paper that were sealed on each end. Each cartridge contained a pre-measured amount of powder and one round of ammunition. The idea behind them was that they sped things up by not requiring the musketeer to measure out the powder while shooting.
The entire cartridge was not shoved whole into the musket. Instead, the musketeer tore open the top of the cartridge (typically with his teeth) and poured the powder into the musket, then put the round of ammunition (round ball, buck and ball, shot, or minie ball in later years) into the musket and rammed it all down with the ramrod. You didn’t have to measure out your powder or grease up your minie ball, so it saved a bit of time compared to loading a musket without using a cartridge, but it still wasn’t as fast as a modern style cartridge.
Cartridges were kept in a “cartridge box” (how’s that for an original name) which was worn on the musketeer’s belt. Civil War era musketeers also carried a small pouch for their percussion caps on their belt.
These types of cartridges started all the way back in the 1500s, and continued to be used up until the end of the Civil War, when they were replaced by breech loading modern style cartridges.
It’s worth noting that this aspect of musketry drill was one of the causes of the Indian Mutiny; there were scurrilous rumours put about that the “cartridges” (more specifically, the projectiles thereof) used in the newly issued Enfield 1853 Rifled Muskets were greased with pig fat and beef tallow, which was completely unacceptable to the Muslim and Hindu sepoys. (For the record, the cartridges were actually greased with a combination of beeswax and vegetable oil).
When the sepoys complained it was unacceptable for them to bite into the cartridge packets to get them open because of these concerns, the drill was changed to involve tearing the packet open with one’s hands, and it was again stressed that the cartridge lubricant was beeswax and vegetable oil, not pig or beef fat.
Of course, by the time these measures were put into place it was too little, too late, but it’s an interesting historical sidenote that I thought might be of interest to others reading the thread.
Paper cartridges for revolvers were inserted into the chambers whole, without tearing the bottom and pouring the powder in. Some were tapered to make them easier to insert. You’re supposed to use your nipple pick to puncture the base of the cartridge after it’s been loaded to ensure proper ignition. I’ve never done this, and mine work fine. I don’t know if people did it 150 years ago.
Slightly more detail - you draw the cartridge from the box. If you are shooting in volleys you hold it in the air with your right hand and await the next command. Otherwise you bite off the “non-ball” end or tear it with your teeth; which is why you needed at least two opposing teeth. You then sprinkle just a little in the pan (too much and you block the touch-hole creating a hang fire or misfire), close the pan and do what they call a “cast about” bringing the barrel near your hand. Pour the rest down the tube.
What you do now depends on when and where you are. Some nations loaded the ball and remaining paper together at some points in history; some just dropped the ball down on the powder. Some would put the powder in, drop the ball “bare” and then ram the paper on top of it. It all depends on what year it is and who your King is. In smaller calibers (say .62) bare ball works surprisingly well out to 50 yards. In say .75 your probably want to use a .715 round ball and load it still inside the paper. Buck and ball as well as shot can be loaded “bare” but results can vary greatly from shot to shot.
This leads to an interesting little fact that we sometimes demonstrate at history programs - flintlocks fire faster than caplocks; even if you match them smoothbore to smoothbore. A flinter only has to make one move to the belt; the prime and load are all in the same paper tube. A capbuster has to make two moves to the belt; one for the cartridge and another for the percussion cap. On blanks most flint users I know can get 15 shots off in three minutes; the caplocks can do maybe 7. With live rounds the difference isn’t quite that great but its still close to twice the rate of fire.
Unless its raining heavy.
Remember in this and the above answers that the paper was rag content/linen and not wood pulp. For where some of this paper came from Google Gun Wad Bibles.
By the time of the Civil War there was some “combustable cartridges” where the paper was treated to burn like a slow form of flash paper (but still pretty quickly) from the cap blast. There were also some tries at forming the powder into a solid stick attached to the bullet. On loading in a revolver the powder would “crush” filling the chamber and providing a good burn. If you try to re-invent these last ones, do not use spar varnish; it tends to make the powder much stronger and somewhat smokeless in characteristics. Take my word for that.
Where did you order from? At some point, I’m likely going to need one. Mrs. Butler has deep interest in Revolutionary Reenacting, and the man’s job in the company is to drill, and shoot. (The new gun is the hook to get me involved too… though I think it’ll be fun anyway. )
My dad did this, back when he was beginning to shoot black powder. He was at a shoot, doing the primitive trail (where they usually have dimensional targets set back from the trail in the woods) and fired his ramrod right into a log. They gave it to him as a boobie prize and we had that thing for years and years down in the basement, ramrod intact.
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