Sons of the South (3 Viewers)

[Shiloh]

It is true that if a confederate cavalrymens horse was shot from beneth him he was assigned to the infantry. However they would be given a rifled musket. A shotgun would be totally ineffectual on a civil war battlefield

The Confederate forces were in very short supply of weapons. Flintlock muskets (war of 1812 vintage and Mexican American War) and were still in use throughout the war and other weapons brought from home. Foraging parties would take whatever weapons they could find and issue them to the troops. Weapons were in such short supply that confederate reserves were not issued any. They would go over ground where the battle had already occured and supply themselves from Union and Confederate casualties before joining battle. So a shot gun would not be out of place. As for effectiveness, in close it would be devastating such as the Iron Brigade proved with their smoothbore muskets and buck and ball rounds. But at 150 yards out he's a dead man. The western theater was vastly under supplied compared to the east and fought over a lot more territory so a hodge podge of weapons existed. As for a calvary man being reassigned to infantry when his horse got killed, probably happened alot when suitable mounts could not be obtained. Southern calvary also used mules as often as horses and Forrest men actually fought more as mounted infantry than true cavalry.

 

[Robert E. Lee]

Thank you for the information. I think the troops in the sos series are eastern theater because one of the figures is John Gorden. Buck and Ball was an extreemly effective projectile but there is a big difference between buck and ball(fired by a rifl) and a scattergun.