Jim Martin
WBTS Tactics!
Fri Jul 6 12:52:53 2001


I have been pondering for sometime the battlefield tactics of the WBTS. Everyone knows that the use of "Napoleonic Tactics" or massed infantry assaults was the cause of the high percentage of casualties in most CW battles due to the use of rifled weaponry. The greater range and accuracy of shoulder-arms and artillery exposed massed units to damage over a longer space.

The question is this, "What was the alternative?" How else might they have fought their battles? We all know that the war became a "trench" war after 1863. Not only did Lee and Grant fight from trenches and embrasures from the Wilderness through Petersburg, but any reading of the Atlanta Campaign through the Carolinas notes that it was common custom at the end of a day's march to "dig in" for the evening to protect yourself from any offensive moves by the enemy. North Georgia is literally covered with the remains of these miles and miles of trenches.

If we have any professional or amateur tactitions on the message board, other than trench warfare, what might have been an alternative tactic(s) for the Civil War era armies to use to negate the effect of rifled weapons?

Jim