I read in Connelley's 1910 "Quantrill and the Border Wars," pages 318-9 and in Castel's 1962 "William Clarke Quantrill: His Life and Times," page 113 that the west-central Missouri guerrillas developed the wartime practice of reducing the amount of gunpowder in their revolver loads both to save precious powder and to reduce pistol recoil to improve accuracy, especially from horseback. I think this was especially helpful with repeated or continued shots. Guerrillas from this region were influential in passing along such techniques and tactics to other Missouri guerrillas they encountered, so this practice may have spread.

On the grisly side, I noticed that guerrillas, particularly at both actions at Centralia on 27 September 1864, felt it necessary to shoot victims multiple times and of Federals running around after having been repeatedly shot, but I don't know if the reduced gunpowder in pistol loads was the reason for this.

My point is that Union troops shot by such reduced loads may have suffered slighter wounds than from recommended pistol powder loads, especially at a distance of more than 10 to 25 feet, the optimum range for pistols (according to my Army instructors). Obviously, their tactic was to get close enough to an enemy to "make it count," a practice in which they excelled. Many Missouri guerrillas carried sidearms as their only firearms, although some supplemented those with shotguns, carbines, and rifle-muskets.

Bruce Nichols