The mean is 95 yards and the mode 100 yards, but three distinct peaks are visible. It seems the average open field range of 100 yards is reasonable, with the lower ranges being in restricted terrain.
During Pickett's charge 2 Union regiments (7th MI and 20th MA) opened fire at 200 yards, the rest at 80-100 yards except the 12th NJ who reserved fire to 20 yards. The attacking Confederates stopped to fire around 80 yards and stopped moving forward well clear of the fence.
3 comments:
Joe Bilby looked the same data and came up with a 200 yards average, which I suppose shows how different people can draw different conclusions.
On TOCWOC I referenced an Army study done in the 1960s that showed that even with the increased ranges of weapons the majority still happened at 100 yards and under, with few beyond 300.
http://www.brettschulte.net/CWBlog/2010/03/13/more-on-battle-ranges/
I think this scan through the OR's confirms Joe Bilby's findings. There are is a spike around the 200 yard zone. I didn't see this when I did the same with Antietam earlier on the blog. I got a unimodal distribution showing no effective fire beyond 100 yards. I think Joe is right that by 1863 shooting got better and ranges extended.
The TOCWOC post is nice. What it is missing is that in the latter half of the 19th century we did seem to get a genuine increase in firefight ranges which disappeared with the appearence of High Explosive artillery fire. The (2nd) Boer War seems to have been the last long ranged firefight war, maybe something in the Russo-Japanese War, but the last vestiges of this long range shooting ability were destroyed in 1914.
One has to consider the effects of the landscape. Battlefields were quite different in Europe and on the veldt in South Africa than in the heavily forested US. I think this is where Griffith and his followers get off track and start comparing apples and oranges. We are seeing the same thing in Afghanistan where the ranges are opening up again. You can only shoot a what you can see.
see some my posts on the subject:
http://www.brettschulte.net/CWBlog/2009/01/22/war-and-landscape/
http://www.brettschulte.net/CWBlog/2010/03/11/col-g-f-r-henderson-on-the-civil-war/
http://www.brettschulte.net/CWBlog/2008/10/17/%E2%80%9Cloose-files-and-the-american-scramble%E2%80%9D/
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