How did the soldiers handle fouling in the field

[Grepse]

A fellow asked me, what the soldiers did during battles when it came to keepeing there muskets from fouling. I sually have to run a brush every five shots or so. Any thoughts?
Regads,
Jeffrey C.

[Eric A. Savickas, 08663V]

You need a different lube, if you have to brush every 5 shots or so...

[Norm Gibson, 4901V]

I would imagine that during a battle that if a musket became too fouled that the soldier would just pick up another one. After the battle of Gettysburg, over 20,000 muskets were picked up off the field that had two or more rounds in them.

Also, there was a bullet that had a zinc washer on the base that was supposed to expand into the rifling and clean some of the fouling.

[Edwin Flint, 8427]

Also, the bullets were considerably smaller than the ones we use. Seems I read the bullets issued were about .570 for the 58 Caliber bullets. As such, it took more fouling to cause a problem.

The Zinc bullets were one "battle" fix. If you are talking about after a fight, they were issued cleaning tools just like soldiers are today. They usually used the threaded end of the ramrod to use these tools.

[S.Sullivan]

The bullets were often undersized as issued, yes. The N-SSA shooter should mike the bore and bullet for the proper thousandths fit, this was unheard of in 1861-1865. If the "pill" fit, it was shot.
The Williams cleaner bullet with its zinc scraper was issued and heavily used late in the war by the Federal soldier, but numbers indicate it was used without much thought, not with great deliberation. Regulations dictated every tenth round or so to be a Williams. In my youth digging at Bermuda Hundred and Petersburg in Virginia we found great numbers of Williams rounds, far in excess of the perscribed ratio.
The major thing to consider in this question is that, in my opinion, any N-SSA shooter at most any skirmish will, if he does musket, shoot more shots by volume than most any "original" Civil Warrior. In the main, the army then, as now perhaps, was hurry up then wait. The actual time in combat was short, and the number of shots fired, small. If at the height of any climatic action a soldier fired more than a dozen rounds, it was extraordinary. There are exceptions, Perryville strikes memory with Starkweather, and some regimental histories mention ramming ramrods against trees to seat the ball ,but most engagements were on a large scale with but brief engagement of participants, then others were cycled into place. Remenber the original box only held forty rounds, twenty on top, twenty in reserve. How many rounds do you go through at a weekend skirmish? Certain Ohio units needs not reply.
The Civil War soldier was trained to clean the exterior of his weapon, no field stripping, and a century and a half shows most originals pitted near the cone, so even the exterior suffered.
In short, fouling is more of a N-SSA problem in my opinion, than it was for the Boys of '61.
S.Sullivan
former member of several units, but now
jest old and in the way...

[Jim_Burgess_2078V]

I can shoot my rifle-musket all day without cleaning because I have adequate lube on my bullets to keep the fouling soft. If you have to brush between relays the quality and/or quantity of your lube is lacking. Civil War soldiers had problems resulting from the fact that their ammunition was often undersize (causing greater fouling) and did not have as much lube as we tend to put on our bullets. Battlefield expedients to mitigate the problem included pounding the rammer in with rocks, trees or just exchanging the musket as previously mentioned.
Jim Burgess, 15th CVI

[Southron Sr.]

According to Confederate Ordnance Records, the NUMBER #1 COMPLAINT in the Army of Northern Virginia was oversize bullets!!!

Faced with an overwhelming demand for ammunition, the Confederate Ordnance Labatories manufactured bullets in the millions. When complaints rolled in from the field about "oversize bullets,", a quick investigation found that the sizing dies in the labs had worn to the point that they were producing oversize ammo (this was especially true with the Gardner Balls that required the "skirt" to be turned down approximately 90 degrees in the "sizing operation" to grasp the paper cartridge bag.)

So at least for the ANV, "fouling" wasn't the only problem when it came to ramming stubborn bullets down the bores of their rifle muskets in battle.

How much ammo did the "average" soldier fire in battle. If I recall correctly it was somewhere around 20 rounds. So with the proper size bullets, adequate lube and some other factors, fouling would not become an issue for soldiers that fired the "average" number of rounds in a battle.

Last but not least, there are memoirs and records that indicate that veteran soldiers, (both Yankee and Southern) armed with .58 rifle-muskets would often draw .58 ammo and then some .54 ammo meant for either Mississippi or Austrian Rifles. Of course, the "undersize" .54 ammo would be used when so much fouling had been built up in the barrelS of their .58 rifle-muskets that it was almost impossible to ram down the regular .58 Minies.

So soldiers dealt with fouling in a variety of ways.

[threepdr]

I read an account once where the soldier step out of ranks and poured part fo his canteen of water down the bore, shook vigoursly, poured out the water, snapped a couple of caps and continured to shoot. If the barrel is hot enough, this will work.

[Johan Steele]

At Allatoona pass in Oct of 64 one Veteran used a more novel approach. He stepped away from the firing step and to a vaguely safe area of the Star Fort and utilized what god gave him in the form of natural water to fill his fouled weapon. Being very careful not to burn his tender parts in the process as the weapon was quite hot. It apparently worked.

[threepdr]

Ha! Very field expediant indeed! Almost like the British Tommys using the same "fluid" to refill thier overheated water cooled machine guns in the trenches.