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xv40rds's profile
Eric Michael Burke
Eric Michael Burke
Eric Michael Burke
@xv40rds

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Eric Michael Burke

@xv40rds

Historian @USACAC @ArmyUPress. Ph.D. @UNC. Nineteenth-century land warfare. Combat Infantry Vet. Avid birder. Antiquarian. All views my own.

Kansas City, MO
ericmichaelburke.com
Joined August 2010

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    Eric Michael Burke‏ @xv40rds 10 Apr 2019

    The vast preponderance of Civil War combat was not between massed battle lines, but rather dispersed open-order 4-man skirmish teams called “comrades in battle” (tragically similar to “battle buddies”) who bounded from cover to cover, covering each other with fire and maneuver.pic.twitter.com/a6dpl8Fa2H

    3:51 PM - 10 Apr 2019
    • 126 Retweets
    • 463 Likes
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    21 replies 126 retweets 463 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Eric Michael Burke‏ @xv40rds 10 Apr 2019

        Multiple companies, or occasionally even an entire regiment dispersed into such 4-man teams and led by senior NCOs or junior officers, advanced as a “cloud” in loose coordination hundreds of yards or more ahead of the massed main body of a command.

        1 reply 4 retweets 67 likes
        Show this thread
      3. Eric Michael Burke‏ @xv40rds 10 Apr 2019

        It was their job to engage in a stiff rolling firefight with enemy skirmishers, drive them back to their own main body, and suppress or even directly engage that force with their aimed fire from behind cover.

        1 reply 3 retweets 55 likes
        Show this thread
      4. Eric Michael Burke‏ @xv40rds 10 Apr 2019

        The massed battle line to their rear, while always capable of repelling an advance of the enemy skirmishers or main line with massed volleys, far more often functioned as little more than a reserve for the skirmish teams. More companies were deployed into 4-man teams as needed.

        1 reply 2 retweets 55 likes
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      5. Eric Michael Burke‏ @xv40rds 10 Apr 2019

        Massed lines were meant primarily for bayonet assaults, using raw human weight to punch holes through defensive positions, but in most cases even during these comparatively rare occasions, attacking lines were routinely screened by skirmish teams.

        2 replies 2 retweets 57 likes
        Show this thread
      6. Eric Michael Burke‏ @xv40rds 10 Apr 2019

        Unfortunately, skirmishing operations were rarely accounted for in great detail in surviving reports. These usually focused on the comparatively rare maneuvers of massed troops in major assaults or defensive actions that were much rarer than skirmishing firefights.

        1 reply 5 retweets 58 likes
        Show this thread
      7. Eric Michael Burke‏ @xv40rds 10 Apr 2019

        Even so, all Civil War officers and soldiers on both sides knew well the contemporary military maxim that: “Infantry burns the most of its powder as skirmishers.”

        1 reply 4 retweets 67 likes
        Show this thread
      8. Eric Michael Burke‏ @xv40rds 10 Apr 2019

        Although we often think of Civil War tactics as antiquated or even crude by modern standards, most actual exchanges of fire in and out of major battles took place under circumstances that would seem remarkably recognizable by today’s modern grunt.pic.twitter.com/Uc3A5fHe9H

        4 replies 18 retweets 136 likes
        Show this thread
      9. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. Clinton Kennedy‏ @loverpgs68 10 Apr 2019
        Replying to @xv40rds

        Awesome thread I always wondered if these tactics were used during the Civil War. I knew they were used during the Napoleonic wars especially by the British with their new Baker rifles.

        2 replies 0 retweets 17 likes
      3. Mike Dimmick‏ @mikedimmick 11 Apr 2019
        Replying to @loverpgs68 @xv40rds

        I read more historical novels than histories, but such authors as Bernard Cornwell (Sharpe, but also an American Civil War series) and Simon Scarrow make it clear that skirmishing tactics were used in the Napoleonic wars by all armies, to weaken the opponent's main force.

        2 replies 0 retweets 12 likes
      4. Show replies
      1. New conversation
      2. Roger Johnson‏ @RJohnson69 11 Apr 2019
        Replying to @xv40rds @pptsapper

        Any good reads on this for citation/info gathering?

        1 reply 1 retweet 8 likes
      3. Eric Michael Burke‏ @xv40rds 11 Apr 2019
        Replying to @RJohnson69 @pptsapper

        Outside of what emerges from the avalanche of soldier letters and diaries, and throughout the 128 vol. Official Records (ORs) the best sources on the nuts and bolts of skirmishing are in Casey's and Hardee's manuals, along with Craighill's 1862 "Army Officer's Pocket Companion."

        0 replies 4 retweets 32 likes
      4. End of conversation

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