the Whitworth rifle, with mounted telescopic sight, was DEADLY to at least 800 yards, as many a blue-clad lad sadly discovered.
99% of the coven members are wrong most of the time & are too IGNORANT to know it.
PITY!
free dixie,sw
The Whitworth Rifle (musket) was imported and used in such insignificant quantities so as to have negligible effect on the war.
"Papa" John Sedgwick was the only Union officer of any great importance, killed by a Whitworth during the entire war.
Whitworths were great weapons but they were very slow to load, they had to be kept scrupulously clean and lubricated (which is very difficult for a campaigning soldier to do), the ammunition had to be manufactured to almost perfect tolerances which made casting the bullets from imported molds very expensive and time consuming, and the telescopic sights were easily damaged.
Despite legend, they were not very popular weapons with the Confederate Army.
The bulk of sharpshooters, North and South, used "picket" type country rifles. In the Federal Army, these were supplanted after 1863 by Sharps rifled muskets.