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CIVIL WAR BOW

BamavolBamavol Member Posts: 966 ✭✭✭✭
edited February 2010 in Bow Hunting and Target Archery
Were bows used in the civil war. If not, why not? If I had to charge a line I would rather have a bow and 20 arrows than a musket. Would you?
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Comments

  • jaegermisterjaegermister Member Posts: 692 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    As an individual yes.... but in the mind set of the Civil war times it was to mass a group effort ( some individuals less proficient than others), under the leadership of a military mind to go and kick someone's butt.
    I think someone , maybe Franklin,actually suggested bows to fight the British during the Revolution.
    Another interesting speculation: what if the Indian Nations around the time of 1700, were somehow supplied with laminated recurves/long bows/aluminum shafts/dacron string & snuffer broadheads? Wouldn't been no Civil War, no Revolution....
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  • BamavolBamavol Member Posts: 966 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    JM, thanks for the reply. I agree that it was a mind set. If the technology of the day had been applied to developing a war bow and arrows and training an elite corp of archers it could have been effective.
    However I disagree about the Indians. The Indians were doomed from the start because they had no navy. They could not protect their shore from the European invasion. However steel points and recurves would have been a big help.
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  • jaegermisterjaegermister Member Posts: 692 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Yes your right and I forgot about the European illness that killed more than guns.
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  • wpagewpage Member Posts: 10,201 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Certainly they were. Not much if any documented on it.
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