A Civil War Sniper Hell Bent on Revenge
serf
Member Posts: 9,217 ✭✭✭✭
Interesting story I wonder if The Union troops were as bad as stated about his two sons bodies.
serf
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/featured/jack-hinson-a-civil-war-sniper-hell-bent-onrevenge.html
Of Scottish-Irish descent, Jack could not let the murders of his sons go unpunished. He buried his children’s remains, then sent the rest of his family and slaves to West Tennessee to stay with relatives.
He then commissioned a special 0.50 caliber rifle with a percussion-cap muzzle-loader. Besides its lack of decorative brass ornamentation, this rifle was also unique because it had a 41” long octagonal barrel that weighed 17 pounds. The length of the barrel ensured that he could accurately hit targets from half a mile away.
Comments
Had a pretty good total at the end.
No Kidding?? I just mailed out the book today,.
Good read...thanks for the post!!!
Combat Vet VN
D.A.V Life Member
I recognized that was the book you had in a give away.
Long Range pay back
Read a great book awhile back about Col. Berdans "Sharpshooters". Truman Head, aka "California Joe", made one of the longest documented shots of the CW. He was challenged to take out a Confederate Lt. in a white shirt on horseback, behind enemy lines. Climbed a tree to get a better shot and view of the Lt. but his sights wouldn't give enough elevation for a 1300yard shot. He broke a twig off the tree he was in, and stuck it in the sight. One shot ended the Lt, knocking him off his horse.
Near the end of the war, the telescopic sights being used, caused him damage to his eyesight. He wrote a letter to Lincoln explaining that, and asked to be discharged. Lincoln granted his discharge, and he went back to San Francisco to live out the rest of his life.
Your welcome and now I know why they said it was a shooting iron! 17 pounds is a lot of steel.
serf
Great story, thanks for posting.
Apparently ‘We are deer hunting. Yeah that’s it; deer hunting.’ did not convince a batch of conscripted city boys in the wilds of Tennessee.
Brad Steele
Those rounds whistled Dixie on the way to the target
Not to change the subject too much but there was another famous sniper during the Revolutionary War. Timothy Murphy took out British General Fraser 300 yards out from a tree with a muzzle loader!
Timothy Murphy - Hero of the Revolution (saratogaaoh.com)