Shooting a Cavalryman's Smith

By Brannen Sanders, late of the Palmetto Guards Edited by A.M. Beck, Palmetto Guards

Note: This story was related to me by the late Brannen Sanders (Southern Sr. on the N-SSA BB). I have edited lightly for readability -----------------When I first joined the Oglethorpe Light Infantry from Savannah, the only team match shot in North-South Skirmish Association competition was the “Musket Team Matches.” Other arms, such as cavalry carbines and percussion revolvers, were shot in “Individual” competitions using regular “Bullseye” targets, but the emphasis was always on the Musket Team Matches. Just before the Spring Nationals of 1971 [if I recall correctly] a notice appeared in the N-SSA’s “Skirmish Line” magazine that a new competition would be introduced - the Carbine Team Matches. The major difference between the Musket Team Matches and the new Carbine Team Matches was that each team would consist of 5 shooters. The arms used. Any Civil War military issue breechloading or muzzleloading carbine that was fired using a percussion cap. So, while this rule excluded Spencer Carbines, other Civil War carbines such as percussion Sharps, Maynard’s, Burnsides, Stars and Smiths were legal to use. The problem was, I didn’t have a carbine! I was getting ready to leave for the Spring Nationals in a couple of days, so I called Col. Lindsey P. Henderson and asked him if I could borrow a carbine. Colonel Henderson had grown up in Savannah in the Thirties. Because of his interest in the Civil War, he had started purchasing Civil War artifacts during the Depression. In Savannah, relics from the ‘Late Unpleasantness’ were still plentiful and cheap. Consequently, Colonel Henderson had a fabulous collection of not only Civil War arms but also uniforms, swords, knives and just about everything else. He even established a museum in downtown Savannah to display some of the more interesting items in his collection. Colonel Henderson was a veteran of not only World War II, but Korea and Vietnam. He had retired from the army after a long and distinguished career. Colonel Henderson was also one of the founding members of the Oglethorpe Light Infantry, but he couldn’t be with the team at the next Spring National. I lived about 70 miles West of Savannah in a small South Georgia town. The night before I was to leave for Virginia, I gave Colonel Henderson a call and asked him if he had a Civil War carbine, I could borrow to shoot in the new Carbine Team Matches. He asked me when I would be coming through Savannah. I told him that I would be in town around 10:00 A.M. the next day. He invited me to stop by his Factor’s Walk Military Museum on the waterfront in downtown Savannah, where I could pick up the carbine, he would loan me. I left home early the next morning and by 10:00 I was parking my car in front of Colonel Henderson’s Museum. When I walked into the building, Colonel Henderson wasn’t there. I told the elderly gentlemen that was the museum’s docent that I was there to pick up the carbine that Colonel Henderson was loaning me. The old man led me over to a glass case by a far wall in the room. That case had not only a Smith Carbine displayed in it but also a sword, pair of Cavalry gauntlets, a pair of brass spurs, a Confederate officers coat and a framed tintype of a young Confederate officer in uniform. The docent told me that the carbine in the case was the one that Colonel Henderson was loaning me! With that he pulled a screwdriver out of his pocket and handed it to me. I had to open the case to get to the carbine! In five minutes, I was in the case and pulled the Smith out. Then I closed the case. I handed the screwdriver back to the docent on my way out of the museum and thanked him for his help. When I got to my car, I took a closer look at the carbine and saw it was in very good condition. I wrapped it in an old G.I. blanket and placed it on the back seat, got into my car and headed for Fort Shenandoah - a 14-hour drive away. I arrived at Fort Shenandoah in the middle of the night, found the OLI campsite and got my tent pitched in the dying beam of my flashlight. Exhausted after the long drive, I crawled into my tent, rolled up into some blankets and was soon sound asleep. As the firing range was across a creek and only about 200 yards from the OLI campground, I was awakened early the next morning by the sound of gunfire as the Individual Matches got started. The Carbine Team Match was scheduled for the early afternoon, and I didn’t have any Smith ammunition! I needed to get up to Sutler’s Row and purchase some Smith cartridge cases and bullets right away. I wolfed down a couple of cold sausages for breakfast and headed up to Sutler’s Row. The Smith has something of a unique design. It “breaks open” like a modern, inexpensive single barrel shotgun, with a single design exception, more about that later. During the war, Smith ammunition consisted of a rubber cartridge case loaded with powder and a lead bullet! A quick trip to Sutler’s row netted me a bag of 100 modern nylon cartridge cases. I also found a Sutler that sold me a hundred .5o caliber Smith bullets. I then headed back to my tent. Using a can of DuPont FFFg black powder, I had brought from home and a powder measure, I loaded up a 100 Smith rounds using Crisco for lube and 25 grains of powder in each cartridge. I was now ready to shoot in the Carbine Team Matches! The OLI had entered a Carbine Team, so just before the matches were scheduled to begin, I headed down to the range with the rest of our team. I did have something of a problem - I had never fired that Smith, or for that matter any Smith Carbine, in my life, and had absolutely no idea of where my bullets would go. In other words, I hadn’t had a chance to “Sight In” the Smith. I was in my twenties and had what I called “The eyesight of a healthy young buzzard.” My eyesight was much better than just 20/20. My plan was a simple one. The first event in the Carbine Team Matches was 20

clay pigeons on a cardboard backer board at 50 yards. I would simply pick a clay pigeon, aim at it and shoot - then spot where my bullet went in the cardboard. Back then, in my “pre-bifocal days,” I could easily spot bullet holes in the backer boards 50 yards away! That way, I would know how much “hold off” to use to hit the birds. The first event started and for my first shot, I took careful aim at a clay bird. I used a “Dead Center” hold and squeezed the trigger. The Smith barked and ‘Lo and Behold,’ the bird I had aimed at disappeared, leaving a dirty, ragged hole in the cardboard where the bird had been a moment before. I was elated! Reloading the Smith, I again took careful aim, squeezed the trigger and again the clay bird I shot at disappeared! WOW!!! That the carbine was “Dead On!!!” I couldn’t help but feel grateful to Colonel Henderson again. Obviously, he had “Sighted In” the Smith at some time in the past. I just wish he had mentioned it to me because it would have saved me a bit of worry on the way up to the Nationals. I had a great match. I outshot everyone else on the OLI and to tell the truth, developed an appreciation for that Smith Carbine. It was almost as if the little carbine was under a “Spell” and couldn’t miss! The Smith Carbine is a sleek looking little carbine compared to the solid style of a Sharps with its brute strong receiver, (the Sharps action is so strong, the basic design has been adopted and used for modern day artillery actions!) The Smith has a unique design. Modern lore has it that rifles with a rigid, solid, heavy receiver along with heavy barrels produce the best accuracy (all other factors being equal.) The Smith cheerfully violates that rule as the receiver of the Smith is split into forward and rear halves, (along with the chamber) and attached by a hinge joint and “locked together” when the arm is to be fired by a flat spring located on top of the barrel and receiver! After the Nationals were over and I had been home a few days, I still had about 40 rounds of unfired Smith ammo, so I carried the carbine down to the farm pond at home and fired off the last of my ammunition, and even bagged a couple of water moccasins that made the foolish decision to swim across the pond while I was standing on the dam with that “Sighted In” and deadly accurate Smith in my hands. Having burned up all my ammo, I carried the gun home, gave it a very good cleaning and oiling. The next day, I headed to Savannah to return the carbine to Colonel Henderson. I was grateful he had been kind enough to loan that carbine to me. When I arrived in downtown Savannah, I met Colonel Henderson at the museum to return the Smith. When we were putting it back in its glass case, I mentioned to Colonel Henderson that I really appreciated the fact that not only had he loaned me that Smith carbine but he had also “Sighted it In.” He gave me a puzzled look and then smiled. He admitted that he had never fired that carbine. Matter of fact, that Smith Carbine hadn’t been fired since the Civil War! Then he told me the “story” of that Smith Carbine. It had belonged to the Confederate cavalrymen in the tintype displayed next to it in the glass case. The other items in the display had also belonged to that cavalryman. Since the Smith Carbine was a U.S. Cavalry issue arm, obviously it had been captured at some point or other. According to Colonel Henderson, an elderly lady in Savannah, a friend of his family, gave him her father’s trunk in the late Thirties, right before Colonel Henderson went into the army. She had been born in Savannah during the war after her father left home for Virginia. She was an only child and had never married. In the late Thirties, when she gave Colonel Henderson that trunk, she didn’t have any close relatives that were still alive. She wanted Colonel Henderson to have her father’s mementos because she knew he would take care of them. Her father was the Confederate cavalryman pictured in the tintype. He was from Savannah and had fought gallantly under the command of the legendary Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart. Unfortunately, he had been wounded in one of the cavalry battles outside of Richmond in 1864. After being wounded in battle, he was carried to a military hospital in Richmond and survived several weeks before succumbing to his wound. After he passed away, someone in his unit had packed all his belongings in his trunk, including that Smith Carbine, and shipped the trunk to his family in Savannah. According to Colonel Henderson, his trunk had contained not only the items in the display, but several other uniforms, a pair of boots, an empty pistol holster, toothbrush, a hairbrush, a Bitters bottle, and a packet of letters written to him by his wife. After Colonel Henderson finished telling me the story of the cavalryman and the Smith Carbine I had shot at the Nationals, Colonel Henderson looked at me, and then handed me the tintype of that Confederate cavalrymen. He said: “This is probably the man who ‘Sighted In’ this Smith Carbine. I looked at that tintype, at the young cavalryman that had died so long ago. I felt sorry for him and what had happened to him. I felt sorry for his family, for a daughter he never saw and for the daughter that had grown up never having known her father. I felt that I had “borrowed” that Smith Carbine not only from Colonel Henderson but also that young cavalryman. A lot of shooters and collectors will lament “if only these old guns could talk.” Well, I knew the story of that young Confederate cavalryman and his Smith Carbine. Sometimes you can get “too close” to history where tragedies and events so long ago cause you to regret and even feel a twinge of grief. On the long drive home, I couldn’t help but think of the story Colonel Henderson had told me about that Confederate cavalryman and his family. I found myself speaking to him in my mind. I said: “Thanks for the use of your carbine, and by the way, Thanks for ‘Sighting it In.’” Of course, he was long dead and gone, so he never heard my words-but they made me feel better speaking them out loud.

The Magazine of the North-South Skirmish Associtiation, Inc.