Sharpshooter Duels, Buffalo Arms and Wild Bill’s Firearms Heritage
By Joe Bilby · Originally published October 2019 · pp. 8–9
Sharpshooter Duels, Buffalo Arms and Wild Bill’s Firearms Heritage
Garry Yee, author of Sharpshooters 1750–1900: The Men, Their Guns, Their Story, a book that has become an instant classic and go-to source on the subject, has a new work out from Osprey publishing. The book, Union Sharpshooter versus Confederate Sharpshooter, an 80page soft cover, is a unique study. The book’s artwork and strategic and tactical maps are superb; and Gary’s combat and tactical analysis is excellent and without peer. In Union Sharpshooter versus Confederate Sharpshooter Yee, a former firearms and relics curator at the San Francisco
War Memorial and a trained gunsmith, selects three battles, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, and Battery Wagner, where the tactical role of sharpshooters in the opposing armies was significant, to analyze. He begins with an overall assessment of weapons, dress, and equipment available to and used by sharpshooters of both sides; he then describes and analyzes their training and tactics before considering the particular battles. He concludes the book by discussing the aftermath of the conflict, in which, perhaps surprisingly to many, the idea of special sharpshooter units was ignored by the United States Army. Union Sharpshooter versus Confederate Sharpshooter is a must for students of military and/ or firearms history and deserves a place on the bookshelf of any Civil War buff as well.
Buffalo Arms With the shooting season coming to an end soon, it is probably a good time to check out the Buffalo Arms website for components and equipment to use over the winter to restock your shooting supplies and reloading bench. The Buffalo Arms website offers most anything a black powder shooter could desire, including various brands of black powder, loaded tapered percussion revolver cartridges in .36 and .44 calibers, hand cast bullets for those who do not wish to mold their own slugs, rare brass cartridge cases for reloading old time breechloaders, case cleaning devices designed to get black powder residual crud removed, and much more. Dedicated black powder shooters, whether their specialty is military or civilian arms, pre-1865 or after, should check out the company’s website at https://www.buffaloarms.com.
Cody Firearms Museum This is not specifically a Civil War story, although William “Buffalo Bill” Cody did serve as a teamster with the 7th Kansas Cavalry in the last year of the war and generously enhanced
Firearms display inside “The Cost of War” exhibit.
Interactive display “Learn about History. his reputation in the conflict’s aftermath. The Cody Firearms Museum in Cody, Wyo., has been a firearms history fan’s must see tour site for many years. Closed for more than a year for a twelve million dollar remodeling, today it is an integral part of the larger Buffalo Bill Center of the West with four other museums, the Whitney Western Art Museum, the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Plains Indian Museum, and the Draper Natural History Museum. Each museum has its own staff, advisory board and curator. The curator of the Cody Firearms museum is Ashley Hlebinsky, who has worked at the museum for eight years and
appeared on several television series, including Travel Channels’ “Mysteries at the Museum” and Discovery Channel’s “Master of Arms.” She is also the CEO of a firearms museum consulting firm, a television producer, public speaker, and expert court witness. George Dillman, a member of the museum’s Board of Trustees, said that “one of the objectives of the renovation was to make the firearms museum more a handson experience, especially for the non-gun enthusiast who would often leave the museum numbed by sensory overload.” Ashley had noted that many visitors had little or no knowledge of firearms or firearms history and often
Cody Firearms Museum “The Cost of War” exhibit. (All photos courtesy Cody Firearms Museum)
seemed somewhat confused or bewildered by the museum exhibitions, that problem has been solved. The new and up to date exhibits are explanatory beyond their predecessors, using video, interactive touch screens, and hands on displays to enlighten the visitor. A recent feature article in the “Shooting Wire” online newsletter by noted gun and outdoor writer and former law enforcement and USMC officer Greg Moats noted that: “The CFM now houses 10,675 artifacts on display dating back to the 1200’s. The displays are not a random accumulation of guns; each exhibit manifests some element of historical significance due to either innovation, scarcity, or provenance. Ernest Hemingway’s Winchester Model 21, Theodore Roosevelt’s “Big Medicine” Winchester 1895, and guns of numerous other U.S. Presidents grace the halls, as do the tools of exhibition shooters and competitors of note.” Moats also noted that “Cinematic celebrity-guns dating back to Gary Cooper’s Colt Single Action Army right up to Robert Taylor’s 1911 used on the Longmire series are on display. Matt Dillon, Paladin, and the Cartwrights’ sidearms are on display (if those names are unfamiliar, you’re either very young or suffered a mis-spent youth).” I guess my youth was not misspent. The Cody museum also has a vastly expanded top notch military arms display, including Civil War guns. If you are traveling out west be sure to stop and pay a visit. For more information check out the museum website at https://centerofthewest.org/ explore/firearms. Joseph G. Bilby received his BA and MA degrees in history from Seton Hall University and served as a lieutenant in the 1st Infantry Division in 1966–1967. He is Assistant Curator of the New Jersey National Guard and Militia Museum, a freelance writer and historical consultant and author or editor of 21 books and over 400 articles on N.J. and military history and firearms. He is also publications editor for the N.J. Civil War 150 Committee and edited the award winning New Jersey Goes to War. His latest book, New Jersey: A Military History, was published by Westholme Publishing in 2017. He has received an award for contributions to Monmouth County (N.J.) history and an Award of Merit from the N.J. Historical Commission for contributions to the state’s military history. He can be contacted by email at jgbilby44@aol.com.
Photographs from the Original Article
Captions and credits appear in the article text as originally printed.