Ormata wrote:Post War America wrote:
No, because Ga Pa tactics were dated when they were conceived of, relied heavily on a substantial qualitative edge of the troops in question, and because muskets of the late 17th and early 18th centuries were still relatively inaccurate and slow firing (something to which I can personally attest). By the mid 19th century breechloading weapons could conceivably be common, and repeating weapons not unheard of, and rifled weapons, as a rule, are capable of much more accurate fire than muskets (this is again referring to personal experience). While the difference in fire rate between a percussion cap muzzle loading rifle musket and a flint or wheel lock musket might not be significant, the change in accuracy alone would see your men at a critical disadvantage in firepower given that you're losing a third of your rifles in exchange for pikes. This of course is made worse if your opponents were to have for example, 1859 Sharps rifles, or worse Spencer rifles.
In battle this would largely result in your troops being cut to ribbons before they could get close, and would as a result be weaker in the melee, if they made it into melee in the first place, which thus deprives your troops of the critical momentum needed to make Ga Pa work. This is what happened against the Russians in the early 18th century, who were equipped with muskets, and would be much much worse in the mid 19th where rifle muskets and rifles have become the norm.
Since I'm talking about the use of Ga Pa by Union troops against Confederates, somehow I doubt I'll be facing a large number of breechloading and repeating weapons. I may be wrong in thinking that most Confederates were not armed with such muskets, but hey that's just me. This said, I was under the impression that standard muskets of that period were not so accurate.
But thank you for your explanation on the reason.
Even the confederates were primarily using (largely imported or copied from the Union) muzzle loading percussion cap rifle muskets. I would much rather be charging into fire from Land Pattern Muskets or the equivalents than I would Enfield or Lorenz rifles.
