Civil War musket

Infantry tactics at the time of the Civil War were based on the use of the smoothbore musket, a weapon of limited range and accuracy. Firing lines that were much more than a hundred yards apart could not inflict very much damage on each other, and so troops which were to make an attack would be massed together, elbow to elbow, But the Civil War musket was rifled, which made an enormous difference. It was still a muzzle-loader, but it had much more accuracy