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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6953899" data-attributes="member: 4937">This is almost entirely because they were still 'fighting the last war', which in this case would have been the greatly admired Napoleonic Wars, and both sides had not yet really absorbed what the changes in accuracy and rate of fire meant. Civil War era weapons cover 5th, 6th and even 7th generation firearms, as there was a very rapid advance in firearm technology in the United States during the war.  They begin with weapons that other than reliability and ease of employment aren't that different from the weapons they fought with in 1776, but they have a number of more advanced weapons and they very quickly learn that the newer weapons rather outclass the older ones when employed properly.  Rate of fire climbs very rapidly from initially perhaps firing ever 4th round to firing every 2nd round, to by the end of the war weapons like the Henry Rifle (invented right before the start of the war, but not fully appreciated) even capable of firing twice in the same round.  Most of both sides still used slow loading weapons, ironically because the North feared that if it provided soldiers with more rapid firing weapons it would not be able to logistically support them in the field.  If you are familiar with the first year or so of WWI, this ought to cause you some bitter laughter.As a relative number, no bayonets wounds were inflicted in the whole of the Civil War.  Oh sure, you can find cases of bayonette charges and hand to hand fighting and a few that were even successful, but melee combat of all sorts amount to less than 1% of the casualties inflicted as a whole.  Even at Little Round Top, which was notable in part because the maneuver was so unusual and undertaken as an act of desperation, most of the casualties were from point blank musket fire and the primary effect of the bayonet was psychological.  The bayonet had ceased to be a militarily important weapon, but most people didn't yet realize it.  By the end of the American Civil War, even with rifled muzzle-loaders still being used by the majority of the men of both sides, both sides had been forced to evolve to trench warfare that completely foreshadowed the World War I.  However the European armies failed to recognize the implications thereof, or else arrogantly dismissed it as a result of a lack of American fighting spirit and quality leadership, resulting in almost every European expectation of what the war would be like, being completely wrong.If you get firearms up to the level of cap locks, revolvers, and especially the repeaters as were used in the Civil War, realistic melee combat is all but going to go away.  There will probably be a period where the DM won't quite understand the implications of the technology and there are always going to be moments when shock tactics work, but eventually, it's going to really dominate the setting.</blockquote>

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