Texas Poppin B
My Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/c/SarisTX
Just a word on rifle tactics, whoever is commanding should be using their best judgement on firing commands. There is no right or wrong when it comes to this, the only thing to remember is that you are prepared for the enemy at all times. In a real world situation during the war there would normally be a forward skirmish element in front of the main body that would try to soften the enemy until they were in volley range, 300-500 yards. Typically when they got closer than that you would fire by rank so you always had at least one rank loaded should they charge, volley fire also consumes more time. Fire by file is a different animal with a different purpose, it would have been used when a unit was coming on line in sections. They would want to engage as quickly as possible without waiting for the whole to be organized, so they would fire by file as they came into position.
At any rate, there was far more emphasis on maneuvering and position than on the actual fire fight. I feel like a lot of us are used to what we see at reenactments, two sides standing opposite each other and just whaling away. If you want a good synopsis of a proper way to engage an enemy look at the action on Little Round Top at Gettysburg and the way the CS was trying to outflank Chamberlain. Hit and move, hit and move, hit and move.
300-500 yards is quite long range. I find it decently challangeing to shoot at 100 meters (110 yards) at firing range (while standing) with my AR15, red dot sight. 500 yards with riffled musket and iron sights - it must be very hard to hit something...
It was all about getting as much lead down range as you could. With bullet dispersion and the way lines were formed in tight groups you stood a better chance of hitting something if you fired a shotgun instead of a rifle. Another thing to consider is who is aiming at who, most times men would aim at the center of formations since that was more likely to hit someone like a flag bearer. You stood a better chance of taking out numbers in a shorter amount of time with volley fire over independent fire.
When I was in, part of my Marine Corps rifle qualification was a ten round slow fire, prone, at 500 yards...iron sights (we didn't use a red dot back then)...
Pvt. L.J. Perreira
The most common method of fire during the civil war was fire by files. It kept up a continuous rate of fire, which was more effective than volley fire for several reasons. I'll let a Mr. Eric Mink, over at "The Stonewall Brigade", explain:
http://www.stonewallbrigade.net/firing-by-files.html
Pvt. L.J. Perreira