Field of Fire

Spotsylvania Courthouse Battlefield--The tree line is probably within the range of canister fire roughly 600 yards. Canister is, as the name implies, a can filled with small lead balls turning the cannon into a large shotgun. Troops would have advanced across the field in double ranks, shoulder to shoulder, with a distance from the elbow to the finger tips between ranks. The result:

"The enemy fell like grass before the mower." "It seemed as if whole companies were wiped out of existence."