Nice guns, very nice. I was really into black powder shooting back in the 90's. Up north of Crescent City, California, near the Oregon state line, is a really nice shooting range where they hold a rendesvous twice a year. Everybody shows up in clothing from the 1800's and they sleep in period tents, and they shoot and party for three days. The coolest thing I ever saw there was an original (not a replica) Whitworth Confederate sniper rifle with 4x scope. Here's a link that explains the innovative design of the Whitworth.
Whitworth Rifle
It was deadly in the hands of Civil War snipers. There are many stories in Confederate Veteran of kills at a mile or more. Exaggerated maybe, but the fact that it was deadly at long range is no fable.
At the battle of Spotsylvania Court House Major General John Sedgwick was killed by a Confederate Sniper using a Whitsworth rifle at about a distance of 550 yards. This is the longest known sniper kill during the civil War and basically the sniper "got lucky". Sedgewick was admonishing his me for dodging lead bees:
The verbatim report made by General McMahon, who was at Sedgwick's side at his untimely death:
I gave the necessary order to move the troops to the right, and as they rose to execute the movement the enemy opened a sprinkling fire, partly from sharp-shooters. As the bullets whistled by, some of the men dodged. The general said laughingly, "What! what! men, dodging this way for single bullets! What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? I am ashamed of you. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." A few seconds after, a man who had been separated from his regiment passed directly in front of the general, and at the same moment a sharp-shooter's bullet passed with a long shrill whistle very close, and the soldier, who was then just in front of the general, dodged to the ground. The general touched him gently with his foot, and said, "Why, my man, I am ashamed of you, dodging that way," and repeated the remark, "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." The man rose and saluted and said good-naturedly, "General, I dodged a shell once, and if I hadn't, it would have taken my head off. I believe in dodging. "The general laughed and replied, "All right, my man; go to your place."
For a third time the same shrill whistle, closing with a dull, heavy stroke, interrupted our talk; when, as I was about to resume, the general's face turned slowly to me, the blood spurting from his left cheek under the eye in a steady stream. He fell in my direction ; I was so close to him that my effort to support him failed, and I fell with him.
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