Limelight as It was Known...

5fish

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In the winter of 1863, "What if" Gen. Lee was introduced to a technology that was not new but had been around for a few decades and was still improving over time. When he saw the power of this new miracle technology he realized he had found the golden ticket to victory for his army and for the Confederacy. He orders several to be attached to wagons so they could be used in his coming campaigns. In May of 1863, under the cover of night Lee practices with best to use this new technology on the battlefield... In June 1863, he begins his invasion of the North...

After the first day of Gettysburg was over, Lee was ready for the next day to use his new weapon upon the unsuspecting Union troops. The night before day 2 Lee with his General made plans to used their secret weapon the next day. Day 2 came and neither Meade's or Lee's units attacked both spent the whole day looking at each and moving troops and Lee's special wagons in place. The Sun went down the troops had their meals and as Nighnight was about to ring in the next day Lee's NoNV lite up the left flank of the Union lines in a blinding light. The night had become day and Alexanders artillery opened up plummeting the line artillery and over positions along the union lines. Longstreet Crops coming out of the blinding light crashed into Sickles corps causing mayhem and routing the disorienting union troops. Lees secret technology was the Limelight making night into day...

Ewell has few lights and he used them to light the union light and use snipers and artillery to bring fear into the Union ranks along the Union right.

By morning the AoP was routed off Cemetery ridge bleeding back to Pike Creek. Gen Stuart was sent out to cut off the union retreat where possible.

Limelight was know and use technology by the time the civil war was raging?

Lee would have gone on to route the Union army again until they had their own Limelight...
 

5fish

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I am not surprised people can not invasion how lighting up the battlefield would have given Lee a great advantage. These lights were so powerful they would have been set up hundreds and hundreds of yards away and still blind theUnion troops... Fort Wagner

Link:https://markerhunter.wordpress.com/2013/09/05/calcium-light-battery-wagner/

Eyewitness...

The whole of the superior and the upper portion of the exterior slopes of the south face of Wagner were plainly seen this night from the effect of the calcium light….” In addition to focusing on Battery Wagner, the calcium lights also illuminated the ironclads anchored offshore, to aid detection of spar torpedo craft.

Eyewitness...

Colonel D.B. Harris, chief engineer, complained:
The covering to the bomb-proof and magazine also need repair. We have been thus far able not only to repair damages at night, but to add from day to day to the strength of the battery; but now that the enemy’s sap is in such close proximity to the battery, and he has contrived to throw a calcium light upon the parapets at night, it is impossible to do so without a heavy loss of men. In the efforts last night to repair damages, the commanding officer of the fort reports a loss in killed and wounded of 60 to 80 men of the working party alone. Without our ability to repair damages at night, the battery would become, under the incessant fire of the enemy’s land batteries and fleet, untenable, say, in two days. (Emphasis added)


Thought...

While there were plenty of examples where combatants had employed light to distract or disorient an enemy going back to ancient times, the use of calcium lights in September 1863 was novel to some degree. These were artificial lights, not reflected natural light, and to a higher magnitude.
 

5fish

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Another about how theaters were burned down by limelight...

link: http://www.iatse354.org/limelight.htm

By 1860, the technique of limelight operation was well known, with the operator sitting atop bladders containing the oxygen and hydrogen and using his weight to control the pressure. Unfortunately, accidents were somewhat common and after London's Drury Lane Theater was burned to the ground as the result of a burst bag, iron cylinders were made mandatory.

The limelight was not exclusive to the world of theater. The military employed it for nighttime illumination of battlefields and in the siege of Charleston during the Civil War, the Union Navy focused limelights on Ft. Sumter while they pummeled it into rubble. The limelight also played a key role in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, where they provided light under the East River for workmen digging the caissons.

Sadly, the limelight fell into disuse as cheaper and more efficient lighting sources found their way onto the stage.


Here the battle of Trent's Reach is where the Union used Limelights to fight at night... from wiki

Union troops had also erected "Drummonds lights" that illuminated the area around the mine field, allowing the batteries to fire nearly as accurately at night as they had in the daytime. It finally became apparent to Mitchell that the mission was lost so on the next morning, at 2:45 am, the rebel fleet was turned around and went back up the James. The battle at Trent's Reach was over but in order for the rebels to get back to friendly waters they had to pass Fort Brady and the Signal Hill battery. Whe

Snip... https://www.historynet.com/americas-civil-war-desperate-ironclad-assault-at-trents-reach.htm

To make matters worse, the Federals had installed Drummond lights during the day on the south bank of Trent’s Reach near the obstructions. The large lights, Mitchell complained, would have permitted the Northern artillerymen to direct their fire ‘almost as well as night as by day.’
 

rittmeister

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those examples look rather stationary to me - good luck with your mobile units on rough terrain
 

5fish

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those examples look rather stationary to me - good luck with your mobile units on rough terrain
Wait... in most cases they were located on ships... surprise one did not burn down....

If you read through the "what if" the Limelight would have been located on wagons but even if located on the ground it still would have castes a blaring light a great distance so moving would not be needed as much...
 

5fish

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World war one ... chemical warfare... was earlier... Quicklime was used as a chemical weapon in medieval ages...

The Siege of Dura Europos took place when the Sassanians under Shapur I besieged the Roman city of Dura-Europos in 256 after capturing Antioch.

The use of chemical weapons[edit]
The siege was notable for the early use of chemical weapons by the attacking Persian army. During the siege the attackers dug several underground shaft mines under the city walls. The Romans dug tunnels to reach the mines and fight the diggers underground. In one such tunnel, when the Romans broke through into the Sassanian tunnel the tunnelers ignited a mixture of sulfur and pitch, producing a cloud of sulfur dioxide, which killed twenty Roman soldiers, one of which was carrying a coin dated 256, allowing the dating of the siege. Archaeologists excavated the scene in the 1930s. In 2009 tests showed the presence of sulfur dioxide inside the tunnel.[6][7][8]
 

5fish

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Searchlights in war... Lee could have been the first in battle ... Prussians used them against the French... it did not use Quicklime...

The first use of searchlights using carbon arc technology occurred during the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.[1] The Royal Navy used searchlights in 1882 to prevent Egyptian forces from manning artillery batteries at Alexandria. Later that same year, the French and British forces landed troops under searchlights.[2]

By 1907 the value of searchlights had become widely recognized. One recent use was to assist attacks by torpedo boats by dazzling gun crews on the ships being attacked. Other uses included detecting enemy ships at greater distances, as signaling devices, and to assist landing parties. Searchlights were also used by battleships and other capital vessels to locate attacking torpedo boats and were installed on many coastal artillery batteries for aiding night combat. They saw use in the Russo-Japanese War from 1904–05.[3]

Searchlights were installed on most naval capital ships from the late 19th century through WWII, both for tracking small, close-in targets such as torpedo boats, and for engaging enemy units in nighttime gun battles. The Imperial Japanese Navy especially was known for its intensive development of nighttime naval combat tactics and extensive training. The War in the Pacific saw a number of nocturnal engagements fought by searchlight, particularly the Battle of Savo Sound at Guadalcanal. Although searchlights remained in use throughout the war, the newly developed radar proved to be a far more effective locating device, and Japanese radar development lagged far behind that of the US.

First World War[edit]

American searchlight crew and equipment in France during WWI

Searchlights were first used in the First World War to create "artificial moonlight" to enhance opportunities for night attacks by reflecting searchlight beams off the bottoms of clouds, a practice which continued in the Second World War. The term "artificial moonlight" was used to distinguish illumination provided by searchlights from that provided by natural moonlight, which was referred to as "movement light" in night-time manoeuvers.[4] Searchlights were also heavily used in the defense of the UK against German nighttime bombing raids using Zeppelins.

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Russian troops use a searchlight against a Japanese night attack during the Russo-Japanese War, 1904
 
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