Irish volunteers to the Union Army during the American Civil War. Were they badass? Well, yeah. Their commander, Gen. Francis Meagher, armed 8 line companies of each NY regiment with the outdated Model 1842 smoothbore musket. Why would he do that you ask? Well he figured his guys would be doing most of their fighting within “bad breath” distance of the enemy and he wanted them to have the ability to shoot “buck and ball” ammunition. You know, because it’s kind of shotgunny and what not. I mean, nothing says “I came to win” like amputating torsos with a low budget scattergun. These guys were the truth.