Jim,

It is possible that Watson meant that the men adjusted the ladder of the rear sight for no elevation. However, his sentence -- "This led to raised sights being condemned by us, and they were taken off, and the line of sight set to range with the line of fire at about 70 yards." -- seems to indicate that some members of the 3rd Louisiana Infantry removed the rear sights entirely ("were taken off") from these retrieved enemy Enfields.

Regarding the rear sight intervals, the first graduation (beyond no elevation) on an Enfield rear sight is 200 yards, then 300 yards, then 400 yards … all of these intervals being on the "humps" or ramps of the side walls of the sight. To sight beyond 400 yards, you have to raise the elevator or ladder, which begins at 500 yards and then increases on at 100-yard intervals.

There is no doubt that many an Enfield rear sight was unintentionally knocked off in the field when the rifle musket or rifle was jostled or bumped up against something hard. Many others were probably removed postwar when farmers and other subsequent owners turned them into shotguns. In the instance of the 3rd Louisiana Infantry after Pea Ridge, however, the rear sights of many captured Enfield and Belgian rifles appear to have been deliberately removed by the Confederate infantrymen, according to Wm. Watson.

Based on the experience of Watson and his 3rd Louisiana comrades and the unnecessarily high firing of the Federal troops aiming at them, one can understand their inclination to ditch the rear sights. Incidentally, according to Watson, 9 companies of the 3rd Louisiana were originally armed with smoothbore muskets of the latest pattern (presumably M 1842s), and Watson's company was armed with Springfield rifles and sabre bayonets (presumably M 1855 rifles). So one company of the regiment at least had prior experience with graduated rear sights, while the bulk of the regiment being armed with smoothbores had little if any prior experience with elevating rear sights before retrieving the Federal longarms from the Pea Ridge battlefield.

Mike Bailey