In Civil war battles limbers are not necessary. However do you like to use limbers for aesthetic reasons? As an aside I used to love that Britains 54mm civil war limber and gun at full gallop.
Having limbers on the battlefield has never bothered me much. I love painting artillery but not keen on painting limbers.
I like to have limbers so that it is obvious when the guns are being moved and cannot be fired. No problem with painting limbers since I worked out how to paint horses.
PP ACW limbers do sell well. Someone must be using them.
I have them all painted up, too. Love limbers, as was mentioned once you learn how to paint up horses the rest is easy.
Miles
I too liked the Britains' Deetail limbers - I think they had little wheels underneath the horse team? I think they must have been a little delicate, as neither Confederate nor Union ones survived: lucky that the PP ones are rather more robust!
Old Peter Gilder article in WI gave an excellent way to use limbers - they mark a battery in motion and are replaced with guns in firing positions with the option of keeping the limber in place to the rear.
Which reminds me that too many war-games use out of ammo options which only very rarely actually happened on the field of battle in the ACW, especially for artillery because of the limber supply and then further back caissons of even more ammo, etc.
Pickett's charge? :)
It was one of those occasions, but generally most artillery got through a battle without running out. The Confederate artillery that was involved in the bombardment prior to Picket's charge was in its third day of battle in enemy territory far from its centres of supply. I think a bigger problem for the Confederates was dud artillery ammo owing to poorer powder than the Union had access to.