Musket

Flies and bayonets aboard the frigate Grand Turk.

The musket is an infantry firearm that was used from the 16th to the 19th century, characterized by being loaded through the muzzle (muzzleloader). The different firing technologies shot include, from oldest to most modern, the fuse, the wheel, the flint, and the percussion cap.

By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually disappeared as the use of heavy armor declined, but "musket" continued as the generic term for smoothbore long guns until the middle of the 19th century. In turn, this style of The musket was retired in the 19th century when rifled muskets (simply called "fusils" in English) became common. modern terminology) using the Minié bullet (invented by Claude-Étienne Minié in 1849). The development of breech-loading firearms using self-contained cartridges (introduced by Casimir Lefaucheux in 1835) and the first reliable repeating rifle produced by Winchester Repeating Arms Company in 1860 also led to its demise. When repeating rifles became common, they were known simply as 'muzzles', ending the era of the musket.

Utility

It arose as an evolution of the arquebus and its barrel measures up to a meter and a half. It was big and heavy and you needed a fork to support it if you wanted to aim it correctly. Due to this and its lower price, the arquebus continued to be used during the 17th century as well. Later it evolved into lighter models, which became definitively established in the 18th century. The musket used bullets twice as heavy as the arquebus, with the logical increase in stopping power. Its effective range was equally greater. It used to be fired at about 50 meters, although in theory its effective range was close to 100, compared to 50 meters for the arquebus, which was usually fired at 25 meters or less.

From the middle of the XVII century, the matchlock ceased to be used and a firing system was used in Very similar theory, but in practice much more modern for the time, since it incorporated a flintlock assisted by a flint, allowing a higher rate of fire and eliminating the cumbersome wick of the arquebus.

Evolution

Although it is unknown who made it, the arquebus and the musket are very similar muzzleloaders, originally representing two different concepts of warfare. The arquebus was a light weapon, somewhat more manageable than the musket, which allowed its users to operate, in today's terms, as light infantry: troop with a wide range of maneuverability for multiple uses.

The musket, originally, was simply portable artillery. It was used for its greater ability to stop the enemy. However, it was more expensive, very difficult to load, and very heavy—requiring the use of a pitchfork to aim it—so that, at first, it was only intended for use by the most vigorous and well-educated soldiers.

The Prussian battalion of guard grenadiers attacking with muskets during the Battle of Hohenfriedeberg (War of Austrian Succession), on June 4, 1745. Carl Röchling (1855-1920).

In closed formation, both types of troops fought in what were called in Spain, in the tercios, "mangas", and which were nothing more than a group of companies on the flanks of the battalions of spades.

The musket projectile (like that of the arquebus) had to have a smaller caliber than the cannon that had to shoot it to be able to load it with some comfort, so much of the propelling power of the deflagration was lost. In addition, on its way through the barrel, the bullet was "bouncing" down the barrel in such a way that it was very difficult to determine its trajectory as it exited through the muzzle. Hence the low accuracy and range of this type of weapon.

The musketeer was a soldier who rarely wore armor other than a leather jerkin, due to the weight of his equipment—in contrast to the arquebusier, who could wear helmets and even breastplates. For the charges, the musketeer wore the so-called "twelve apostles", which was a leather belt over the shoulder with twelve small wooden magazines with the precise measure of thick gunpowder necessary to load the weapon's chamber. That a soldier carried only twelve charges into battle shows the low rate of fire of this type of weapon.

He also carried a polvorera or primer on his shoulder, a small deposit of fine powder to prime the bowl that started the firing process, and in a small bag on his side, lead bullets, commonly called “balls”. The fact of having the wick lit at both ends caused many risks, which sometimes ended in tragic accidents, when lighting charges or powder kegs. The musketeer also used to carry a sword and dagger for close defense, although it was not unusual to use the same musket as a mace.

The main advantage of the musket was its penetrating power, and its success was such that little by little armor was eliminated from the battlefield as useless, which in turn allowed the musket to be made lighter. In the second half of the 17th century, muskets were light enough to detach from the fork. This evolution meant that the musketeer gradually replaced the arquebusier in European armies, unifying the tactical concepts of firepower and versatility in a single soldier.

At the end of the 17th century, the musket finally appropriated the battlefield. From the match and wheel keys of its beginnings, it will go on to the flintlock. The incorporation of the bayonet, first embedded - it was inserted into the barrel and prevented firing - and then, in the middle of the XVIII century, with a cube -which can be installed without obstructing the cannon-, will allow us to dispense with the infantry with pikes in favor of more musketeers. For the first time in history, the men on the battlefield were not a mixture of swordsmen, pikemen, harquebusiers, crossbowmen, archers, and javelinmen; almost all the armies began to standardize their military forces, leaving only the musketeers in the fight face to face, because of the firepower they represented and because, if they were trained and maintained the organization, they could also defend themselves against the cavalry: it had been born The rifle.

The musketeer, now a rifleman, was nothing like the musketeer of the beginning. His musket was slimmer and lighter. This lightening of the weapon made it possible to lengthen the barrel in order to somewhat improve its accuracy. Progress was also made on the ammunition side: Each powder charge was now packed with its projectile in a paper cylinder and stowed in a cartridge case that protected it with safety covers and kept it separate from the ignition system, making its use and I drive much safer.

The new firing and loading and bullet packaging systems also made it possible to reduce and simplify the number of movements necessary to load the weapon. Even so, a troop could be considered highly educated if it could get its soldiers to fire three shots in a minute. The cartridge belts could have from 20 to 40 charges.

At the end of the Napoleonic era, rifled-bore weapons began to become widespread, which caused the bullet to rotate in the barrel, which provided greater precision and range. Later, the flintlock gave way to the percussion key. Thus ended the era of the musket and began that of the rifle.

Operation

A New English Civil War Model Army manual that shows a part of the steps needed to load and shoot a primitive musket model. The need to complete this difficult and potentially dangerous process as quickly as possible led to the creation of military exercises. -

Each nation developed its own firing and loading training procedure. In the 16th century, on the European continent, the process for a musket was as follows:

• With the carabiner and the support on the left hand, open the brushed cazole.
• Prepare the pellet with powder.
• Close the bucket.
• Take the carabiner next to the sword with your mouth up while the rest stays behind.
• Take a load, open the load, pour the gunpowder from the load into the barrel.
• Take a ball, put it in the cannon.
• Remove the bat and place it in the cannon.
• Meat load.
• Remove the cannon backet and return it to the place where it is stored.
• Bring the carabiner up, reconnect the rest on the left hand.
• With the right hand, take the ignited phosphorus from the left hand, blow the excess ash and place it in the jaws of the serpentine.
• Try the phosphorus by rotating the serpentine with the right hand and observing where the bright end comes into contact with the top of the dish; it must be aligned with the center of the dish.
• Protect the dish with your fingers from your right hand.
• Soup the excess ash of the phosphorus, open the cazolet, pull the carabiner, aim, press the trigger to carry the phosphorus on to the cazoleta and turn on the energy, thus unloading the carabiner.
• Lower the cane of the shoulder carabiner and take the support on the left hand.
• Remove the phosphorus from the serpentine with the right hand and place it between the fingers of the left hand.
• Close the cazolet to prepare the next shot.

The process in England at that time was different, as the main charge was charged before priming the saucer. Priming the saucer before charging the main charge is good practice, as if an errant ember from the glowing end of the match cord were to ignite the priming powder before the lid was closed, the result would simply be a flash in the saucer. If the main charge were charged before priming the saucer, the damage caused by the first situation could be catastrophic.

In the 18th century, as typified by the English Brown Bess musket equipped with a flintlock, loading and firing were performed as follows:

• To the order of "bark and load", the soldier would give a quarter back to the right at the same time that he would take the musket to the bait position. The tray would be open after the discharge of the previous shot, which means the frizzen would be inclined forward. If the carabiner did not reload after a previous shot, soldiers would be ordered."Open the tray".
• To the order "handles the cartridge", the soldier would take a cartridge out of the cartridge box he wore on his right hip or on a belt in front of his belly. The cartridges consisted of a spherical ball of lead wrapped in a paper cartridge that also contained the gunpowder thruster. The end of the cartridge opposite the ball was sealed with a simple twist of the paper. Then the soldier pulled the twisted end of the cartridge with his teeth and spit it and continued holding the cartridge now open on his right hand.
• In giving the order of "cebar", the soldier pulled the hammer back to half and poured a small amount of gunpowder from the cartridge into the batch tray. Then he closed the cracker so that the screening powder would be trapped.
• By giving the order "on", the musket's cane was lowered and placed against the soldier's left calves and kept so that he could access the musket's cannon mouth. The soldier then poured the rest of the gunpowder of the cartridge through the cannon's mouth. Then the cartridge was reversed and the end of the cartridge containing the musket bullet was inserted into the barrel's mouth, and the remaining paper was inserted into the barrel's mouth above the musket bullet. This paper acted as a glove to prevent the bullet and gunpowder from falling if the cannon's mouth was lowered.
• When it was ordered "pull batches"the soldier pulled the backet out of the musket. The drum was grabbed and reversed when it was removed, and the big end was about an inch in the barrel's mouth.
• By giving the order of "lower the cartridge", the soldier used the drum to firmly insert the glove, the bullet and the gunpowder to the barrel breech. Then the drum was removed, it was reversed and placed again in the middle of the carabiner by inserting it into the tubes of the first and second bat. The soldier's hand then grabbed the top of the drum.
• By giving the order of "return the batch, the soldier quickly pushed the batch the remaining amount to return it completely to its normal position. Once the drum was well placed, the soldier's right arm stood parallel to the ground at the shoulder height, with the fingertips touching the berry tongue, and slightly pressing the carabiner against the soldier's left shoulder. The soldier's left hand was still holding the musket.

(At no time did the soldier place the musket on the ground to load it)

• To the order "Prepare, the musket rises, perpendicular to the ground, with the left hand in the bowl, the lock turned to the soldier's face, and the soldier's right hand pulls the lock to the top and grabs the musket's wrist.
• To the order of "present", the carabiner's cane was taken to the soldier's right shoulder, while at the same time the soldier lowered the cannon's mouth to the firing position, parallel to the ground, and pointing (if the soldier had been trained to shoot "marks") along the canyon to the enemy.
• To the order of "FireThe soldier pulled the trigger, and the musket (luckily) fired. A complete second was allowed to pass, and then the carabiner was quickly lowered to the load position, with the cane against the soldier's right hip, the cannon's mouth off to the left at an angle of about forty-five degrees, and the soldier looked towards his open skillet to determine if the bait had been turned on.

This process was drilled into the troops until they were able to complete the procedure on hearing a single 'prime and load' command. No further verbal commands were given until the musket was loaded, and the choice was to give the soldiers the command to "Ready", or hold the musket for movement with the command to "Put your shoulder together". The main advantage of the British Army was that the infantryman trained in this procedure almost every day. A group of properly trained regular infantrymen were capable of loading and firing four rounds per minute. A front line infantry company could load and fire five rounds in a minute.

Many soldiers preferred to reduce standard musket reloading procedures in order to increase rate of fire. This statement is from Thomas Anburey, who served as a lieutenant in Burgoyne's army: 'Here I cannot help but observe, whether it came from an idea of self-preservation, or from natural instinct, but the soldiers greatly improved the way they were taught, as to the expedition. Because as soon as they had primed their pieces and put the cartridge in the barrel, instead of ramming it with their rods, they struck the end of the piece on the ground, and bringing it to the present, they fired it".