Musket

A musket is a

The first recorded usage of the term "musket" or moschetti appeared in Europe in the year 1499.[7] Evidence of the musket as a type of firearm does not appear until 1521 when it was used to describe a heavy arquebus capable of penetrating heavy armour.^[8] This version of the musket fell out of use after the mid-16th century with the decline of heavy armour;^[9] however, the term itself stuck around as a general descriptor for "shoulder arms" fire weapons into the 19th century. The differences between the arquebus and musket post-16th century are therefore not entirely clear, and the two have been used interchangeably on several occasions.^[10][11] According to historian David A. Parrot, the concept of the musket as a legitimate innovation is uncertain and may consist of nothing more than a name change.^[12]

Parts of a musket

Trigger guards began appearing in 1575.^[9]

Bayonets were attached to muskets in several parts of the world from the late 16th to 17th centuries.^[13][14][13]

Locks came in many different varieties. Early matchlock and

The phrase "lock, stock, and barrel" refers to the three main parts of a musket.[16]^{[page needed]}

Ammunition

Sixteenth- and 17th-century musketeers used bandoliers which held their pre-measured charges and lead balls.

The Minié ball, which despite its name was actually bullet-shaped and not ball-shaped, was developed in the 1840s.^[17] The Minié ball had an expanding skirt which was intended to be used with rifled barrels, leading to what was called the rifled musket, which came into widespread use in the mid-19th century. The Minié ball was small enough in diameter that it could be loaded as quickly as a round ball, even with a barrel that had been fouled with black powder residue after firing many shots, and the expanding skirt of the Minié ball meant that it would still form a tight fit with the barrel and impart a good spin into the round when fired. This gave the rifled musket an effective range of several hundred yards, which was a significant improvement over the smooth bore musket. For example, combat ranges of 300 yd (270 m) were achievable using the rifled muskets during the American Civil War.^[18]

Musketeers often used paper cartridges, which served a purpose similar to that of modern

Some ramrods were equipped with threaded ends, allowing different attachments to be used. One of the more common attachments was a ball screw or ball puller, which was a screw that could be screwed into the lead ball to remove it if it had become jammed in the barrel, similar to the way that a corkscrew is used to remove a wine cork. Another attachment was called a worm, which was used to clear debris from the barrel, such as paper wadding that had not been expelled. Some worm designs were sturdy enough that they could be used to remove stuck ammunition. The worm could also be used with a small piece of cloth for cleaning. A variation on the worm called the "screw and wiper" combined the typical design of a worm with a ball puller's screw.^{[20][page needed]}

History

Heavy arquebus

The heavy arquebus known as the musket appeared in Europe by 1521.^[1] In response to firearms, thicker armour was produced, from 15 kg (33 lb 1 oz) in the 15th century to 25 kg (55 lb 2 oz) in the late 16th century.^[21] Armour that was 2 mm (0.079 in) thick required nearly three times as much energy to penetrate as did armour that was only 1 mm (0.039 in) thick.^[22] During the siege of Parma in 1521, many Spanish soldiers reportedly used an "arquebus with rest", a weapon much larger and more powerful than the regular arquebus. However, at this point, long-barrelled, musket-calibre weapons had been in use as wall-defence weapons in Europe for almost a century.^{[23][page needed]}

The musketeers were the first infantry to give up armour entirely. Musketeers began to take cover behind walls or in sunken lanes and sometimes acted as skirmishers to take advantage of their ranged weapons. In England, the musket barrel was cut down from 4 ft (1.2 m) to 3 ft (0.91 m) around 1630.^[24] The number of musketeers relative to pikemen increased partly because they were now more mobile than pikemen.^[25]

Muskets of the 16th to 19th centuries were accurate enough to hit a target of 50 cm (20 in) in diameter at a distance of 100 m (330 ft). At the same distance, musket bullets could penetrate a steel bib about 4 mm (0.16 in) thick, or a wooden shield about 130 mm (5.1 in) thick. The maximum range of the bullet was 1,100 m (1,200 yd). The speed of the bullets was between 450 and 540 m/s (1,500 and 1,800 ft/s), and the kinetic energy was 3,000–4,000 J (2,200–3,000 ft⋅lbf).^[26]

Flintlock musket

The heavy musket went out of favour around the same time the snaphance flintlock was invented in Europe, in 1550.^[27] The snaphance was followed by the "true" flintlock in the late 17th century. While the heavy variant of the arquebus died out due to the decline of heavy armour, the term "musket" itself stuck around as a general term for 'shoulder arms' fireweapons, replacing "arquebus," and remained until the 1800s. The differences between the arquebus and musket post-16th century are therefore not entirely clear, and the two have been used interchangeably on several occasions.^[10] Flintlocks are not usually associated with arquebuses.^[28]

A variation of the musket known as the

Matchlock firearms were used in India by 1500,

The Portuguese may have introduced muskets to Sri Lanka during their conquest of the coastline and lowlands in 1505, as they regularly used short barrelled matchlocks during combat. However, P. E. P. Deraniyagala points out that the Sinhalese term for gun, 'bondikula', matches the Arabic term for gun, 'bunduk'. Also, certain technical aspects of the early Sri Lankan matchlock were similar to the matchlocks used in the Middle East, thus forming the generally accepted theory that the musket was not entirely new to the island by the time the Portuguese came. In any case, soon native Sri Lankan kingdoms, most notably the Kingdom of Sitawaka and the Kingdom of Kandy, manufactured hundreds of Lankan muskets, with a unique bifurcated stock, longer barrel and smaller calibre, which made it more efficient in directing and using the energy of the gunpowder. These were mastered by the Sri Lankan soldiers to the point where, according to the Portuguese chronicler, Queirós, they could "fire at night to put out a match" and "by day at 60 paces would sever a knife with four or five bullets" and "send as many on the same spot in the target."^[35]

Middle East

Despite initial reluctance, the Safavid Empire of Persia rapidly acquired the art of making and using handguns. A Venetian envoy, Vincenzo di Alessandri, in a report presented to the Council of Ten on 24 September 1572, observed:

They used for arms, swords, lances, arquebuses, which all the soldiers carry and use; their arms are also superior and better tempered than those of any other nation. The barrels of the arquebuses are generally six spans long and carry a ball little less than three ounces in weight. They use them with such facility that it does not hinder them drawing their bows nor handling their swords, keeping the latter hung at their saddle bows till occasion requires them. The arquebus is then put away behind the back so that one weapon does not impede the use of the other.^[2]

Japan

During the Sengoku period of Japan, arquebuses were introduced by Portuguese merchantmen from the region of Alentejo in 1543 and by the 1560s were being mass-produced locally.^[33] By the end of the 16th century, the production of firearms in Japan reached enormous proportions, which allowed for a successful military operation in Korea during the Japanese invasions of Korea. Korean chief state councillor Ryu Seong-ryong noted the clear superiority of the Japanese musketeers over the Korean archers:

In the 1592 invasion, everything was swept away. Within a fortnight or a month the cities and fortresses were lost, and everything in the eight directions had crumbled. Although it was [partly] due to there having been a century of peace and the people not being familiar with warfare that this happened, it was really because the Japanese had the use of muskets that could reach beyond several hundred paces, that always pierced what they struck, that came like the wind and the hail, and with which bows and arrows could not compare.^[36]

— Letter from Yu Song-nyong

China

Arquebuses were imported by the

In Korea, the

The musket was a smoothbore firearm and lacked rifling grooves that would have spun the bullet in such a way as to increase its accuracy. The last contact with the musket barrel gives the ball a spin around an axis at right angles to the direction of flight. The aerodynamics result in the ball veering off in a random direction from the aiming point. The practice of rifling, putting grooves in the barrel of a weapon, causing the projectile to spin on the same axis as the line of flight, prevented this veering off from the aiming point. Rifles already existed in Europe by the late 15th century, but they were primarily used as sporting weapons and had little presence in warfare.^[1] The problem with rifles was the tendency for powder fouling to accumulate in the rifling, making the piece more difficult to load with each shot. Eventually, the weapon could not be loaded until the bore was wiped clean. For this reason, smoothbore muskets remained the primary firearm of most armies until the mid-19th century.^[7] It was not until 1611 that rifles started seeing some limited usage in warfare by Denmark.^[7] Around 1750, rifles began to be used by skirmishers of Frederick the Great, recruited in 1744 from a Jäger unit of game-keepers and foresters,^[51] but the rifle's slow rate of fire still restricted their usage.

The invention of the

The Crimean War (1853–1856) saw the first widespread use of the rifled musket for the common infantryman and by the time of the American Civil War (1861–1865) most infantry were equipped with the rifled musket. These were far more accurate than smoothbore muskets and had a far longer range, while preserving the musket's comparatively faster reloading rate. Their use led to a decline in the use of massed attacking formations, as these formations were too vulnerable to the accurate, long-range fire a rifle could produce. In particular, attacking troops were within range of the defenders for a longer period of time, and the defenders could also fire at them more quickly than before. As a result, while 18th-century attackers would only be within range of the defenders' weapons for the time it would take to fire a few shots, late-19th-century attackers might suffer dozens of volleys before they drew close to the defenders, with correspondingly high casualty rates. However, the use of massed attacks on fortified positions were not immediately replaced with new tactics, and as a result, major wars of the late 19th century and early 20th century tended to produce very high casualty figures.^[3]

Operation

This section needs expansion with: the standard drill method of loading a musket. You can help by adding to it. (July 2023)

Many soldiers preferred to reduce the standard musket reloading procedures in order to increase the speed of fire. This statement is from Thomas Anburey who served as a lieutenant in Burgoyne's army: "Here I cannot help observing to you, whether it proceeded from an idea of self-preservation, or natural instinct, but the soldiers greatly improved the mode they were taught in, as to expedition. For as soon as they had primed their pieces and put the cartridge into the barrel, instead of ramming it down with their rods, they struck the butt end of the piece upon the ground, and bringing it to the present, fired it off". This practice was known as 'tap-loading'.^[56][57][58]

Tactics

Countermarch

As muskets became the default weapon of armies, the slow reloading time became an increasing problem. The difficulty of reloading—and thus the time needed to do it—was diminished by making the musket ball much smaller than the internal diameter of the barrel, so as the interior of the barrel became dirty from soot from previously fired rounds, the musket ball from the next shot could still be easily rammed. In order to keep the ball in place once the weapon was loaded, it would be partially wrapped in a small piece of cloth.^[59] However, the smaller ball could move within the barrel as the musket was fired, decreasing the accuracy of musket fire^[60] (it was complained that it took a man's weight in lead musket balls to kill him).^[61]

The development of

All the musketeers, when they get near the enemy are not allowed to fire early, and they're not allowed to just fire everything off in one go, [because] whenever the enemy then approaches close, there won't be enough time to load the guns (銃裝不及), and frequently this mismanagement costs the lives of many people. Thus, whenever the enemy gets to within a hundred paces' distance, they [the musketeers] are to wait until they hear a blast on the bamboo flute, at which they deploy themselves in front of the troops, with each platoon (哨) putting in front one team (隊). They [the musketeer team members] wait until they hear their own leader fire a shot, and only then are they allowed to give fire. Each time the trumpet gives a blast, they fire one time, spread out in battle array according to the drilling patterns. If the trumpet keeps blasting without stopping, then they are allowed to fire all together until their fire is exhausted, and it's not necessary [in this case] to divide into layers.[64]

— Jixiao Xinshu

Frederick Lewis Taylor claims that a kneeling volley fire may have been employed by

I have discovered ... a method of getting the musketeers and soldiers armed with arquebuses not only to keep firing very well but to do it effectively in battle order ... in the following manner: as soon as the first rank has fired together, then by the drill [they have learned] they will march to the back. The second rank, either marching forward or standing still, [will next] fire together [and] then march to the back. After that, the third and following ranks will do the same. Thus before the last ranks have fired, the first will have reloaded.[71]

— Letter from Louis to Maurice

Light infantry

In the 18th century, regular light infantry began to emerge. In contrast to the front-line infantry, they fought in the loose formation, used natural shelters and terrain folds. In addition, they were better prepared to target single targets. This type of troops was designed to fight against irregular enemy troops, such as militia, guerrillas and natives. At the beginning of the 19th century, the number of light infantry increased dramatically. In the French army, light infantry accounted for 25% of the infantry. In the Russian Army, 50 light infantry regiments and one company in each battalion were formed, which accounted for about 40% of light infantry in the entire infantry.^[72]

Attack column

In the 19th century, a new tactic was devised by the French during the

• Grenadier
• Line infantry
• Musketoon
• Pike and shot

References

Bibliography

• Adle, Chahryar (2003), History of Civilizations of Central Asia: Development in Contrast: from the Sixteenth to the Mid-Nineteenth Century
• Ágoston, Gábor (2008), Guns for the Sultan: Military Power and the Weapons Industry in the Ottoman Empire, Cambridge University Press,
  ISBN 978-0-521-60391-1
• Agrawal, Jai Prakash (2010), High Energy Materials: Propellants, Explosives and Pyrotechnics, Wiley-VCH
• Andrade, Tonio (2016), The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History, Princeton University Press,
  ISBN 978-0-691-13597-7
  .
• Arnold, Thomas (2001), The Renaissance at War, Cassell & Co,
  ISBN 0-304-35270-5
• Bak, J. M. (1982), Hunyadi to Rákóczi: War and Society in Late Medieval and Early Modern Hungary
• Barwick, Humphrey (1594), Breefe Discourse Concerning the Force and Effect of all Manuall of Weapons of Fire...
• Benton, James G., Captain (1862). A Course of Instruction in Ordnance and Gunnery (2 ed.). West Point, New York: Thomas Publications.
  ISBN 1-57747-079-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
  )
• Brown, G. I. (1998), The Big Bang: A History of Explosives, Sutton Publishing,
  ISBN 0-7509-1878-0
  .
• Buchanan, Brenda J., ed. (2006), "Gunpowder, Explosives and the State: A Technological History", Technology and Culture, 49 (3), Aldershot: Ashgate: 785–786,
  S2CID 111173101
• Chase, Kenneth (2003), Firearms: A Global History to 1700, Cambridge University Press,
  ISBN 0-521-82274-2
  .
• Cocroft, Wayne (2000), Dangerous Energy: The archaeology of gunpowder and military explosives manufacture, Swindon: English Heritage,
  ISBN 1-85074-718-0
• Cowley, Robert (1993), Experience of War, Laurel.
• Cressy, David (2013), Saltpeter: The Mother of Gunpowder, Oxford University Press
• Crosby, Alfred W. (2002), Throwing Fire: Projectile Technology Through History, Cambridge University Press,
  ISBN 0-521-79158-8
  .
• Curtis, W. S. (2014), Long Range Shooting: A Historical Perspective, WeldenOwen.
• Earl, Brian (1978), Cornish Explosives, Cornwall: The
  ISBN 0-904040-13-5
  .
• Easton, S. C. (1952), Roger Bacon and His Search for a Universal Science: A Reconsideration of the Life and Work of Roger Bacon in the Light of His Own Stated Purposes, Basil Blackwell
• Ebrey, Patricia B. (1999), The Cambridge Illustrated History of China, Cambridge University Press,
  ISBN 0-521-43519-6
• Eltis, David (1998), The Military Revolution in Sixteenth-Century Europe
• Grant, R.G. (2011), Battle at Sea: 3,000 Years of Naval Warfare, DK Publishing.
• Hadden, R. Lee. 2005. "Confederate Boys and Peter Monkeys." Armchair General. January 2005. Adapted from a talk given to the Geological Society of America on 25 March 2004.
• Hall, Bert S. (1997), Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe
• Harding, Richard (1999), Seapower and Naval Warfare, 1650–1830, UCL Press Limited
• al-Hassan, Ahmad Y. (2001), "Potassium Nitrate in Arabic and Latin Sources", History of Science and Technology in Islam
  , retrieved 23 July 2007.
• Hobson, John M. (2004), The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, Cambridge University Press.
• Janin, Hunt (2013), Mercenaries in Medieval and Renaissance Europe
• Johnson, Norman Gardner. "explosive". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Chicago.
• Keegan, John (1993), A History of Warfare, Vintage Books
• Kelly, Jack (2004), Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, & Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive that Changed the World, Basic Books,
  ISBN 0-465-03718-6
  .
• Khan, Iqtidar Alam (1996), "Coming of Gunpowder to the Islamic World and North India: Spotlight on the Role of the Mongols", Journal of Asian History, 30: 41–5.
• Khan, Iqtidar Alam (2004), Gunpowder and Firearms: Warfare in Medieval India, Oxford University Press
• Khan, Iqtidar Alam (2008), Historical Dictionary of Medieval India, The Scarecrow Press, Inc.,
  ISBN 978-0-8108-5503-8
• Kinard, Jeff (2007), Artillery An Illustrated History of its Impact
• Nagayama, Kōkan (1997), The Connoisseur's Book of Japanese Swords
• Konstam, Angus (2002), Renaissance War Galley 1470–1590, New Vanguard 62, Osprey Publishing,
  ISBN 9781841764436
  .
• Liang, Jieming (2006), Chinese Siege Warfare: Mechanical Artillery & Siege Weapons of Antiquity, Singapore, Republic of Singapore: Leong Kit Meng,
  ISBN 981-05-5380-3
• Lidin, Olaf G. (2002), Tanegashima – The Arrival of Europe in Japan, Nordic Inst of Asian Studies,
  ISBN 8791114128
• Little, Benerson (2010), How History's Greatest Pirates Pillaged, Plundered, and Got Away With It
• Lorge, Peter A. (2008), The Asian Military Revolution: from Gunpowder to the Bomb, Cambridge University Press,
  ISBN 978-0-521-60954-8
• Lu, Gwei-Djen (1988), "The Oldest Representation of a Bombard", Technology and Culture, 29 (3): 594–605,
  S2CID 112733319
• McNeill, William Hardy (1992), The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community, University of Chicago Press.
• Morillo, Stephen (2008), War in World History: Society, Technology, and War from Ancient Times to the Present, Volume 1, To 1500, McGraw-Hill,
  ISBN 978-0-07-052584-9
• ISBN 0-521-08573-X
• Needham, Joseph (1986), Science & Civilisation in China, vol. V:7: The Gunpowder Epic, Cambridge University Press,
  ISBN 0-521-30358-3
  .
• Nicolle, David (1990), The Mongol Warlords: Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, Hulegu, Tamerlane
• Nolan, Cathal J. (2006), The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000–1650: an Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization, vol. 1, A–K, Westport & London: Greenwood Press,
  ISBN 0-313-33733-0
• Norris, John (2003), Early Gunpowder Artillery: 1300–1600, Marlborough: The Crowood Press.
• Partington, J. R. (1960), A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder, Cambridge, UK: W. Heffer & Sons.
• Partington, J. R. (1999) [1960], A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
  ISBN 0-8018-5954-9
  – via archive.org
• Patrick, John Merton (1961), Artillery and warfare during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Utah State University Press.
• Pauly, Roger (2004), Firearms: The Life Story of a Technology, Greenwood Publishing Group.
• Perrin, Noel (1979), Giving up the Gun, Japan's reversion to the Sword, 1543–1879, Boston: David R. Godine,
  ISBN 0-87923-773-2
• Peterson, Harold L. (1965), Arms and Armor in Colonial America: 1526–1783
• Petzal, David E. (2014), The Total Gun Manual (Canadian edition), WeldonOwen.
• Phillips, Henry Prataps (2016), The History and Chronology of Gunpowder and Gunpowder Weapons (c.1000 to 1850), Notion Press
• Purton, Peter (2010), A History of the Late Medieval Siege, 1200–1500, Boydell Press,
  ISBN 978-1-84383-449-6
• Razso, G. (1982), From Hunyadi to Rakocki: War and Society in Late Medieval and Early Modern Hungary
• Robins, Benjamin (1742), New Principles of Gunnery
• Rogers, Clifford J. (1995), The Military Revolution Debate
• Rose, Susan (2002), Medieval Naval Warfare 1000–1500, Routledge
• Roy, Kaushik (2015), Warfare in Pre-British India, Routledge
• Schmidtchen, Volker (1977a), "Riesengeschütze des 15. Jahrhunderts. Technische Höchstleistungen ihrer Zeit", Technikgeschichte 44 (2): 153–173 (153–157)
• Schmidtchen, Volker (1977b), "Riesengeschütze des 15. Jahrhunderts. Technische Höchstleistungen ihrer Zeit", Technikgeschichte 44 (3): 213–237 (226–228)
• Sherer, Idan (2017), Warriors for a Living: The Experience of the Spanish Infantry During the Italian Wars, 1494-1559, Brill
• Tran, Nhung Tuyet (2006), Viêt Nam Borderless Histories, University of Wisconsin Press.
• ISBN 1-84176-478-7
• Urbanski, Tadeusz (1967), Chemistry and Technology of Explosives, vol. III, New York: Pergamon Press.
• Villalon, L. J. Andrew (2008), The Hundred Years War (part II): Different Vistas, Brill Academic Pub,
  ISBN 978-90-04-16821-3
• Wagner, John A. (2006), The Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War, Westport & London: Greenwood Press,
  ISBN 0-313-32736-X
• Watson, Peter (2006), Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud, Harper Perennial (2006),
  ISBN 0-06-093564-2
• Williams, Alan (2003), A history of the metallurgy of armour in the middle ages and the early modern period, Brill
• Willbanks, James H. (2004), Machine guns: an illustrated history of their impact, ABC-CLIO, Inc.
• Worman, Charles G. (2005), Gunsmoke and Saddle Leather: Firearms in the nineteenth-century American West, UNM Press

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Muskets.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Musket".

• History of numerous Muskets
• Infantry Tactics During the Napoleonic wars – Musketry
• The Arquebus and Matchlock Musket Page (archived 27 October 2009)
• Musket, Bayonet and Sword (archived 26 September 2008)
• ACCOUTERMENTS (archived 10 June 2009)