How did military armies load their muskets especially the British since it was not allowed to put the powder and bal down the barrell at the same time?

I am also curios about ,musket wadding

First of all was absolutely necessary?

Where did the wadding go between the ball and the powder or on tope of the ball?

Where did the wadding actually come from, I know that Napoeleonic armies used their aper wrappers for their wadding but what about frontiers men who used powder frm a powder horn?


Thanks Andy

Prepared Cartridges had powder then ball in a paper wrapper. Bite off the powder end pour the powder down the muzzle work the ball into the muzzle ram the ball and paper (for wadding) down the barrel.

Wadding served to compress the powder charge and ensure the powder was tight and exploded instead of just burning and not discharging.

Unprepared charges, loose powder, ball and wadding. Generally the wadding was whatever paper or cloth they could come up with.

I heard somewhere that silk was the most effective.... Is that correct?

I've heard silk was best for accuracy too. Hmmmmm something to try next day off. Now to bogart one of the Wifes scraves.

I remember reading that one unit in the Revolutionary War used pages from hymn books for wadding after they ran out of other stuff. Since it was the preacher who got the books from a near by church, I guess it was ok. Some solders were singing the hymns that they were firing at the British. I will have to reread that battle again.

"The Reverend James Caldwell and his hymn books saved the day at the Battle of Springfield, on June 23, 1780. On the perimeter of Springfield, a group of Rhode Island Colonials were trying to hold their ground against 5,000 enemy troops. At the height of the battle, the Colonials ran out of paper wadding, used to ram powder into their guns. Reverend Caldwell raced to nearby Springfield Church, scooped up as many hymnals as he could carry and raced back to the fighting. He passed out the books urging the troops to use the pages for wadding. The books were called "Watt's Hymnals." Reverend Caldwell yelled out, "Give them Watt's, Boys." Thus was born the Battle Cry of Springfield."

What the musket ball didn't kill, the wadding often did.

Hey Doody, that was the Battle of Springfield NJ which was fought in 1780 and was one of the last major engagements of the war in the North . According to the story, the Rev. Caldwell had just learned days before the battle of his wife's intentional death at the hand of British soldiers. He re-joined the Army at Springfield, while the battle was being fought.

Originally Posted by Zucchini

What the musket ball didn't kill, the wadding often did.

As an interesting side note I recently read medical reports about 2 children that had accidentally been shot by muzzle-loaded weapons. Their chest cavities had to be thoroughly irrigated to clean out the wadding that had been carried along by the musket ball to prevent infection. Obviously they didn't have the ability to do this in the 1700s and 1800s.
BTW both kids pulled through just fine.

For the use of muskets the TV series called Sharp can be very interesting. This series follows a group of riflemen during the Napoleonic wars

Originally Posted by Zucchini

What the musket ball didn't kill, the wadding often did.

In basic, the first thing demonstrated with an M1 rifle was that the wad in a blank cartridge would make a hole in a doubled crocus or toe sack at close range.

Historians of the Nep wars have stated that the most common injury that physicians had to deal with was broken bone fragments and jaw fragments from the poor bastards next door neighbours in the rank.

apparently often one well placed or should I say lucky shot would drop two or three men.

why the caus rates weren't higher in those days is beyond me.