Loading muskets

Fix bayonets

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

Zucchini said:
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
 
Zucchini said:
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.
 
03USMC said:
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.

You forgot that some of the powder had to be put into the frizzen to ignite the gun
 
Peterminator said:
03USMC said:
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.

You forgot that some of the powder had to be put into the frizzen to ignite the gun

I think percussion caps were in use by the time of paper cartridges.
 
In the time of the musket accuracy was not needed because volume of fire was valued more. The 2 Armies would stand in long thin ranks and each army fired together. The theory was that some of the enemy would get hit by the stream of bullets. That was the mopup, then the infantry
would charge with fixed bayonets. Usually they charged after 5 or more volleys but usually this was enough to send the less powerful army into retreat. If the enemy retreated too fast for the infantry to follow in order then the calvary charged and killed as many of them as they could.The artillery was used for braking down walls and if they were on a hill overlooking the battlefield the artillery would fire at the enemy also, the cannon balls going over the heads of their infantry. Grape shots were deadly at close range. Think of them as buck shots used in artillery.
This kind of warfare was called attrition warfare. The technology of the time did not allow commanders to be creative so battles were won by superior firepower and by which army could hold their ground without retreating from battle.
 
Missileer said:
Peterminator said:
03USMC said:
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.

You forgot that some of the powder had to be put into the frizzen to ignite the gun

I think percussion caps were in use by the time of paper cartridges.
No cartriges were in use even in the american revolution.
(the message in parentheses i edited a couple of minutes after this post:go to page 2)
 
Peterminator said:
Missileer said:
Peterminator said:
03USMC said:
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.

You forgot that some of the powder had to be put into the frizzen to ignite the gun

I think percussion caps were in use by the time of paper cartridges.
No cartriges were in use even in the american revolution.

I just looked at the first post, you're right. Pre-measured powder and ball was not in use until into the Civil War. Colonials had flintlocks and powder flasks of all sorts from brass that would deliver a measure of powder in the muzzle and some shaken into the flash pan. The most common was a horn with the tip cut off and fashioned into a measuring cup.
 
Missileer said:
Peterminator said:
Missileer said:
Peterminator said:
03USMC said:
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.

You forgot that some of the powder had to be put into the frizzen to ignite the gun

I think percussion caps were in use by the time of paper cartridges.
No cartriges were in use even in the american revolution.

I just looked at the first post, you're right. Pre-measured powder and ball was not in use until into the Civil War. Colonials had flintlocks and powder flasks of all sorts from brass that would deliver a measure of powder in the muzzle and some shaken into the flash pan. The most common was a horn with the tip cut off and fashioned into a measuring cup.
I meant NO, cartriges were in use in the american revolution.
The powder horn you described was in use but mainly by civilians therefore the militia.Paper Cartriges were in use by the military becouse it was faster to reload the musket. I know that for a fact thanks to the internet,books and the movie The Patriot (it rocks)
 
The powder horn was carried when using paper cartridges in order to add more powder to your shot for greater range, and often the soldier would carry a better powder, his own blend shall we say. This was often used by rifle regiments and skirmishers in the British army (armed with the venerable Baker rifle).

As for the frizzen. The way it'd work was, the soldier would usually bite the end off the catridge, hold the ball in his mouth. Just a dab of powder in the frizzen, close that up. Then pour the powder down the barrel, drop the paper in, shot in next. Ram it all down with your ram rod, sling that back in its rings and your laughing. A good soldier could get off four rounds a minute.

As for the Baker rifle, it was rifled (logically) so it was harder to ram the charge home. Each shot would be wrapped in a small patch of oiled leather to grip the grooves. It could be used without the leather but then it was only as good as a musket.
 
AussieNick said:
The powder horn was carried when using paper cartridges in order to add more powder to your shot for greater range, and often the soldier would carry a better powder, his own blend shall we say. This was often used by rifle regiments and skirmishers in the British army (armed with the venerable Baker rifle).

As for the frizzen. The way it'd work was, the soldier would usually bite the end off the catridge, hold the ball in his mouth. Just a dab of powder in the frizzen, close that up. Then pour the powder down the barrel, drop the paper in, shot in next. Ram it all down with your ram rod, sling that back in its rings and your laughing. A good soldier could get off four rounds a minute.

As for the Baker rifle, it was rifled (logically) so it was harder to ram the charge home. Each shot would be wrapped in a small patch of oiled leather to grip the grooves. It could be used without the leather but then it was only as good as a musket.

Mostly I agree exept that the british had the brown bess
mabe i just never heard of the baker but they had the brown bess as a standard issue smoothbore
 
The standard issue to regular troops was the Brown Bess. The Baker was issued to units of sharp shooters. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the preimere unit although I do know they were outfitted in Green Uniforms and used their Shako's as rest when firing in the prone position. Maybe Aussienick can help you out with that.
 
03USMC said:
The standard issue to regular troops was the Brown Bess. The Baker was issued to units of sharp shooters. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the preimere unit although I do know they were outfitted in Green Uniforms and used their Shako's as rest when firing in the prone position. Maybe Aussienick can help you out with that.

well in "North and South" a civil war miniseries the Union has
Sharpshooters in green Uniforms and they were given better rifles than the standard infantry of course
 
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