"Archers" Topic

While in Upper Canada the military did have help from the local natives why did archers cease to be used in the era?

I would think a crossbow is faster shooting, more accurate and has a greater range than a musket.

So could someone help me understand why archers died out?

A crossbow? Have you ever tried drawing one? Good lawd.

I understand a pain to load however a much better range and accuracy still has to count for something. If not a crossbow then just a longbow at least.

For the Longbow, takes too long to train up a good long bowmen. Crossbows, probably to expensive to make in mass and harder to take care of. And you still had to be in pretty good shape to use one. Musket, cheap to make easy to get trained up on.

Indians wanted to get out of the stone age as much as anyone else would. They certainly got muskets as soon as possible.

I doubt anyone could have been persuaded to go back to crossbows by 1812.

Boom beats twang.

If I'm a musketeer in a battalion of infantry nothing would terrify me more than a cloud of arrows headed my way.

I can understand the effectiveness of a cannon and mortars but as Der Alte Fritz mentioned a cloud of arrows would be a horrific sight.

So would a cloud of RPG's.

With about the same likelihood of happening.

Well, for one thing, the Indians never had used crossbows. Certainly a case can be made that skilled longbowmen would have been superior in rate of fire, range and accuracy to men armed with the common musket. However, by the War of 1812, Indians had largely lost their skill as archers after nearly two centuries of trading for muskets from the French and English.

Europeans had given up archery in war as stronger armor was introduced in the 15th & 16th century, which reduced the ability of arrows or crossbow bolts to penetrate. Once muskets capable of penetrating most armor were generally adopted, then the use of armor was greatly reduced. But no serious attempt to reintroduce archers on the battlefield took place.

There were a few recommendations over a couple of centuries for resuming archery,mostly from non-military types. Ben Franklin was in favor of it,IIRC. Soldiers took no notice.

In fact,as late as the ACW,there were stores of pikes in some CSA arsenals. Needless to say,they didn't see any action.

Which reminds me of another example of obsolete weaponry. Heard in the ranks of a regiment about to be charged by Union cavalry:

"Here come them fools with the sabers again!"

Early indians saw muskets as prestige weapons, this was common in many less developed societies.
Muskets have some advantages over ancient weapons that have not been mentioned above, for one, its hard to hide behind a rock and shoot a bow!, secondly, primitive missiles can be thrown back by the enemy!

Native American bows were not exactly longbows – shorter distance, not to mention much smaller groups of warriors

By the War of 1812 pretty much all the native Canadians had opted for muskets

Among the Southern Muskogee tribe, the bow was used by the Upper Creek fanatics of the Redsticks. They believed that if they did not use any white mans weapons then the bullets could not kill them.
Other Upper and lower Creek warriors used muskets by this time. The problem would become the availability of shot and powder which made warriors use bows when the shot or powder was lacking. Chickasaw and Choctaw pro-American Warriors as well as Cherokee used muskets since only a limited number of warriors joined the Americans.

Bullets, powder and muskets were all common cottage-industry items by 1812, and in Europe were already part of a growing military-industrial complex.

By contrast, crossbows and arrows/bolts would have been specialist items whose manufacture would have been known by only a very few people. It's pretty hard to outfit an army with weapons no one remembers how to make!

The logistical problem with cottage industry muskets is that very barrel had a different bore. There was no one size fits all on the frontier. The mold making caster was very important.
The first battle in the South at Brunt Corn Creek in Alabama was Lower Creek with 'mix bloods' and American militia trying to stop Upper Creek warriors from bring powder and shot from Pensacola back north.

Two handed clubs, one handed clubs and bows were common weapons for the Francis Joesph and his fanatic followers.

every barrel not very barrel. The scenes in a movie where the soldier, frontiersman or warrior making bullets around the camp fire is very realistic.
Sometimes on the frontier, it was a balance of shot and powder. A warrior had to have just enough of each and not too much.
Because of the delicate balance, warriors did not practice distant shooting which was regarded as a waste of ammo. They practiced shooting with a bow. Different arrow head sizes were used for game of different types or for war.
The scene in the last of the Mohicans where the guy is using the musket for a close range assault was still practiced in the War of 1812 and the Creek Civil War.

Grand Fenwick never gave up the longbow.