"Revolutionary War Weapons" Topic

"American colonists were barely 12 years removed from the French and Indian wars (1754-1763), but close enough to a new conflict to begin thinking about the necessity for building a store of weapons. Those who served in militias in that earlier war had furnished their own weapons. The guns would have been muskets, fowling pieces or no weapon at all. They brought and carried their own provisions. Although the musket would be carried over to the new war, some weapons had seen its zenith in the old conflict. The matchlock musket was obsolete by 1775, but still retained by some families as a useful, but cumbersome to fire, weapon…"
Main page
link

Amicalement
Armand

I think we have been here before-

"The front line would fire on bent knees. The line of soldiers behind would stand upright ready and loaded to fire, without any delay created by the kneeling soldiers preparing to reload their muskets.

This required pouring the gun powder into the barrel; then inserting the ball in its paper cartridge into the muzzle and employing a ramrod to push the load down the barrel…

The drill manual used by the British emphasizing the line techniques had been used by the Americans. This changed when the Prussian von Steuben arrived at George Washington's headquarters. He brought new ideas to accomplish the same result and also brought to the common soldier an understanding of the strategies utilized in battle. While both methods aimed at inculcating instantaneous discipline, the British methodology was delivered through harsh, unrelenting instruction. Mistakes in drill would subject their soldiers to flogging. That was all but eliminated under the Steuben tutelage. Additionally, he adjusted the line drill to accommodate battles in woodlands. As the war progressed, this approach paid military dividends both for offensive and defensive actions."

Oh Lord. Not another link to a junk webpage full of half truths and outright garbage. Dude, give it a rest.

"brought the common soldier and understanding of the strategies used in battle?" Steuben did no such thing…

And no, the British didn't flog you for dropping your ramrod (though the Rebels would give you 500 lashes for desertion).

Front rank kneeling….only in the movies!

Tango1 is not from our country. I appreciate his interest in looking at our nation's history, but he seems to be completely unable to tell junk webpages from good ones. The problem with posting a junk page, such as the one referenced above, is that people as unknowing as he, take it as fact.

Funny thing is there a number of good websites he could be posting links to, but somehow way too many junk pages seem to get posted instead.

Why no pages from Colonial Williamsburg, Fort Ticonderoga, Loyalist Institute, or any number of other reputable sites?

Unless the point is simply to get a response on how awful a specific page is? I don't know, but it is disheartening.

In the glass half full category: Not all of Armand's links will be hits. Sometimes we have to take the bad ones as the price of getting the good ones. Sometimes a bad link may itself have a link or reference to useful information. Then sometimes a bad link may generate a useful discussion or lead to someone sharing useful information. The three pages that you mention historygamer are ones that I have found to be useful in the past.

I'm not the internet police, but the problem here, on a very focused hobby board, is that all internet posts appear equal, and the less informed reader doesn't know the difference.

I usually look at Tango's posts. But of late, they have been less than encouraging for those seeking factual information. I know it's not his job to verify stuff either, but perhaps we can encourage him to be more selective. One would hope that even a casual reader of the period would know what an outright lie the statement he posted above was:

"The matchlock musket was obsolete by 1775, but still retained by some families as a useful, but cumbersome to fire, weapon…"

My guess is that such families kept that right next to their laser pulse rifle. (rolling eyes)

"…that people as unknowing as he, take it as fact…."

Thanks God for having good historians like you my friend…
who enlighten us … poor ignorant foreigners … (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Well, you do post a lot of junk history to these boards That is, indeed a fact.

So tell us then of your expertise on American history, especially the colonial period, as I'd be interested in hearing more.

Please note, other than a war with the U.K. over the Falkland Islands, I know nothing of your country's history, nor would I ever dream of posting anything on it, not that that would stop you apparently. (smile)

On a related note, do you ever have any original thoughts of your own to post? Do you have figures to show? Put on games? Pictures of those games? Written anything on any particular period we could all read?

Better yet. Why don't you give us your analysis of what is right and wrong about the link and info you posted.

Surely you have some original thought of your own on this information since you posted it for all to see.

Here was generally the same comment someone made about your posts eight years ago:

@Tango01 a.k.a. Armand a.k.a. Dr. Raùl Alberto de la Cruz:

Your posts seem enthusiastic, but you may not realize that many TMP members are probably already aware of many of the pages that you have linked to. And, if they are not, many of them should be able to find the same content by doing their own web searches.

Also, BigRedBat is a TMP member, which you could simply have discovered with a search of TMP, either by author or through Google.

"Instead of making daily (hourly?) posts of links to other people's content, how about either linking to some of your own content through your posts here on TMP or setting up your own webpage ("gatway"?) or blog of links to other people's sites?"

TMP link

The above article reads like the stuff I read in Middle School,very generic and simplified. Fine when you're 14 and learning. Some misinformation or misunderstanding about militias. I'd love to know who was keeping a matchlock. to use, around the house in the 1770's. The print of the militiaman loading his weapon directly from the powder horn is interesting to say the least. How do we say BOOM…?