Weapons used during the Revolution

During the Revolution there was a range of weapons used. From the flint lock piston to the cannon. Both sides used very powerful weapons.

One of these weapons is also the most used. It is the Flint lock musket. The musket is a gun that is not riffled witch means that the ball does not spin when it comes out of the barrel, thus making it inaccurate. The musket used black gun power. They were very big weapons with a barrel length of about 42 inches.

On the front of the musket was a bayonet. This was used for hand to hand combat and also was a good tool for fighting cavalry. It was used a pike.

Since the muskets were inaccurate the soldiers stood in long lines. This was to maximize their chance of hitting an enemy. They would line up three lines deep so they could keep a continuous fire. Once one fired they reloaded kneeling down while the other line fired.

Another weapon that I talked about earlier is the cannon. The cannons were also smooth bore so the ball did not spin when I came out. Most of the guns were mounted on a carriage with large wheels.

The cannon fired either a solid lead ball or other different types of shot. Some of the shot had smaller musket balls in them so that they acted as a giant shotgun. Others were hollowed out and filled with black powder fitted with a fuse so that it would explode in mid air.

Cannons had a range of a few hundred yards. A three pound cannon had a range of 800 yards with solid shot and a maximum of 200 yards with other types of shot.