Prussian Musket 1809 Pattern

The musket is more correctly called a Prussian infantry musket or the Prussian pattern musket these later became known as "Potzdam muskets". The Potzdam musket was the standard infantry weapon of the Royal Prussian Army from the 18^th century until the military reforms of the 1840s. There were four models produced, first in 1723, 1740, 1809 and the last model in 1831. Potzdam lies just outside of the city of Berlin and it was Frederick the Great of Prussia's favourite place of residence. 

After Frederick was crowned king in 1740, he ordered the then-current Prussian musket; a version from 1723, for his army. The Potzdam musket had already made a name for itself by being the first standard German-made musket, and the 1740 model further solidified Potzdam as the key arsenal for Germany. The muskets were widely used by the Prussian army of the various German states in the 18th century. 

The smoothbore musket was reasonably accurate to about 100 yards against line infantry. But the musket was preferably used at a much shorter distance than that when discharged en masse. 

The Model 1809 Prussian Musket, like its predecessor, was assembled at the Potzdam armoury during the Napoleonic Wars. It had steel rather than brass barrel bands to reduce costs, and copied extensively from the design of the French Charleville Model 1777 Musket. The hammer (or cock) had a decorative heart-shaped cut-out, and the steel pan had a protective shield to keep the powder dry in wet weather. The pins were abandoned in favour of three steel barrel bands. Unusually, the fore-sights were cast into the barrel band rather than the end of the barrel. The musket had a 41.25-inch (1,047.75 mm) barrel and an overall length of 56.45 inches (1,433.83 mm), and weighed approximately 9 pounds (4.5 kg). The barrel, lock plate and firing mechanism were made of steel and sling-swivels made of iron whilst other furniture pieces such as the butt plate, trigger guard and ramrod pipe were found in brass. The stock was usually made of Walnut. The calibre was reduced to .71 (18.034mm). The barrels were manufactured separately at Spandau, and were brought to Potzdam for finishing and final assembly of the musket. By 1813, only 55,000 muskets had been made growing to 65,000 by 1815. A well trained Prussian solider could fire 3 to 4 rounds per minute during battle. 

At the Battle of Waterloo, the 1809 pattern Potzdam was the most widespread musket in use by Blücher's army. Due to its large bore, it could fire the cartridges of fallen British or French soldiers, although the smaller French bullets would rattle down the barrel and reduce its accuracy. The socket bayonet of the 1809 musket was patterned after the bayonet of the French Charleville musket. Like most other bayonets of the early 19th century, it had a triangular 19.25-inch (488.95 mm) blade.

British Heavy Cavalry Sword 1796 Pattern

The Pattern 1796 Heavy Cavalry sword was produced from 1796-1821, and it is one of the most iconic swords of the Napoleonic period. The sword was used by all regiments of British heavy cavalry regiments. The Life Guards, Royal Horse Guards, Dragoon Guards and Dragoons and even used in the King’s German Legion Dragoons, throughout the Napoleonic Wars. The 1796 heavy cavalry sword played a big part at the battles of Salamanca and Waterloo. The Swedish and Portuguese also adopted the sword in their cavalry.

The British 1796 Heavy Cavalry Sword was copied from the Austrian Pallasch sword of 1769 in their heavy cavalry regiments. It was John Le Marchant, a cavalry officer who had already designed the 1796 light cavalry sabre, saw the Austrian sword in action during the low Counties Campaign from 1793-95. His first design was rejected by the board of general officers to arm the heavy cavalry with a straight sword but when they finally agreed to use a straight sword, he suggested at the Austrian sword was to be used as a design.

The 1796 pattern sword was technically a backsword which is a sword with a straight blade with one cutting edge with the opposite back edge of the blade was thickened for most of its length to git the blade added strength. The steel blade was 35 inches (890 mm) in length it had a single broad fuller on each side. The grip was of ribbed wood bound with cord and covered in leather. The iron back-piece of the grip had ears which were riveted through the tang of the blade to give the hilt and blade a very secure connection. The hilt had a disc guard pierced with two semi-circular and six oval holes, with a single knucklebow and two slim 2 inch (51 mm) long langets extending from the front of the guard. The langets were often removed on the left hand side of the guard to reduce wear to the uniforms. The modification also made it more comfortable to wear on horseback.

Officer Sword

The sword was often modified by its owner as the point was originally a ‘hatchet point’, a curved diagonal front edge similar to that of the Japanese Katana sword, but most were changed to a ‘spear point’, which was more common at the time. (Due to the sword's broadness this type of point would be very poor at piercing heavy clothing or rolled cloaks, making a thrust a largely unprofitable exercise)

This was done in order to improve the sword’s ability to thrust. They are a very large number of spear-pointed swords that exist with 33 inch (840 mm) blades converted from the original 35 inch (890 mm) blade with shorter modified scabbards to match.

The sword was carried in an iron scabbard with wooden liners. The scabbard hang from the trooper’s waist via the sword-belt sling attached to two loose suspension rings.

In the Household Cavalry there were several sword types with the standard trooper’s blade with a bowl hilt which was similar to the officers’ pattern, with the hilt in brass with a brass scabbard as for the Life-Guards, or iron with iron scabbard for the Horse Guard. Most cavalry troopers used the blades like bludgeons and the guards as knuckle dusters. 

The cavalry officer John Gaspard Le Marchant, who was later to be killed leading a brigade of British heavy cavalry to victory at Salamanca in Spain 1812, wrote that the British cavalry were prescribed a method of sword fighting where the cut was emphasised above the thrust. This method had some advantages which were thought to outweigh the fact that cuts tend to be less fatal than thrusts. The cut is a more instinctive blow than a thrust, and in melees the average cavalryman will tend to cut even if his sword is more suited to the thrust. Also cuts can be directed to any part of the body, whereas thrusts must be delivered to the torso or head if they are to have a reasonable chance of striking home. Lastly an enemy incapacitated by a cut to a limb, particularly an arm, is as useless in battle as if he had been killed. Given that the cut was the preferred method of sword fighting in the British cavalry, then it would be logical that swords optimised for cutting should be adopted, which is indeed what happened.

Another description with the use of the sword was made by Sgt.Charles Ewart of the 2^nd Dragoons (Scots Greys) while capturing the Imperial Eagle at Waterloo.

“It was in the charge I took the eagle off the enemy; he and I had a hard contest for it; he made a thrust at my groin, I parried it off and cut him down through the head. After this a lancer came at me; I threw the lance off my right side, and cut him through the chin upwards through the teeth. Next, a foot soldier fired at me, then charged me with his bayonet, which I also had the good luck to parry, and I cut him down through the head; thus ended the contest.”

Painting of Charles Ewart at Waterloo

The Lance

The lance is one of the oldest cavalry weapon and it is still in use today even though it’s now for ceremonial duties only around the world. A Lancer was a type of light cavalryman who fought with a lance. Lancers were used in mounted warfare by the Assyrians as early as 700 BC and then by the Greeks, Persians, Gallic, Han-Chinese, Nomadic and the Romans.

The lance was used widely in Asia and Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance by armoured cavalry, before being adopted by the light cavalry particularly in Eastern Europe. But by the mid-seventeenth century the lance had almost disappeared from warfare. The lance was mainly a Polish weapon, and by the late Revolutionary Wars to the early Napoleonic period the French, Russian and Austrian armies employed Poles and adopted their Polish style uniform for most of their lancer regiments.

The first lancers were raised in the French army in 1807. Napoleon Bonaparte was so impressed with some Polish soldiers he saw armed with lances that he decided to arm French horsemen with the weapon. The length of the lance gave the soldier the ability to stab his foes at a longer distance than he could with a sword. This made the lancer greatly feared.

The lance was 275cm long and its blackened shaft was made of hardwood such as ash or deal. The bottom has a steel ‘shoe’ to protect the wood when the lance was rested on the ground. The center of the shaft has a Hungarian whitened leather grip and a loop for the fingers called a martingale. The lance was usually decorated with a small flag called a pennon. This dove tailed shaped flag was usually red over white but other combination of colours were used depending on nation and their regiments. The steel point was made with a flattened diamond section which allowed it to easily penetrate an enemy soldier’s body. It is secured by long steel straps called langets which made it harder to chop off the point with a sword. The lance weighed three kilograms (about six pounds, ten ounces)

Lance Tip

Not all the soldiers in a lancer regiment carried the lance. It was confined to those who were in the front rank. Soldiers in other ranks carried swords, pistols and short muskets called carbines. During the Napoleonic Wars many of the nation’s Austrian, French, Polish, Prussian and Russian fielded cavalry armed with the lance. They allowed the light horsemen to hit hard during the attack and with the use of the lance they had greater reach to poke the infantry in square formation although with limited success.

In many of the Napoleonic armies the lancer regiments were called Uhlans especially in the Austrian and Prussian service and they offend used the Polish style of dress with the distinctive ‘Czapka’ cap.

It was only the British army that was without Lancers during the Napoleonic Wars and this was to prove them costly when the French used them with good effect during the battle of Waterloo.

At Waterloo the British did not have any lancers in the army but after seeing them in action and what damage they could do they were finally introduced into the army but not until the following year in 1816.

At Waterloo according to historian Alessandro Barbero, he said that the French lances were "terrifyingly efficient." 

Commander of the French 1st Corps, 4th Division General Durutte, who saw the battle from the high ground in front of Papelotte, would write later, "I had never before realized the great superiority of the lance over the sword."

Bristish Light Cavalry Sabre 1796 Pattern

Captain John Gaspard Le Marchant serving as a brigade major of the 2^nd Dragoon Guards came up with the idea of a light cavalry sabre after he noticed how clumsy the design of the heavy, over-long swords was being used by the British Army at the time of the French Revolution.

With the collaboration with the Birmingham sword cutler Henry Osborn, a new sabre was born. In 1796 the new Light Cavalry Sabre was adopted by the British Army in 1796 and was used by them until 1821.

The sabre was used by mainly by the British Light Dragoons, Hussars and the King’s German Legion light cavalry during the Napoleonic Wars. It was later also adopted by the Prussians (1811), Portuguese and Spanish cavalry and became the finest cutting sword ever manufactured in quantity.

The sword was made of steel with the blade between 32.5 and 33 inches in length measured in a straight line from the hilt to the tip of the sword. The sword had an average weight of 2lbs 2oz.

The handle was made of wood and covered with black leather. A single rivet joined the handle to the blade near the hilt. The hand was protected by a stirrup D shaped single bar knucklebow of iron.

The blade had a pronounced curve with a spear point tip being border from the tip than at the hilt and was very sharp from the last six inches of the blade, making it ideal for hacking and slashing.

The scabbard was also made of steel with wooden liners and had two loose suspension rings.

The mounted swordsmanship training of the British emphasised the cut, at the face for maiming or killing, or at the arms to disable. This left masses of mutilated/disabled troops, the French in contrast, favoured the thrust, which gave a cleaner kill.

Officers of the famous 95^th Rifles and other light infantry regiments and the flank companies of the line regiments adopted swords with an identical hilt to the 1796 light cavalry sabre, but with a lighter and shorter blade.

John Le Marchant introduced a series of reforms to the British cavalry but he sadly died leading a cavalry charge at Salamanca 22^nd July 1812.

The Baker Rifle

The Baker Rifle was used by the British Army from 1801-1837 and was officially known as the Infantry Rifle.

The muzzle-loading flintlock rifle was used by the Rifle regiments in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars.

The Baker Rifle was first made in 1800 by Ezekiel Baker, a master gunsmith from Whitechapel in London and it was the first standard-issue, British made rifle accepted by the British armed forces. The British Army was still issuing the rifle into the late 1830s.

Before the formation of an Experimental Rifle Corps in 1800, a trail was held in Woolwich, London by the British Board of Ordnance on 22 February 1800 in order to select a standard rifle pattern, the rifle designed by Ezekiel Baker was chosen.

The first model resembled the British Infantry Musket, but was rejected as too heavy. Baker was provided with a German Jäger rifle as an example of what was needed. The second model Baker made, it had a .75 calibre bore, the same calibre as the Infantry Musket. It had a 32-inch barrel, with eight rectangular rifling grooves; this model was accepted by the Board of Ordnance as the Infantry Rifle, but more changes were made until it was finally placed into production.

The third and final model had the barrel shortened from 32 to 30-inch, and the calibre was reduced to .653, which allowed the rifle to fire a .625 calibre carbine bullet, with a greased patch to grip the now-seven rectangular grooves in the barrel.

The rifle had a simple folding back-sight with the standard large lock mechanism with a swan-neck cock as fitted to the ’Brown Bess’. Just like the German Jäger rifles, it had a scrolled brass trigger guard to help ensure a firm grip and a raised cheek-piece on the left-hand side of the butt.

Like many rifles, it had a ‘butt-trap’ or patch box where greased linen patches and tools could be stored. The lid of the patch box was made of brass and hinged at the rear, so it could be flipped up. The stock was made of English walnut and held the barrel with three flat captive wedges. The rifle also had a metal locking bar to accommodate a 24-inch sword bayonet, similar to the Jäger rifle. The Baker was 45 inches long from muzzle to butt, 12 inches shorter than the Brown Bess Infantry musket, and was almost 9lb in weight. As gunpowder started to build up in the barrel the weapon became much slower to load and less accurate, so a cleaning kit was stored in the patch box of the Baker.
 

When the Baker rifle came into service, more modifications were made and several different variations of designs were produced. A lighter and shorter carbine version was made for the cavalry including the Life Guards in 1801 and the 10th Hussars.

Following the German design the Baker was designed to accept a sword-bayonet of some 24 inches in length. The first bayonet for the Baker was a single-edged flat sword of 23 inches long. It was brass with handled with a knuckle bow and clipped onto a muzzle bar. It weighed 2lbs and as later reports confirmed, it created difficulties in firing when it was attached to the rifle muzzle. The sword-bayonets were contracted out to the Birmingham sword cutler Henry Osbourne.

 

The second pattern of Baker Rifle was fitted with a ‘Newland’ lock that had a flat-faced ring neck cock. In 1806, a third pattern was made that included a ‘pistol grip’ style trigger guard and a smaller patch box with a plain rounded front. The lock plate was smaller, flat, and had a steeped-down tail, a raised semi-waterproof pan, a flat ring neck cock, and a sliding safety bolt. With the introduction of the Brown Bess in 1810, with its flat lock and ring necked cock, the Baker lock followed suit for that then became the fourth pattern model. It also featured a ‘slit stock’- the stock had a slot cut in it’s under part just over a quarter-inch wide. This was introduced after Ezekiel Baker had seen reports of the ramrod jamming in the stock after a build-up of residue in the ramrod channel, and when the wood warped after getting wet.

During the Napoleonic Wars the Baker was reported to be effective at long range due to its accuracy and dependability under battlefield conditions. But with its advantages, the rifle did not replace the British musket, the Brown Bess, but was issued officially only to rifle regiments. The rifle was also used by what were considered elite units, such as the 5th battalion and rifle companies of the 6th and 7th Battalions of the 60th Regiment of Foot and the three battalions of the 95th Regiment of Foot that served under the Duke of Wellington between 1808 and 1814 in the Peninsular War and again at Waterloo in 1815. The two light infantry Battalions of the King’s German Legion as well as sharpshooter platoons within the Light Companies of the KGL line Battalions also used Baker rifles.

The rifle could not usually be reloaded as fast as a musket, as the slight undersized lead balls had to be wrapped in patches of greased linen so that they could more closely fit the lands of the rifling. A rifleman was expected to be able to fire two aimed shots a minute, compared to the four shots a minute of the Brown Bess musket in the hands of a trained infantryman. In the course of the Napoleonic Wars, rifleman used paper patches and even bare rifle balls when shooting in a hurry in battle, with faster loading time at the cost of accuracy.

Accuracy was of more importance than rate of fire when skirmishing. The rifleman’s main battlefield role was to utilise cover and skirmish against the enemy’s lines or to defeat the French skirmishers, whereas his musket armed counterparts in the line infantry fired in volley of mass fire. The skirmishers would face their opponents in pairs, so that one would fire while the other one reloaded.

The Baker as originally manufactured was expected to be capable of firing at a range of up to 200 yards with a high hit rate. Riflemen would regularly hit targets at ranges considered to be beyond the rifle’s effective range speaks for both their marksmanship and the capabilities of the Baker rifle.

 

 

The French Charleville Musket

 

 

A French man named Marin le Bourgeoys made the first ever flintlock weapons for the King Louis XIII shortly after his accession to the throne in 1610. Throughout the 17^th century, the flintlock muskets were produced in a wide range of models.

In the year 1717, a flintlock musket for the French infantry was standardized. This became the very first standard flintlock to be issued to all infantry regiments.

Although it was more correctly called a French infantry musket or French pattern musket, these flintlock muskets later became known as “Charleville muskets”, named after the armoury Charleville-Mezieres in the Ardennes, France. The musket was also in production at Tulle, St Etienne, Maubeuge Arsenal and many other sites.

The Charleville musket’s design was changed several times during its service in the army from 1717-1839 some 150,000 muskets were made until the percussion lock system made the flintlock obsolete.

The Charleville muskets had a smooth bore barrel some 60 inches in length. Rifles were more accurate than the smooth bore muskets, but the Military commanders favoured the smooth bores on the battlefield, since the round from a rifle had to fit tightly into the barrel, and became very difficult to load after a few shots had been fired because the black powder used at the time quickly blocked the barrel.

The longer range and better accuracy of the rifle was also considered to be of little use on the battlefield that was quickly obscured by the black powder smoke. Like all smooth bore muskets, the Charleville was only accurate to about 50 to 100 meters.

The Charleville’s .69 caliber barrel was a little smaller than its main competitor, the .75 caliber Brown Bess produced by the British. The smaller round as intentionally chosen to reduce weight in the field, but still had enough mass to be effective as a military round. The French muskets were not used in battle like the modern rifle. Instead, the Charleville muskets were fired in mass formations.

The muskets barrel was held together by three barrel bands made of iron. This made the Charleville sturdier than the British Brown Bess musket, which used pins to hold the barrel in place. It also had a single barrel band at the bottom of the barrel which held the wooden ramrod. The butt of the musket was sometimes referred to as the “Patte de vache” (French for “cow’s foot”), as its shape was designed to be used as a club in hand to hand combat. The Stock was usually made out of Walnut. The musket was 60 inches in length and weighed about nine to ten pounds.

 

Charleville muskets were muzzle loaded, and used a flintlock firing mechanism. They fired a round lead ball, but could also fire other ammunition such as buck and ball or shot. The rate of fire would depend on the skill of the soldier this was about 3 shots per minute.

Changes to the musket in the 1740’s included the standardized use of a steel ramrod in 1743 and, after 1746, newly manufactured muskets had the pan/frizzen bridle removed.

In 1777 the musket went through another modification, with a cheek rest cut into the inboard side of the butt. The Model 1777 also featured a slanted brass flash pan and bridle, and a modified trigger guard with two rear finger ridges.

The British Browning Bess

This flintlock musket was used in the British Army from 1722-1838 and was used in all theatres of war throughout the British Empire. There were many versions of the Bess, as it was known, including the Long land Pattern, Short Land Pattern, India Pattern, New Land Pattern Musket, Sea Service Musket and many others.

The Long Land Pattern musket, a .75 caliber flintlock musket was the standard fire arms of the British Empire’s land forces from 1722-1838 before they were superseded by a percussion cap smoothbore musket.

Officially termed King’s Arm or Land Pattern musket, the origins of the nickname Brown Bess is not clear but it first showed up in 1785.

The earliest models had all iron fittings but these were replaced by brass in models built after 1736. The ramrods were first made of wood but were then replaced with iron ones, although guns with wooden ramrods were still issued to troops on American service until 1765 and later on to the loyalist units in the American Revolution.

Stress-bearing parts of the Brown Bess, such as the barrel, lockwork and sling-swivels, were customarily made of iron, while other furniture pieces such as the butt plate, trigger guard and ramrod pipe were found in both iron and brass. The stock was made out of Walnut. The musket weighed about 10 pounds (4.5 kg) and it could be fitted with a 17 inches (430 mm) triangular cross-section bayonet. The weapon had no sights, although the bayonet lug on the barrel may have been used as one. The Infantrymen would point the musket in the direction of the enemy and fire.

The accuracy of the Brown Bess was not too bad, as with most muskets. The range was about 175 yards (160 m) but it was really often fired on mass at 50 yards (46 m) to inflict the greatest damage upon the enemy. The combination of large calibre of the lead ball and the heavy weight of its iron construction contributed to its low effective range. Military tactics of this time stressed mass volleys and massed bayonet charges, instead of individual marksmanship. The lead ball could inflict a great deal of damage when it hit and the great length of the weapon allowed longer reach in hand to hand combat.

Of all the versions made, the India pattern was supposed to be the most accurate with an effective range of 175 yards and with a 75-95% accuracy. As used by the British regiments of the Napoleonic Era, the weapons were quite reliable. A trained solider would take about 43 seconds to fire off three shots but in battle they were expected to fire 3-4 shots a minute. An inexperienced recruit perhaps two shots a minute. The weapon also had a thicker barrel than most contemporary firearms which reduced its chances of blowing up due to powder overload.   

The standard military loading procedure for a Brown Bess from a paper cartridge, which included lead ball and gun powder is as follows.

1. Tear cartridge with teeth and prime the pan directly from the cartridge.
2. Stand the musket and pour the rest of the powder down the barrel.
3. Reverse the cartridge and use the ramrod to seat ball and paper cartridge into the barrel.
4. Cock the musket, present and fire.