Throughout the times of war there have been many weapons that have come and gone, but the weapons used in the French and Indian war are still in use today. Todays rifles are modified muskets, our machetes are swords, and the semi-automatic pistols are revised products of the ones used in the 18th century. This paper will show how and why the weapons of the time where used and generally what they where used for. The weapons this paper will touch upon are; the muskets, pistols, and swords used in the French and Indian war.
The flintlock musket, was the main weapon of the British army from the 1730’s past the end of the American Revolution. The first model Brown Bess or Long-Land Musket to use the proper name had a 46-in. barrel with a wooden rammer retained by three pipes of equal size and a tailpiece where it entered the stock. At this point the stock swells out and, generally speaking the bigger the swell the older the gun.
One sling swivel is fastened to the front of the trigger guard bow and the other is screwed through the muzzle end The bayonet, which went with the musket had socket about four inches long and a triangular blade 17 inches long. Another pattern of which there is increasing mention from 1740 onwards is the Short Land musket, with the same style of stock lock and furniture as the Long model but with a 42 inch barrel. There were soon two standard pattern muskets in production the long land with steel rammers and the Short Land with wood rammers, a curious distinction between the two being that only the short pattern had a brass nose cap.
By the middle of the century however an improved pattern noseband, or cap was fitted to both types of muskets. The handgun are pistols of the 18th century where used manly as a defensive weapon. This was do to their inaccuracy in battle. The inaccuracy was caused by the misshapen tendencies of the balls it fired and the shorter length of their barrels. Normally the only person who cared a pistol in battle was an officer, due to the fact that the average man could not afford both the musket and a pistol. Threw the years the pistol was improved but it was thought of as more of a statement of wealth than a tool for offensive uses.
The sword is a weapon consisting of a long, sharp-edged or pointed blade fixed in a hilt (a handle that usually has a protective guard at the place where the handle joins the blade). Harder iron swords where used in the French and Indian war. The sword has always been a personal weapon, effective only in hand-to-hand combat; as such, it was associated with individual distinction. Thus, swords of political and military leaders, nobles, and exceptional warriors frequently were ornamented, with hilts elegantly decorated (and sometimes bejeweled) and blades inlaid with gold and silver or forged so as to produce a watered effect after the damascene fashion. To surrender one’s sword has always been a token of defeat or submission and the breaking of it a ceremony of degradation. In the French and Indian war the method of surrendering ones sword was used quit extensively.
