La Grande Armée (Episode 2) - The Infantry & Officer Corps [48:11-53:16]

drill. He began by drawing a cartridge from his jabelle, biting the paper from its bottom to expose the gun powder charge and then inserting it into the bassine or priming pan of the musket. Next, taking a horn of gun powder called a cuttush from his belt, he would pour some into the bassine, then brace the butt of the musket against the ground and pour another pinch down the barrel. With the muskets still braced, the musket ball was inserted down the barrel and pushed to the bass by a ramrod. With this complete, the musket was ready to fire. Pulling the trigger would release the spring at the base of the flint, which would spark through the touch hole into the firing pan and ignite the charge therein. A fully trained soldier could fire between two and three rounds a minute, up to four or five if they cut corners. For instance, in the opening stages, the musket ball could be bitten off and later spat down the barrel. It was also possible to skip the opening firing steps by closing the bassine and turning the cartridge and then smacking the musket against the ground instead of using the ramrod. At the cost of a lower power shot, this could cut the loading times in half. The French did find, however, that a hearty bang on the butt could cheer the thing off. For these sorts of reasons, soldiers of all armies were generally reluctant to skimp out on vital steps, only really doing so to repel charges. An improperly loaded musket was far more dangerous to the user than to the target. In the heat of battle, leaving a ramrod in the barrel, are accidentally double loading two cartridges might see the musket detonate, blinding, maiming or killing the user. Recruits were hyper prone to these mishaps, but even veterans came to grieve when through no fault of their own. The mass produced weapon misfired on average, once every ten shots. The battlefield used the jibal and contained a handy bullet extractor called a tiarbal. Having to use the tiarbal under fire was not fun, so preventive maintenance proved the best hope for limiting misfires, or were still catastrophic failures. A long needle was used to defal the touch hole and oil to grease the firing mechanism. Goprol's carried spare springs and the device to ring out them. A bad flint was often the cause of a misfire. New ones were stored in wax paper, while used ones as the veterans who were cooked to impart to the newbies could be somewhat restored by using the bayonet or ramrod as a wetstone. Barrels fouled quickly, needing a full cleaning out after 50 shots. This was accomplished by removing the barrel, submerging it in water, and then oiling it up with a rag. The process of cleaning and maintaining the weapon was in many ways more important than firing it. Good companies cleared and cleaned their rifles daily, an ounce of prevention and all that. Plugging barrels with cork tompia, covering the firing pan with wax paper, or even purchasing or fashioning a leather holster, all prevented the musket from wear and tear. Such measures were especially useful in wet or snowy conditions, with a combination of damp powder or poor sparking could see misfires with almost every shot. Testy that was was the shunwheel when fired in mast volleys by trained hands was a brutally effective weapon. The better part of this effectiveness was training. The French drilled relentlessly to an exacting standard, firing and loading were drilled to a point where they became muscle memory. Some things never became easy, only bearable. The recoil in the musket was a solid kick to the upper body, bracing against the blow kept a soldier upright and the cost of bruising along the shoulder and arm. Repeated firing also enveloped him in thick, accurate smoke. Dehydration quickly set in, made worse by the inadvertent swallowing of side of the gunpowder with each reload. This is to say nothing of the deafening boom of hundreds, if not thousands of muskets, firing in the cut-coffing of battle. Eyes stinging, mouth-parched, body battered and bruised, even when done right firing was a tough time. Mostively, if we might say that, firefights were usually short and sharp. French tactics emphasised shock action. Equipped with a bayonet, each soldier was also drilled to thrust, parry and charge. Being as it was 1.57 metres in length, the Charlesville was as tall as the minimum height of a French conscript, 5 foot 1 inch. Adding on to this a triangular bayonet of about 25 centimetres long, the infantry wielded a dangerous, if cumbersome, multipurpose weapon. The bayonet had other advantages too. Often the matter was so soft that it could be banned with a bit of brute force, and there were reports of French troops using a curved bayonet like a hook to go fishing. Other close range weapons found their way into the hands of the infantry. Technically, a curved short sword called a poly-key, resembling a slightly smaller saber, was meant to be standard issue, but shortages restricted its equipping only to certain units. After 1807 the pulley-key was officially restricted to junior officers, the Imperial Guard and select skirmish accompanies. Not that it stopped the fantasy from finding the road, of course,