Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1852-06-26
From Dickens Household Words.
GUNS AND PISTOLS

|
GUNS AND PISTOLS.
| Would it not be a strange thing fold as tn
| world is and countless as are the generations O
men who have quarrelled and fought-we shoult
now find ourselves coming round to the use
weapons-the same in principle-as were used il
! the earliest warfare.
We do not mean that we coming to fist
cuffs with our enemies. 1t may be said, that thu
| first arms used by fighters were the arms
that grew from their own shoulders. Nc
doubt, the first men who quarreed about
wells, or camels, or anything else, on the plains
| of the East might, and probably did, knock one
| another down; though the people who live in
those places now are more fond of making show
of such thing than of doing it in reality
throwing themselves about in desperate way,
and seeming dreadfully angry, but somehow pro-
ducing no terrible results. Such boxing might
be the first fighting; but we are speaking now OF
weapons which are not bone of our bone, and
flesh of our flesh. It is commonly agreed that
the first weapons we know of were bows and ar
rows; and the next, the sling and stone. The
bow was probably used first against beasts, and
turned to homicdal uses on occasion of some hu-
man quarrel Its use in warfare, conducted in
deserts or on plains, where there was room for
escape, or among mountains, where archers could
defend pass below them, and where cavalry
were concerned, is obvious enough; it therefor
remained in use ard in favour, not only until the
invention Of gunpowder, but for two centuries or
more after gunpowder became one of the main re-
sources of war; even till the lighter sorts of fire.
arms became common. The cutting and thrus-
ting instruments of battle took their turn, when
men fought hand to hand. We must think that
the most terrible kind of fighting of any yet tried
the most terrible to human feelings 1.-THE most
glorious, also, if you will), though by far less
destructive of life, are weapons that kill from
6Icto r,n foJ1nh in 4,
lour and obstinacy of a Falstaf, ga long hour
by Shrewsbury Clock or with the endless deyi-
ces OF Homer's heroes, could not be killed off
at rate nearly approaching that which was
seen at Cressy, when King Edwards archers
made such clearance Of the foe in double quick
time. 1t was upon her archers that our Qeen
Elizabeth relied; though as visitors to Dover
Castle are aware, she had her own sspocket pis-
tol''-the sixty FOUNDER at Dover CASTLE which
carries ball seven miles, being so called. Gun
powder had then been in use in war, on our own
soil, full two centuries yet was the bow the IA
vorlte weapon, from the sovereign to the peasant.
Names of honour, or fondness, were lavishcd on
cannon. The Portuguese named theirs after their
saints; Louis the Twelfth, of France, christened
his after peers of his realm; The Emperor Charles
the Fifth had a dozen choice pieces, which he
called his Twelve Apostles. At Bremen, there
are two named Messengers of Bad News others
are called the Thunderer, the Terrible, the Devil,
and, as we have seen, the Queen Pocket-pistol.
But the yearnings of warrior hearts were still to-
wards the bow.
These firearms were so dreadfully unwield-
ly mot only the cannon, but the musket. In
1920, and onwards-when the musket was first
used-the soldier who had to WELD it must often
have wished it had never been devised Tt was
all very well to rest it on the wall of town. and
fire it at leisure against the foe beneath but
when it came to such an arm being carried into
the field, it might easily be found that only men
of extraordinary size and strength could manage
it. The gun itself was so heavy, that the soldier
could not raise and point it ; he must have some-
thing to rest it upon. That something was
''fork, the handle of which was shod with iron,
and pointed, that it might stand firm in the
ground and when it was found that the soldier
was liable to attack while reoading, the .srest''
was armed with spike, either projecting from
one prong, or thrown out from the staff by
spring-these Swedish Feathers" as thew were
called, keeping the enemy from charging till the
gun was ready for another explosion. This crest
had to be carried by the musketeer, or an atten'
dant; and the match must be looked to. The
match was not heavy, but it was a rather anx-
ious affair." It was piece of prepared hemp
loosely twisted, and with creeping and smoul
dering fire always in it. Sometimes it was car
ried in a tin tube, bored with holes; but oftener
between the head and its covering, which was the
place most strongly recommended by those who
had not to carry it themselves. Then, there was
the ammunition soldier was usually furnished
with twelve charges of powder and these were
put into twelve little boxes of wood, tin, or leath
er, which Were fastened to the belt that crossed
his left shoulder There was no feather like in
this load and this is the burden that was car
ried by the soldiers of Charles the First and
Cromwell.
There was stronger objection to the use
of these muskets than even their weight. Good
aim was out of the question with them; and in
this was the arrow again regretted. 1t was not
only that firing off this nusket was such slow
work that an enemv--whether in siege or battle
was sure to have moved before he could be hit:
it was also that it would have been difficult TO hit
him if he had stood stock-sill to be shot at. The
objection belonged, and it belongs still, to mus
kets of every sort, however much improved in
the tireock in lightness, and by the introduction
OF cartridge boxes In the place of bondoeers The
difficulty is this. Ii is found impossible to fit any
ball so precisely to any musket- barrel, as that It
Shall not, IN passing out, rub more against one
side of the barrel than the other. It thus
leaves the muzzle with some inclination, how.
ever little, to the right or left, or up or
down; and the impulse is sometimes in one
direction; and sometimes in another. Moreover
the divergence increases at a vast rate with eve
ny foot of distance. Thus, there seems to be no
great use in taking aim with musket; and the
mischief done by it in war, is pretty much amatter
of chance. 1t was found that musket proper
ly charged, as far as the powder was concerned