gold” of gold prospectors) on a roughened steel wheel. The wheel revolved in the priming pan.
The wheel was connected to a crank, attached to a short chain that was connected to a strong leaf spring. The gunner loaded his weapon, put powder in the pan, and wound up the wheel with a wrench. When he pressed the trigger, a shower of sparks fell in the pan. Ignition, unlike that for the slightly later flintlock, was almost instantaneous. Pyrites were used instead of flints, because pyrites are softer.
Continued use of flint would wear out the roughened steel wheel quickly.
The wheel lock had two disadvantages because the mechanism was more complicated than that of any weapon ever seen before. It was expensive, and it was liable to break down. It was expensive because precision machining was unknown in the 16th and 17th centuries. Wheel locks were all handmade by the most skilled of craftsmen, and they were more prone to failure than the simple matchlock.
Expense was the biggest drawback. Even so, wheel lock pistols were wel-comed by the cavalry. Although matchlock pistols were made in Japan, such weapons were not popular in Europe. Matchlock muskets and arquebuses were dangerous enough when used by slowly walking infantry. A matchlock on a galloping horse was something few European warriors wanted. Loading a wheel lock pistol on a trotting or galloping horse would be a nightmare. European cavalry, largely descendants of Europe’s knightly class, could afford wheel locks.
They adopted the new weapon and developed a new tactic. It was called the caracole: a column of cavalry, each man carrying two to six pistols, would ride up to a formation of pikemen and, just out of pike range, fire their pistols, and ride to the rear of the column, reloading as they rode.
At its introduction, the caracole was devastating. Then the infantry learned to move musketeers up in front of the pikemen and fire musket volleys before the cavalry got within pistol range.
Meanwhile, the infantry were still using the cheap and vulnerable matchlock.
The idea of producing sparks with a single sharp blow instead of a spinning wheel seemed to occur in many parts of Europe soon after the introduction of the wheel lock.
From Scandinavia came the Baltic or Swedish snap lock. The flint in this gun fitted on a long curved device that corresponds to the cock of the better-known flintlock. A leaf spring pushing up on the heel of the cock drove it into the pivoted steel and struck sparks. Sometimes the steel was attached to the pan cover, so that it opened just as sparks appeared. More often, it had to be opened separately.
From the Netherlands came the snaphaunce, its name derived from the Dutch words for snapping hen. This looked much like the standard flintlock. It had a mainspring inside the lock plate and flint-holding cock that looked like the flintlock’s. The priming pan cover, however, was not attached to the steel.
In crude specimens, it was opened manually before firing; in most, levers connected to the cock pushed it open as the flint fell.
Spain contributed the miquelet. This had a huge cock powered by an external mainspring. It drove the flint against a short, straight steel that was connected to the pan cover, like the fully developed flintlock. The miquelet looked clumsy, but it was extremely reliable — the most reliable of any of the flintlock variations.
The individualistic Scots developed their own version of a flint-fired gun. It had a lateral-moving sear like the snaphaunce, and in early versions the steel is not connected to the pan cover. Later guns had the steel and pan cover in one piece like the flintlock but retained the lateral sear. One peculiarity of the Scottish weapon was its lack of a trigger guard.
The weapon that Americans think of when they hear flintlock was developed in France, probably by Marin le Bourgeoys, a gunsmith of Lisieux, sometime between 1610 and 1615. It combined the best features of the snaphaunce and the miquelet and rapidly spread all over Europe and the Americas. Instead of the lateral seal of all the other “firelocks” (including the wheel lock), le Bourgeoys invented a vertical sear. This made a half-cock position — a great safety feature — possible and made the action more durable. After le Bourgeoys, improvements on the flintlock were mostly details, such as making the pan cover fit the pan so closely the gun could fire in a driving rain. The flintlock was used on smoothbore muskets, rifles, pistols, and shotguns, practically unchanged from le Bourgeoys’s invention for two centuries. Its simplicity, durability, and utility in all kinds of environments made possible, among other things, the settlement of America and the independence of the American colonies.
Chapter 17
A Knife Doubles Firepower: The Bayonet
The flintlock, which eliminated the need to worry about a burning match, greatly speeded up the infantry’s rate of fire, but the musketeer was still practically defenseless for too long a time between shots. Musketeers carried swords, but having a sword is not much comfort when faced with a phalanx of pikes or a swarm of charging horsemen. At times, musketeers arranged themselves in successive lines. The first line would fire and move to the rear, reloading as they went, while the second line would fire and do the same. This system allowed quickly repeated volleys, and, at times, it was quite successful.
At the battle of Bunker Hill, John Stark’s New Hampshire militiamen were holding the flank of the American position that terminated at the Mystic River.
Stark hid his men behind a stone-and-rail fence and arranged them in three lines. British General William Howe had planned to make a demonstration in front of the American lines while the elite light infantry companies of his force would run along the river bank, hidden from the sight of both those in the American fort and the members of the main British force. They would sweep around the apparently unguarded left flank of the Americans and hit them from the rear as the main body advanced on the rebel front.
The light companies double-timed along the river in columns of four, one company behind the other. When the lead company, the light company of the Welch Fusiliers, got to about 80 feet of the fence, there was an ear- splitting blast, and the company ceased to exist. The light troops of the King’s Own Regiment dashed forward, knowing that, however fast the rebels could reload, they couldn’t resist a bayonet charge now. There was another blast and another cloud of smoke and another company annihilated. The third light company hesitated, then they leveled their muskets and charged. For the third time, a British light infantry company was blown away. It would not happen again. The rest of the light infantrymen turned around and dashed to the rear. If they had continued on, the Battle of Bunker Hill would have been all over. Stark’s first line had not had time to reload.
The trouble with firing in successive lines was that it was only practical on a narrow front. In open country, the musketeers could easily be flanked, especially by cavalry. In most battles, the musketeers relied on pikemen to protect them while reloading. Infantry practiced various formations and drills that allowed musketeers to hide behind the pikes while reloading and to take up firing positions as soon as their weapons were ready to use. This system worked pretty well, but it obviously cut down the army’s firepower — sometimes by more than half.
The solution to the problem was to turn the musket into a spear. According to some sources, this was the idea of Sebastien le Prestre de Vauban, the great French military engineer in the armies of Louis XIV. It was a solution at least for soldiers. Hunters in France and Spain had for some time been jamming knives into the muzzles of their muskets for protection against dangerous game. It seems that Bayonne, a French city noted for its cutlery, made a type of hunting knife that was favored for this use. When the French army adopted this weapon, it was called a “bayonet.” The earliest reference to the use of the bayonet is in the memoirs of a French officer who wrote that on one campaign, his men did not carry swords, but knives with handles one foot long and blades of the same length. When needed, the knives could be placed in the muzzles of the guns to turn them into spears. The bayonet proved to be a much more effective defense against cavalry than the sword.
There were some drawbacks to these “plug bayonets.” If someone put a plug bayonet in the muzzle of a loaded musket and then fired it, the gun might blow up. This sort of accident seems to have been much more
