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Revolutionary War · Arsenal
Weapons of the Revolutionary War
Soldiers of the Revolution fought with flintlock muskets that took a trained man 15 to 20 seconds to load, with bayonets, long rifles, swords and tomahawks, and with smoothbore cannon firing iron balls. Here is how those weapons worked, how far they could shoot, and why gunpowder was worth more than gold to the Continental Army.
“Molly Pitcher” at a cannon at the Battle of Monmouth, 1778, in a Currier & Ives print
Quick facts
The weapons at a glance
| Main weapon | The smoothbore flintlock musket with bayonet: the British Brown Bess (.75 caliber) and the French Charleville (.69) | |
| Rate of fire | About 3 shots a minute for a well-drilled soldier | |
| Range | Muskets were accurate only to about 50–100 yards; long rifles could hit a man at 200 yards or more | |
| Bayonet | A triangular blade about 17 inches long; most battles ended with a bayonet charge, not a firefight | |
| Artillery | Bronze and iron cannon firing 3- to 24-pound iron balls, plus mortars and howitzers firing exploding shells | |
| Gunpowder | In short supply all war; most American powder before 1778 came from France and the Dutch | |
| Help from France | Around 100,000 French muskets reached the Continental Army |
The big picture in 30 seconds
Why the weapons mattered
- Muskets were so inaccurate that armies fired in massed volleys at close range.
- Rifles gave Americans deadly sharpshooters, but were too slow to load for regular battle lines.
- Cannon decided the sieges of Boston and Yorktown.
- Without French muskets and powder the Continental Army could hardly have kept fighting.
3
shots a minute from a musket
About 80 yards
a musket’s useful range
200+ yards
range of a long rifle
59
cannon hauled by Knox from Ticonderoga
Muskets
The flintlock musket
Almost every soldier in the war, British, German, French or American, carried a smoothbore flintlock musket. When the trigger was pulled, a piece of flint struck a steel plate called the frizzen, throwing sparks into a pan of powder. The flash went through a tiny hole and set off the main charge in the barrel, firing a lead ball almost three-quarters of an inch wide.
Because the inside of the barrel was smooth, the ball wobbled as it flew. Beyond about 100 yards a soldier was lucky to hit anything. Armies made up for it by standing in lines two or three deep and firing volleys together, then charging with the bayonet. At the start of the war many American militiamen brought their own hunting guns and had no bayonets at all.
Load and fire
How a soldier loaded his musket
Drill manuals listed a dozen or more separate motions. Steuben’s 1779 Regulations taught Americans to do them by command until they were automatic, even with cannon balls flying.
Tear open a paper cartridge holding powder and a lead ball with the teeth.
Pour a pinch of powder into the flash pan and snap the frizzen shut.
Pour the rest of the powder down the muzzle, then push in the ball and paper.
Draw the steel ramrod and ram the charge to the bottom of the barrel. Return the rammer.
On command, cock the hammer and level the musket at the enemy line.
Flint strikes steel, the pan flashes, the gun fires and a cloud of white smoke hides the target.
Rifles
The American long rifle
On the frontier of Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas, gunsmiths (many of them German immigrants) built long, graceful rifles for hunting. Spiral grooves cut inside the barrel, called rifling, spun the ball so that it flew straight. In skilled hands a long rifle, later called the Kentucky or Pennsylvania rifle, could hit a man at 200 yards or more.
Rifles had drawbacks. A tight-fitting ball wrapped in a greased patch took a minute or more to load, and the rifles had no bayonet, so riflemen could be overrun by a charge. Commanders used them as skirmishers and sharpshooters. Daniel Morgan’s riflemen at Saratoga aimed at British officers, a practice the British considered unsporting and Americans considered smart.
Artillery
Cannon, mortars and the noble train
Cannon were named for the weight of the iron ball they fired. Light 3- and 6-pounder field guns, pulled by horses, moved with the army and fired solid shot or canister, a tin can full of musket balls that turned the gun into a giant shotgun. Heavy 12-, 18- and 24-pounders battered forts and trenches. Mortars and howitzers lobbed hollow shells filled with powder that exploded over the enemy.
In the winter of 1775–76, Henry Knox led a team that dragged 59 cannon from captured Fort Ticonderoga about 300 miles to Boston on ox sleds, across frozen rivers and the Berkshire Mountains. On the night of March 4, 1776, the guns were placed on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston. General Howe saw them the next morning, and on March 17 the British army sailed away.
Field artillery
3- and 6-pounders
Light guns that went into battle with the infantry. A good crew could fire two or three rounds a minute.
Siege artillery
12- to 24-pounders
Heavy guns for knocking down walls. At Yorktown the allies brought dozens of them.
Mortars and howitzers
Exploding shells
Short, stubby guns that fired in a high arc, dropping shells over walls and into trenches.
Cold steel
Bayonets, swords and tomahawks
Most of the fighting at close range was done with edged weapons. British commanders believed in the bayonet charge, and early in the war it terrified Americans who had no bayonets of their own.
Infantry
Socket bayonet
A triangular blade about 17 inches long that slid over the muzzle. It turned a musket into a spear.
Officers and cavalry
Swords and sabers
Officers carried small swords as a mark of rank. Cavalry used heavy curved sabers.
Frontier
Tomahawk and knife
Riflemen and militia, and their Native American allies and enemies, carried hatchets and long knives.
Officers and sergeants
Spontoon and halberd
Spear-like poles used to signal and to keep the battle line straight.
Supply
Gunpowder: the great shortage
When the war began, the colonies had almost no gunpowder mills. At Bunker Hill many Americans had only a few rounds each, and in the summer of 1775 Washington found that his whole army had barely enough powder for nine rounds per man. He kept it secret.
Patriots raided British stores, built powder mills and scraped saltpeter from cellars and barns. But most of the powder came from overseas. French and Spanish shipments, and powder smuggled through the Dutch island of St. Eustatius in the Caribbean, kept the army firing. Every soldier carried his cartridges in a leather box, and many carried a powder horn as well.
“Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.”
Attributed to Israel Putnam or William Prescott
Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775, when the Americans were short of powder
The bigger story
Revolution and Founding, 1770–1819
Our U.S. History era page puts the war in context: the road to independence, the Constitution and the first presidents.
Go deeper
Books and sources
- Arms and Equipment of the British Army, 1775–1783, by Erik Goldstein and Stuart Mowbray (2010)
- The American Revolutionary War: A Military History, by Michael Stephenson (2007)
- Patriot Battles, by Michael Stephenson (2007)
- More recommended books