That's amazing. 20 seconds to clean the barrel, load in the gunpowder, wadding, shot, aim, and fire.
Flick Lives wrote:
“Three rounds a minute was also the standard for the Union troops in the Civil War.
That’s amazing. 20 seconds to clean the barrel, load in the gunpowder, wadding, shot, aim, and fire.”
You ‘cleaned the barrel’, at the end of the battle, if you lived!
It was Fire; open paper cartridge; open to half-cock, move the frizzen plate, and load the frizzen pan, then close with the frizzen plate down; put buttstock on ground; pour the rest of the powder down the barrel; put the torn paper cartridge and ball in the muzzle; remove ramrod and ram home the charge; return the ramrod to the stock; shoulder the musket; cock the lock; aim; fire.
These battles went for hours in this manner. Otherwise, it was at the end of a three-bladed bayonet.