Posted on 01/28/2003 5:18:27 AM PST by SAMWolf
Visited U.S.S. Constitution and took first post-graduate job 1970 in Roxbury at Unity Bank & Trust, sixty-two employees and I the white.
At the employees' meeting president Philip J. Sneed told us "Sneed don't take no sh!t from nobody, walkin' or ridin', slippin' or slidin'"; proving same when he put down a crazy who tried to rob his bank the following Friday.
Outside it was "watchoo doon awn mah street", while Weathermen trashed, and the women of Cambridge competed in the Ozzie Oswald lookalike contest.
There's a classic film episode of a Polish general (Koskiusko? Pulaski?) teaching our volunteers to load efficiently.
This account appears:
If pressed, the trained Continental soldier could load and fire his piece four times a minute, but the rate generally was slower. He took little care in aiming, aware of the inaccuracy of his weapon except for short ranges. He swung his cartridge pouch to the front for greater accessibility; and between loading he thrust his ramrod conveniently into the ground beside him. His flint, if of good quality and adjusted properly between a fold of lead or leather in the jaws of the hammer, could be used 50 or 60 times. His handicaps were fouling of the barrel from powder combustion, which necessitated swabbing with the ramrod; and fouling of the flashpan and frizzen with clogging of the touchhole, requiring the use of a small iron brush and slender wire pick that usually were hung from the shoulder of the cartridge pouch or powder horn.
To accomplish four times a minute the laboratories provided cartridges:
Musket cartridges, prepared by those skilled in their making, often were supplied to the troops from the ammunition laboratories. When they were not provided it was necessary for the soldier to "roll his own." He melted his lead and poured it into an iron mold, forming balls which numbered 12 or 16 to the pound depending on the caliber of the musket in which they were to be used. The handles of the mold formed a snipping device intended for use in cutting off the "neck" of the bullet after molding; but the soldier usually preferred to smooth the leaden pellet with his jackknife. Into an oblong of tough paper he placed the ball, sometimes with four or six buckshot, and four or four and one-half drams of coarse, black powder which he rolled into a cylinder, twisting or tying the ends. After receiving a coating of grease for protection from dampness, the cartridges were placed in separate borings in the wooden block forming part of the cartridge pouch and covered by its flap of leather. The pouch, suspended by a shoulder belt of webbing or leather, was worn behind the right hip and usually held 24 cartridges or "rounds of ammunition." If the pouch and its contents became thoroughly wet during a rainfall or at a river ford, the soldier, except for his reliance on the bayonet, was hors de combat until his ammunition dried or a fresh supply of powder was obtained.
In order to load his musket when ammunition in the form of cartridges was used, the soldier brought the hammer of the lock to half-cock and uncovered the pan by pressing the frizzen upward and forward. (See diagram below.) Tearing or biting through the cartridge at its powder end, he filled the pan with powder, retaining it by closing the frizzen. Placing the butt end of the piece on the ground, he poured the remaining powder, together with the ball and paper as wadding, into the muzzle of the barrel and rammed them all well down with the rammer. Lifting the piece, he slapped it upon the stock opposite the lock in order to shake a small quantity of powder from the pan into the touchhole of the barrel. The piece then was ready to fire.
To accomplish lethal efficiency in the path of advancing professional soldiers required a deeply engrained Don't Tread On Me, or "don't take no sh!t from nobody, walkin or ridin, slippin or slidin"--
To which we can only add "or Biden"--
1986 Ellison S Onizuka Hawaii, Major USAF/astronaut, dies in Challenger disaster
1986 Francis R Scobee Washington, USAF/astronaut, dies in Challenger disaster
1986 Gregory B. Jarvis Detroit Michigan, payload specialist/astronaut, dies in Challenger disaster
1986 Dr Judith Arlene Resnik Akron OH, astronaut, dies in Challenger disaster
1986 Michael J Smith Beaufort NC, Commander USN, astronaut, dies in Challenger
1986 Ronald E McNair Lake City SC, astronaut, dies in Challenger disaster
I will never forget these brave and wonderful Americans. May they rest in peace. Thanks for the history Valin.
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