Massing of the Colors

Last Sunday, in honor of George Washington's birthday, Captain Ferguson's company of the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers attended the Massing of the Colors at the Forrest Lawn cemetery in Burbank, CA. If you are interested in seeing the photos, check out the link below.

Massing of the Colors

Ich Dien!

General Musket Care

It's been too long since I have posted, so I thought I would drop a quick note on keeping the musket looking good. Back in the day, the wood of the musket was finished using some oil--like whale's oil. Since you can't really find whale's oil too easily these days, Dixie Gun Works has a synthetic whale oil available. I purchased that a few days ago and have spent the last few days applying it to the stock of my musket. It leaves a really nice sheen to the wood without any stickiness. The only downside is that the oil smells like rotten fish. Hopefully with reuglar coats of oil, my musket stock will stay brand new.

Taking care of the stock is easy compared to keeping the barrel bright and shiny. The steel barrel is not stainless so it pretty much rusts if you look at it. To keep it looking good, I apply some Simichrome (a great German-made metal polish) with some fine steel wool. After polishing the steel, oil (not whale oil) is applied. This adds a protective coating to the metal so it won't rust as easily.

Ich Dien

Fusilier

You may have noticed the word "Fusilier" being used on this blog. Odds are you don't have any idea what the heck a Fusilier is or does. Let me help you out by giving the definition and a brief history of the term.

According to Wikipedia[1]:

Fusilier was originally the name of a soldier armed with a light flintlock musket called the fusil. The word was first used around 1680, and has later developed into a regimental designation.

When muskets were first being used in European armies, the main ignition system was a slow burning match (which led to the muskets being called Matchlocks). Around 1650, a new type of musket was introduced--one that used a flintlock as a ignition method. This firelock was expensive and as such, wasn't used by most infantry soldiers. The special value of the firelock in armies of the 17th century lay in the fact that the artillery of the time used open powder barrels for the service of the guns, making it unsafe to allow lighted matches in the muskets of the escort. The flintlocks in use to guard the artillery trains were called fusils and the soldiers who carried them were called fusiliers.

The general adoption of the flintlock musket and the suppression of the pike in the armies of Europe put an end to the original special duties of fusiliers, and they were subsequently employed to a large extent in light infantry work, perhaps on account of the greater individual aptitude for detached duties naturally shown by soldiers who had never been restricted to a fixed and unchangeable place in the line of battle.

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Brown Bess

In the days of lace-ruffles, perukes, and brocade
Brown Bess was a partner whom none could despise --
An out-spoken, flinty-lipped, brazen-faced jade,
With a habit of looking men straight in the eyes --
At Blenheim and Ramillies, fops would confess
They were pierced to the heart by the charms of Brown Bess.
-Rudyard Kipling, 1911

In 1775, the regular foot soldier of the 23rd Regiment of Foot was armed with the Short Land Pattern (2nd Model) Musket which was commonly referred to as the "Brown Bess." The origin of the term "Brown Bess" is not known and I may possibly explore that topic at a later date.

The Bess is a fairly large and cumbersome weapon with a barrel length of 42 inches and weight of about 9 lbs. It is stocked in walnut with brass fittings. The barrel and other metal parts are of steel--note that I didn't say stainless steel. In fact, it will be a constant battle to keep the musket from rusting as it has a tendency to rust at the slighest cause (such as my looking at it).

The musket fires a lead ball of .69 inches in diameter, although the barrel is larger at .75 inches in diameter. The difference in size is because after a few shots with black powder, there is so much gunk in the barrel a larger ball wouldn't fit. Due to the fact that the ball is smaller than the barrel, there is no real way to make sure you hit what you aim at. The standard tactics of the time were to have massive volleys at the enemy hoping that at least some of the shots do damage.

A good soldier should be able to get off three rounds a minute with the musket and let me tell you I am no good soldier. To load the musket, you have to take a paper cartridge out of your cartridge box. This paper cartridge contains the powder and bullet (or just powder when reenacting). You have to bite off the end of the cartidge, pour a bit of powder in the flash pan (which is next to the barrel) and then close the pan cover. Next, you have to pour the powder down the barrel and then shove the paper and ball down. After those things are in the barrel, you have to draw out the ramrod, ram down the charge and then put the ramrod back. Finally you can pull back the hammer and pull the trigger. Ignition is caused by the flint striking the frizzen, which causes the powder in the pan to ignite which should ignite the charge in the barrel. Rinse, lather and repeat up to three times a minute.

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