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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