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April 25th, 2005 Correction - Last week I claimed the Battles of Lexington & Concord were 229 years ago. They are not. They are 230 years ago (this year). My apologies. Grass - not the illegal kind. A doctor friend of mine and I tilled our backyards this weekend, preparing them for grass. I had 1225 square feet to deal with, which made for sore hands after the work was done. The seed went down, and the watering began yesterday, so hopefully by the end of the week I'll have little green shoots popping up. For now, my backyard looks like the header this week. Guns - The Short Land Pattern (2nd model) Infantry musket, more commonly called the Brown Bess:
Its what the British Infantry used from about 1769 to around 1797, when it was replaced by the 3rd model. Its barrel was .75 caliber and 42 inches long, secured to the stock with screws. The projectile was a .71 caliber lead ball, approximately one ounce in weight. Since the ball and barrel were mismatched, the projectile rolled down the barrel as it exited, leaving the firearm at an unpredictable angle. This reduced accuracy to practically nothing, which required the unique tactics of the smoothbore era. Two armies would face off against one another at a distance of roundabout 50 yards. They would then "Prime and load!", "Make Ready!", "Present!", and "Fire!" at one another, reloading as fast as possible, until one line wavered to breaking and fled the field. Since the weapons were inherently inaccurate, you were just as likely to get hit with three or four balls as none at all, which made for a nerve-wracking day on the line. Getting to the field wasn't a walk in the park either, despite the terrain. The Brown Bess weighed an ungodly 11 pounds, just by itself. Add in the ammunition, bayonet, blanket, canteen, and other accoutrements of the British Infantry and it becomes no surprise that many Redcoats suffered heat stroke on their march from up the Chesapeake peninsula in the War of 1812. The added discomfort of a heavy red wool coat did not help either. The Brown Bess was eventually (officially) replaced by the Enfield rifle, a caplock, in 1853. Other rifles had served in other regiments from roundabout the Napoleonic Wars until 1853, but none were officially adopted for the entire army. A late observation on Earth Day - Here in the hot desert, water is scarce. We impose draconian measures (by eastern standards) on our water use. This attitude has reached the top levels of government, where the Federales have required low-flow toilets to be installed in all new construction. That being the case, will someone please tell me: HOW IS IT A LOW FLOW TOILET IF YOU NEED THREE FLUSHES TO GET RID OF THE CRAP??? Thank you for your attention. |
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This site is copyright 2001-2005 by Matthew Maynard. All rights reserved. All your trademarks, copyrights, insignia, and other distinguishing characteristics are belong to you. Sharks in suits make for good joke material. Don't leave a mess on your way out. Links to external websites are valid at the time of article authoring and may decay as time goes by. But we'll always have Paris. The opinions on this site are those of their author and do not represent anyone else's views. That is, unless and until you agree with them, at which point they become yours as well. Opinions expressed in the comments belong to the comment poster and may be edited for content. Play nice with others, since you want them to play nice with you. |
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