Rain--Wind--How Did They Fight

[valen]

At the 250th Anniversary of Ticonderoga in '07 I was in the Provincial Brigade for Saturday's battle. A continuous summer drizzle built up as the troops were forming. It alternated between rain and drizzle all day. My regiment put cow-knees on all the locks and formed up with the lock tucked under your left armpit, barrel down, guns unloaded and waited our turn to attack.
Rangers and British Regulars started attacking the French fortifications and the french muskets were kept hot through continuous fire. They had no trouble keeping the hot guns dry.
When the time came my brigade moved forward and we were given the order to prime and load. Since you lose your load if you put the barrel down, we came to the shoulder with loaded weapons. Cows Knees went into haversacks. We all though we were about to go into action, but there was some kind of delay and we ended up standing for 5-10 minutes in the rain.
When we finally moved up, one out of twenty muskets in my regiment fired. I'm convinced we'd have done much better with out that delay.

 

[Hangfire]

Always remember one very important fact about hunting Grizzly in the rain with a flintlock. Always take a hunting partner that you can run faster then. :grin: