Musket Ball - Connections Essay

The Musket Ball in History

The unassuming solid musket ball—the essence of simplicity—had a dramatic and in many ways disproportionate effect on many facets of early American history. The crude nature of the weapons and ammunition dictated a certain kind of fighting; the demands of those tactics in turn required a particular kind of institution that could compel men to stay in the firing line with an iron discipline. American armies continued to employ the traditional linear infantry tactics of the 17th and 18th centuries well into the Civil War of the mid-19th century. But the invention of a new bullet—the spinning, conical Minié ball—that combined the accuracy of the long rifle with the comparatively easier loading time of the smoothbore made those tactics far more bloody. The astronomical casualties of the Civil War, which remains America’s bloodiest conflict 150 years later, provide a grisly testimony to the efficacy of the new projectile.

Americans’ deep dislike of maintaining armies in peacetime was an even more long-lasting legacy. Reluctant to shoulder the expense of a large standing army in peacetime, and concerned about the threats such a force might represent to their liberties, Americans instead relied on an “expansible” army, a small contingent of professional troops that could be supplemented with volunteer citizen-soldiers in wartime. The model that had worked with apparent success in the War of Independence persisted well into the 20th century: not until the end of World War II in 1945 did the U.S. break out of this pattern by establishing a sizable professional army in peacetime.