Loading and firing any type of musket was no easy task. There were many many steps
that needed to be followed. Even in the simplified demo that I made, there are at
least ten steps that need to be followed in order to load and fire the gun. Luckily
our troops were pretty good, and they could fire four to five rounds in a minute
(which is fourteen seconds a shot). To begin loading the musket, they would pull
back the lock (see image below) to the half cocked position, which allowed them to
load the gun without risk of accidentally pulling the trigger. Inside the gun, bellow the
lock, are some pretty complicated mechanisams that make this possible. After they put the
gun in half cock, they tear open the paper cartridge with their teeth. The cartridge is
really just compact gunpowder and bullet storage in a paper tube. In the top portion of
the cartridge is the gunpowder, so they would first pour that down the barrel. Then,
they would take the "minie ball", from the bottom portion of the cartridge and
put it in the barrel. Our fingers aren't three feet long so they use the ramrod
to push everything to the back of the barrel. Once they returned the ramrod to
its holder, they would place the percussion cap on the nipple. The percussion cap
consists of a small brass or copper cup with a highly sensitive material such as
mercuric fulminate. When the percussion cap is set, they then pull back the lock to
the fully cocked position, where the trigger is unlocked. As soon as the pull the
trigger, the lock's hammer is released, which strikes the percussion cap, sending
sparks through the nipple to the back of the gun, which ignites the gunpowder and
fires the gun.
Obviously it wouldn't be very probable to find an actuall musket in working condition,
so I have made a demo for you to use instead. The steps for the demo are the same as
stated above, and it is timed so be sure to rack your brain as fast as you can. For
all who are interested, the book "The Fighting Ground" by Avi describes some of the
struggles that men faced during the civil war. Although muskets were very helpful in
war, that doesn't mean that they were particularly easy to use. It was only the best
of the best that could actually get five rounds a minute, and the average person
probably couldn't get anywhere near that.