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Question on a Longbow-related quote
Cromm:
--- Quote from: JW_Halverson on October 16, 2010, 02:47:51 pm ---There was a wonderful article on the Battle of Agincourt in a magazine called Primitive Archer, you might have seen it. They had pretty good information on how many arrows were used, etc. You gotta take into account that wars were planned as many as 5-10 years in advance and were scheduled often between planting in the spring and harvest in the fall. There were Guilds of Fletchers, literally factories for the production of ammunition. Gimme a couple years and the deep pockets of the king to pay for materials and I can get you a wagonload of arrows.
An advantage they had that we may be overlooking is that they probably were not spine matching, grain weight matching, etc. They were cranking out "clothyard" length shafts with bodkins on one end and fletching on the other....not Robin Hood's matched tournement darts.
--- End quote ---
I thank you. ;)
JW_Halverson:
Just for giggles, I wonder how many of us could walk out in a big old field today with a dozen arrows and a bow of our choice and drop an arrow on a piece of real estate roughly equal to the size of the narrow defile that the French Chevaliers rode down when the English Tommies pooured on the heat?
Or for that matter, imagine the rank and file Redcoats lined up across a football field in formation, shoulder to shoulder. They were often 4 ranks deep and just a bit more than a pace apart. 30" stride is standard military pace (any DI's out have a correction for me?) So 4 yards deep would be a fair estimate of the depth of field that your target comprises. Let's give ourselves some wiggleroom since few of us practiced every Sunday after church by edict of the Crown preparing for war. Let's say that any arrow you drop in the last 10 yds of that football fieldwould count as a hit. Hmmm, any of you wanna go out this week and see how many shafts you can drop in the "goal"?
I bet if you put that line of soldiers up at 50 yds most of us could shoot 35-40% scores all day long, but I am not so sure about that 90-100 yd mark. Of course, that is not taking into account us having to "hold our mud" facing the 6 rounds per minute standard that the British could brag at the time. Nor does it take into account the standard issue Brown Bess was 75 caliber (1.6 oz roundball) and "buck and ball" was not unusual (one .735 roundball with 6 buckshot sitting on top).
Add this to your recommended reading list, "A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier: Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of Joseph Plumb Martin" by Joseph Plum Martin. It is the only biographical account of the Revolutionary War from someone that was not an officer. It's fascinating, funny, and should be required reading before anyone can vote.
Postman:
6 rounds /min? wow....Impressive rate of fire, even before the buck and ball factor. "Mr.Wizard! ....I don't wanna be a medieval archer anymore...."
Sparrow:
Standing in an open field shooting at each other. (I reackon if we had kept that up much longer , we'd still be talking funny !) ;D ' Frank
JW_Halverson:
The longstanding myth of the American Revolution was that the rebels won by using "nonlinear tactics". History does not bear this out. The records of the battles show time after time that they were fought in traditional linear tactics. And very few battles were decided by rifle companies, the most famous of which was the Battle of Kings Mountain. The right to speak with our very own funny accents was purchased by Continental Line Regulars carrying copies of the English Brown Bess and French muskets.
On the other hand, the riflemen did add some undue stress on officers in red with their unsportsmanlike sniping, hehehe.
Funny thing, at the Battle of Kings Mountain, the British Commander was Patrick Ferguson, leader of a famous British sniper unit and inventer of the breech loading muzzleloader! He stated at the outset of the battle that the ragtag "over the mountain boys" wouldn't move him off that mountain. He was right. He's still there. They didn't move him.
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