My+Brother+Sam+is+Dead......the+Brown+Bess++hayleycg11

(',*)
 * UNDER CONSTRUCTION***﻿*

The Brown Bess was a type of gun used in the Revolutionary war. It got its name from a time when Elizabeth I was queen. Bess had been a nickname during that time period, and the musket was brown, so they started to call the musket the Brown Bess.

Many men had either a Brown Bess or other firearms.

In order to shoot the Brown Bess, you had to follow many steps.


 * Bite the cartridge
 * Push the frizzen forward to open the pan and pour a little bit of powder into the flash pan.
 * Snap the frizzen back to position so it is covering the flash pan.
 *  Hold the Brown Bess vertically so that the muzzle is up.
 * Pour the rest of the powder down the barrel.
 * Put the bullet into the barrel.
 * Push the cartridge paper down the barrel.
 * Use the ramrod to push the cartridge paper and the bullet down the barrel.
 * Put the ramrod back.
 * Put the Brown Bess into firing position, which is when the butt is against your shoulder.
 * Pull back the hammer.
 * READY, AIM, FIRE!

Soldiers were expected to fire 4 rounds a minute, but because of the fouling of the barrel, soldiers usually fired 2 or 3 rounds a minute instead. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The fouling also caused the ball to not shoot straight. This means that every time a soldier shot, the less of a chance that they would hit their target. That was BAD. The brown besses also had bayonets on the ends. The bayonets also killed many soldiers.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This is from my blog, and yes I wrote it: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The weapons that the Revolutionary war soldiers used were not nearly as fast as the weapons we use today. A fast soldier was expected to shoot one shot about every 15 seconds, but only for about 4 minutes, because of the fouling that occurred in the barrel of the musket. This slowed the soldiers down. The soldiers loaded their muskets quickly, because they didn’t want to be shot. They had a cartridge of gunpowder, and they would bite the end off the cartridge. They would then pour a little of the gunpowder into the pan of the lock. They would close the lock and drop the cartridge into the barrel, using their rammer to ram it in. The shots they fired often were not accurate, because the balls that they used were so small that they curved. If the soldiers were close, they would use their bayonets. A bayonet is a large point, like a giant knife, that the soldiers would stab people with. This also killed people. The muskets were very important. They helped the soldiers defeat the Hessians, with the bayonets.