Bryn at 67th Tigers has posted some trajectories based on calculations of the ballistic coefficient of a Burton Minie ball. More realistic than the ones usually used from Jack Coggins’ book (and Coggins was using them for illustration only). The figures confirm something that Joe Bilby has been saying for some time—that using a “center hold” i.e. aiming at the target’s center of mass, in this case the torso—will allow you to hit a man-sized target at up to 200 yards with a rifle musket with no sight adjustments at all, altho you can fine tune this a bit by aiming low at closer ranges (a common command) or aiming at the target’s head at longer ranges. Bryn actually expands this a bit to 225 yards.
Compare this to the Army study I referred to in a previous post about combat ranges and you can see that given the normal sight ranges of most CW battles, the average soldier in the ranks could get by with few if any sight adjustments.
In other news the Indiana University Press is having a spring sale with discounts of up to 80%. They have a number of CW titles, so take a look and expand your library. The sale ends May 30 and you’ll need to enter code WWEZXX for the discount.
The Abraham Lincoln Library has found the liquor receipts for celebrations in Springfield of Lincoln’s 1860 election.
Lincoln didn’t drink. But the campaign operatives in Chicago ran up a bill at the Tremont House for five days of $321.50.
Of that, $125 was for lodging. The rest went from brandy, whiskey wine and cigars.
A chronicler of the 1860 convention noted that “torrents of liquor were poured down the hoarse throats of the multitude.”
It was a hard-drinking age, folks…
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