The pistols have already flashed
The hammer rattles on the ramrod.
Bullets go into the faceted barrel
And snapped the trigger for the first time.
Here is gunpowder in a trickle of grayish
Pours onto the shelf. Serrated, Securely screwed in flint
Cocked still.
A. S. Pushkin. Eugene Onegin (chapter VI)
I am shot in the chest.
I have a package with the most important report.
Cornet, I ask you to finish the errand, Given to me by the field marshal, and on the way
go immediately.
Hussar ballad , 1962
Weapon of 1812. As everyone who has watched the movie "The Hussar Ballad" knows, Shurochka Azarova undertook to take the captain's package and ended up in the camp of the French cavalrymen who rushed after her. But she used the two pistols she had and killed the two pursuers! It looks very impressive in the movies, but how did the pistols of the war of 1812 actually work? This is what our story will go about today.
So, cavalry pistols. At that time, the Russian cavalry was armed with a pistol of the 1809 model, which for some reason did not have a ramrod (it had to be carried separately!) And weighed quite a lot - 1500 g. The barrel had a length of 263 mm, that is, pretty decent. But his caliber and bullet were from an infantry gun, so you can imagine its recoil when fired. That is, to get from it into someone at a distance could only be by accident. Nevertheless, it was pistols that remained at that time the only firearms of the cavalry. The fact is that due to the shortage of rifles in the infantry (besides, they were also needed in the militia!) On November 10, 1812, rifles and carbines were taken from the cuirassier, dragoon and hussar regiments, although, taking into account the experience of the foreign campaigns of the Russian army, they were later returned them again.
Well, about how such a pistol was loaded, AS Pushkin wrote very well in "Eugene Onegin". We needed a cartridge, which in 1812 had the form of a paper cylinder, and a bullet and a charge of gunpowder were placed in it. For storing cartridges, a special cartridge bag served on the side or chest, like in hussars. When loading (and it was started by the command "Load!"), The trigger was put on the fuse, and the shelf (on French weapons it was brass, we have iron) on the side of the table, on which gunpowder should have been poured to ignite the charge in the barrel, must be open … At the command "bite a cartridge" the infantrymen and horsemen took out the next cartridge from the bag and tore off the bottom of the case with their teeth, so that the gunpowder would not spill out and not soak it with saliva. Then some of the gunpowder was poured onto a shelf, and it was covered with a lid that served as a flint. If it was a gun, then they put it on the ground with the butt (the riders kept it suspended!), And the remaining gunpowder was poured into the barrel. At the same time, it was important to knead the cartridge itself so that no powder remained in it, and then hammer the barrel with the same crumpled cartridge, inserting it after the bullet as a wad, which was usually simply rolled into the barrel. And it was here that a ramrod was required, with which they hammered both the wad and the bullet, while compacting the charge. In a rifled weapon, the bullet went along the barrel with difficulty, so it was hammered into it.
Above it is written "slaughtered", but this action had to be carried out carefully both with smooth-bore weapons and with a rifled one. Careful - so as not to crush the powder grains, since then the gunpowder could turn into powder and at the same time either did not flare up at all (it happened that the then powder in the form of powder required free space inside the barrel!), That is, the weapon misfired, or on the contrary, it burned much faster than grain, and the recoil became stronger, and the fire of the gun could change. Then the ramrod should be returned to its place, the trigger should be put on a combat platoon and … shoot.
However, these manipulations seem difficult only in the description. An experienced shooter did all this very quickly. So one shot usually took about one minute. But this is on average. The soldiers of Frederick I, for example, fired two shots per minute, which surprised everyone else and brought this master many victories, and the most dexterous, for example, our Cossacks, even three, however, without aiming.
However, it was much harder for a cavalryman to do all this than an infantryman. Therefore, the riders loaded pistols in advance and in this form went to the battlefield. There they just had to cock the hammer and pull the trigger. And if a gust of wind did not blow off the gunpowder from the shelf, if it did not damp in the holster, then a shot followed, which could kill or seriously injure both the rider and his horse.
The loading of rifled flintlock rifles was carried out in approximately the same way, with the only difference that the bullet should first be placed on an oiled plaster made of leather or cloth and only then driven into the barrel by hitting the ramrod with a special mallet. That is why the barrels of rifled guns were shorter than those of smooth-bore guns, and in the cavalry in the first place. And there, for the same carbines, the barrel length only slightly exceeded the barrels of pistols.
With regard to the effectiveness of weapons with a flintlock, it was quite small. At a target of 180x120 cm, when shooting with aiming from 100 steps, an infantryman's rifle gave on average 75% of hits, only 50% for 200 steps, and shots at 300 steps - some 25%. In the cavalry, the percentage was even lower, because there were fewer charges of gunpowder. And shooting a pistol from a horse in 30 steps could hit a growth target unless by accident.
The aiming process itself was also difficult. Due to the peculiarities of the ballistics of flint weapons, 200 steps should have been aimed directly at the chest, at a distance of 250 steps - already at the head, 300 steps - at the very top of the enemy's headdress, but if the distance was more than 350, then it was slightly higher than his head. At the moment the shot was fired, a massive trigger with flint hit the shelf cover and … knocked down the aiming, and seed gunpowder flashed on the cover. All this wasted time, during which the shooter did not have to knock down the sight in any way. And only then the shot itself followed. That is, it was noticeably stretched in time, which also did not add accuracy to it. But the threaded fittings had a lower penetrating effect, since they had a reduced powder charge. But on the other hand, it was more convenient to hold them in your hands and shoot from them. Such are the subtleties of shooting in those years …
It was very, very difficult to shoot in a strong wind, because he could blow off gunpowder from the shelf, and it was simply impossible to shoot in the rain. It got to the point that in 1812 the Tula Arms Plant began producing guns with shorter barrels, but with longer bayonets, with one goal - to get a higher rate of fire and to make the gun more convenient to use in hand-to-hand combat. And the same must be said about the pistols of that time.
Yes, at a distance of 50 m, their bullet, hitting the horse's head, killed him on the spot, but to make such a wonderful shot, knowing the result in advance, was absolutely impossible. So our brave Shurochka Azarova, who looked so wonderful in the movie "The Hussar Ballad" in 1962 in the uniform of the cornet of the Sumy Hussar Regiment, could not have hit two French cavalrymen with pistols like that, galloping. Well, it would be fine, miraculously hit one. But in two … This is science fiction.
By the way, muzzle loading was also extremely inconvenient because it was very difficult to determine whether your weapon was loaded or not. Every time it was required to open the lid of the shelf with gunpowder, and then a gust of wind, and your pistol turned out to be discharged at the most inopportune moment. And the ignition hole could also be contaminated with carbon deposits, and then the pistol (and the gun!) Also misfired. In addition, in the turmoil of the battle, the shooter could load the gun and pistol a second time. When fired, this led to a rupture of the barrel and, of course, to injury, or even death of the shooter.
For example, during the American Civil War between the North and South after the Battle of Gettysburg, 12,000 muzzle-loaded rifles were found, in the barrel of which there were two rounds driven one on top of the other. Moreover, in some of the barrels, the bullet was under charge, that's with what haste, without realizing it, their owners loaded them in this battle! Approximately 6,000 rifles had between 3 and 10 rounds. And in one gun they found … 23 charges one after another! It was in what a stressful state they were, that over and over again they loaded their gun, but did not fire shots, that is, they did not pull the trigger. And if 23 charges, most likely, were loaded by some soldier-down, then this cannot be said about all the other guns! True, it is believed that such a loading problem was more characteristic of muzzle-loaded capsule shotguns, but it is obvious that this could be with any weapon loaded in this way. It could well have been double or triple loading, and many suffered from this. But we will never know how many such cases were.
