Quote Originally Posted by professorspatula
This reminds me of something I saw on some Battlefield Detectives tv show, where historian buffs try to look for evidence of battles that occurred and look for reasons why the end result was what it was. One episode they looked at a battle between the English and Scots. I don't recall that much, so no doubt you lot would know more about it, but the English had muskets of some sort and bayonets. The Scots apparently relied upon their swords and shields and numbers. The guns of the English should have meant victory, but they got slaughtered. Apparently the English had to shoot uphill I think and only managed to fire 1 or 2 volleys before desperately trying to attach their bayonets, when the Scots came crashing down upon them, easily killing and routing them. Bah! At least Mel Gibson didn't take part in that battle.
That's the first or maybe second Jacobite rebellion. The Scots actually relied on the Highland charge and impact to win. Scare the bejesuses out of the other guys so they do a runner. Then killem all!


Quote Originally Posted by CBR
And in the last battle the Scots made a frontal attack and lost, only managing to penetrate part of the English line.


CBR
That would probably be Culloden Moor. And the government army was formed up in 2 lines (front line of 3 regiments and guns between and a second line of 2 reserve regiments and guns) and the second line moved in and shot into the melee when the Scots broke through on the right. Also they only partially broke through because the left side of the battlefeild was the actual marsh itself and the highlanders were slogging through it and getting cut to pieces by the government guns and muskets.



The earliest muskets were bigger and heavier than arguebues. So much so that they needed stands to rest them on to fire them and reload. But they had a more reliable form of the matchlock (and eventually yhe wheellock). I don't know the name of it but unlike the 15th century snapping matchlock (which just snaped the cord into the pan and extinguished it) it moved the match cord into the pan and pulled it back.