This is a section from the biography of the frontiersman and Texas Ranger, William “Big-foot” Wallace. These are Wallace’s opinions on archery. While they are a bit after the musket era, Wallace was a veteran Indian-fighter and his comments are interesting. One caveat: these may not be Wallace’s exact words. They were “written out from notes furnished by himself, and told, as well as my memory serves me, in his own language” by John C. Duval, another frontiersman, who was with Wallace when they survived the 1836 Goliad massacre.
‘”It’s too bad,” said the little author, in a vexed tone, “but that is certainly the most perverse gun of mine that was ever made. Whenever I want it to shoot, I can’t get it to go off unless I stick a chunk of fire to the touch-hole; but when I least expect it, bang! it goes without the least provocation in the world. I wish I could swap it for a good bow and arrows! They never go off till you are ready; and, besides, there is a sort of romance associated with archery that carries one back to the days of chivalry-of clothyard shafts, and the good old times of Robin Hood.”
“Well,” said I, not understanding exactly what our author meant by all this rigmarole, “I have seen a great many men in my time spitted with ‘dogwood switches,’ but I never heard one of them yet complain of feeling anyways romantic under the circumstances. But the truth is, Mr. Author, if you only understood the use of’em, you might have a worse weapon than a good bow and arrows; at least, I know they are pretty dangerous in the hands of an Indian. They can shoot their arrows faster than you can fire a revolver, and almost with the accuracy of a rifle at the distance of fifty or sixty yards, and with such force that I have frequently seen them drive a shaft through and through a full-grown buffalo.
“I remember once, in a little scrimmage we had with the Indians on the head of the Leon (‘Oh, my!’ exclaimed the author, ‘there’s the head of that Leon again!’), I saw one of them drive an arrow through a man at the distance of seventy-five or eighty paces, and into another, who was standing just behind him; and there they were, fastened together like a couple of Siamese twins. The man in front was killed instantly, but the one behind at length kicked loose from the traces and eventually got well, though he carries the head of the arrow in his breast to this day.
“The heads of the arrows used in war are barbed, and fastened on very slightly with deer sinews, so that when an attempt is made to extract them from anything into which they may be driven, they are almost always left behind in the wound. The only alternative is to push them through, whatever may be in their way-heart, liver, or lungs; but this, as you may well suppose, is a very dangerous operation, and besides, not a very pleasant one, even when not followed by fatal consequences. There is one serious drawback, however, to the bow and arrows in the hands of the Indians, and that is, that they are almost useless in very damp or rainy weather, owing to the fact that the strings they use are made of deer sinews, which stretch so much when wet that it is almost impossible to keep the bow properly strung; and, for this reason, it is always most prudent to attack an Indian force in misty or rainy weather, for they have to rely, then, mainly upon their old flint-and-steel guns, which are poor weapons except at very close quarters.
“There,” said I, “Mr. Author, are some facts in regard to archery which you may note down in the ‘Wayworn Wanderer’ as beyond dispute.”
Bow Vs. Musket 