Author: bowvsmusket

Saukamappee: Plains Indians Use Guns in Battle for the First Time

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This is an account by the Peigan Indian Saukamappee, whose life and times were recorded by the explorer David Thompson. Saukamappee describes the radical effect of firearms on Plains Indian warfare. Before, battles were fought with stone clubs and bows, and ended in stalemate unless one side was much larger. With only a handful of … Continue reading Saukamappee: Plains Indians Use Guns in Battle for the First Time

Lindybeige: Fire Arrows

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  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTd_0FRAwOQ   Lindy proposes several different possible compositions of fire arrows, and why he believes they wouldn't work. I don't know how common fire arrows might have been in the classical period or middle ages, or how they would have been constructed. Fortunately however we do have a recipe for fire arrows from 1628, … Continue reading Lindybeige: Fire Arrows

John Smythe on archers at Kett’s Rebellion and the Prayer Book Rebellion

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The fiercest advocate of the longbow during the period of the Elizabethan bow vs. gun debates was John Smythe, a nobleman and a cantankerous soldier of long experience. Smythe had first served in France during the short reign of Edward VI, and afterwards had fought in the Netherlands (on the side of the Spanish) and … Continue reading John Smythe on archers at Kett’s Rebellion and the Prayer Book Rebellion

Bows Vs. Muskets in the Imjin War, part 2

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More incidents from the Imjin War. These are taken from Firearms: A Global History to 1700 by Kenneth Chase. Bizarrely, Chase takes the typical position that bows were a superior battlefield weapon to firearms despite his book being full of evidence to the contrary. This quote by the Korean official Yu Song-nyong, for example, is … Continue reading Bows Vs. Muskets in the Imjin War, part 2

Christine de Pizan, The Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry, 1410

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Christine de Pizan, a French noblewoman, is notable not only for her poetry, but for having written this book on the virtues of martial training. The work is largely based on Vegetius's De Re Militari, but Christine adds in plenty of commentary unique to the military situation of 15th century France. Most interesting is her … Continue reading Christine de Pizan, The Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry, 1410

Bows Vs. Muskets in the Imjin War, part 1

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The Imjin War was an invasion of Korea by the Japanese between 1592-1598. Although the Koreans were initially no match for the Japanese armies, the Japanese were eventually driven out thanks to Chinese military assistance and several decisive naval battles. At the beginning of the war, the Koreans had virtually no firearms. The Japanese, on … Continue reading Bows Vs. Muskets in the Imjin War, part 1

Lindsay Boynton, The Elizabethan Militia, 1967

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Boynton doesn't mince his words. Page 113: "One of the reasons that firearms superseded bows, it is suggested, is that they could be mastered in a shorter time. Such an argument runs wholly counter to the growing professionalisation of military affairs. Training, in particular, was becoming ever more comprehensive and the specious argument that firearms … Continue reading Lindsay Boynton, The Elizabethan Militia, 1967

Thomas Churchyard- A Praise of the Bovve, 1583

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This poem appears in The Avncient Order, Societie, and Vnitie Laudable, of Prince Arthure, and his Knightly Armory of the Round Table. With a Threefold Assertion frendly in fauour and furtherance of English Archery at this day, translated and editted by R. R., 1583. A Praise of the Bovve and Commendation of this Booke, written … Continue reading Thomas Churchyard- A Praise of the Bovve, 1583