Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from How to Shoot: Address by General George W. Wingate, President of the Public Schools Athletic League to High School Boys of New York City
About the middle of the last century, a Frenchman named Mime discovered that by using in a ri?e a pointed bullet, the resistance of the atmosphere was so much decreased that the range of the projectile was increased tenfold. His idea was adopted by the French army, and its use soon became universal. The army people rapidly adopted it, not so much because of its increased accuracy, but because the increase of range placed the troops who did not have it at an enormous disadvantage.
Until the close of our Civil War military ri?es were all muzzle loaders. The charge of powder was contained in a cylinder made of brown paper, at the front end of which the bullet was inserted. The soldier tore off the other end of the cartridge with his teeth, poured the powder into the barrel of his gun, put the bullet on top of it, rammed it down, put a percussion cap on the nipple and fired it. Not only were these paper cartridges apt to get wet (in which case they were useless), but in rapid firing the barrel became dirty, so that it was almost impossible to ram the bullets down. It was a common thing after a battle to pick up ri?es which had five or six loads in them, their owners in their excitement not having observed that the first charge had failed to explode, and put charge after charge on top of it.
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