The musket may be loosely defined as a large-caliber smoothbore firearm fired from the shoulder. Early muskets weighted at least 40 pounds (18 kg) and were about 6 to 7 feet (1.8 to 2.1 m) long. These guns were so heavy that soldiers propped them in forked rests on the ground to aim and fire them. It is uncertain when the musket was first created, but Spanish accounts of musketeers--soldiers armed with muskets--date back as early as 1528.

Loading and firing muskets was tedious at best: the user dropped a charge of loose black gunpowder, a lead ball, and a wad of paper down the barrel, pushing it to the end with a ramrod. The firing mechanism was a matchlock, a glowing wick held in place by a moveable clamp called a serpentine. A small pan was filled with fine priming powder at the firing end, which acted much like a modern gun's hammer. When...