In this video, reenactor Bill Thompson explains late eighteenth-century small arms, including how a flintlock works and the differences between rifles and muskets, and demonstrates the loading and firing of an English “Brown Bess” musket. Filmed during Living History Week at Alamance Battleground.

A video transcript is available.

Video credit:

“Firing a musket: 18th-century small arms.” Published by Learn NC, March 9, 2015, on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVoyzv0ctV4.