Weaponry at the Battle of the Wabash and the Battle of Fort Recovery

Weaponry at the Battle of the Wabash and the Battle of Fort Recovery. . "Finding no great effect from our fire, and confusion beginning to spread from the great number of men who were falling in all quarters, it became necessary to try what could be done with the bayonet." , --Major General Arthur St. Clair, in a letter dated November 9, 1791 to the Secretary of War, giving an account of the Battle of the Wabash and describing the ineffectiveness of the musket and cannon fire. Due to elevation changes, much of the initial U.S musket and cannon fire went far over the heads of the American Indians rushing into St. Clair''s main encampment., The tribes of the American Indian alliance used a variety of smoothbore muskets and rifles of different calibers, mostly acquired from the British. Many used the British "Brown Bess” musket, which sometimes included a bayonet. The Brown Bess fired multiple types of .75 caliber projectiles or combinations of different sized balls. American Indian warriors also used a variety of tomahawks, wooden clubs, and knives in battle. By the 1790s, American Indians seldom used bows and arrows in war-which were as accurate as muskets but they became useful when supplies of powder and balls were exhausted, as happened at the Battle of the Wabash., The U.S. Army used mostly .69 caliber smoothbore French Charleville muskets (prevalent in the Revolutionary War), shooting round lead ball, buck and ball, or shot. A bayonet could be fixed to the end of the barrel. Many of the Kentucky Militia with St. Clair carried their own .40 to .48 caliber rifles, tomahawks, and knives. Rifles took longer to load than muskets and did not have bayonets, but were much more accurate. Officers most likely would have carried flintlock pistols., The U.S.Army also had cannons. St. Clair''s army had six cannons at the Battle of the Wabash, 3-pounders and 6-pounders. The cannons could fire iron or stone balls, exploding shells, or tin canisters filled with shot. Major General Anthony Wayne and Secretary of War Henry Knox redesigned the cannons, named King howitzers, to be smaller and more maneuverable. In 1794, these redesigned cannons were used at the Battle of Fort Recovery.