INVENTION OF GUNPOWDER
The introduction of gunpowder from China in the fifteenth century did not immediately revolutionize warfare. It was used only in cannon or mortars for hurling large stones at city walls. The range of those cannon was so limited and the time it took to load and fire them was so great that they were of little use on an open battlefield. A cannon, although a comparatively powerful offensive weapon, was helpless against attack and was only suitable for use in forts or behind breastworks. Later when its range was increased and it came to be used on the battlefield it had to be protected from capture by men supplied with small arms.
This defect of the cannon also applied to the use of the hand gun. Its range was small and consequently the blunderbuss type was invented to spread the charge of shot as much as possible so as to tear a wide gap in the enemy’s line and prevent it from closing in upon the operator of the gun. But the loading and firing of these early firearms was extremely slow and the battle-ax and even the arrow and the crossbow were much more effective weapons. So unreliable were the muskets of our Revolutionary War that in battle more dependence was placed upon the bayonet than the firearm.