ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the period, as at the end, armies were divided into infantry, cavalry and artillery, with the infantry as the largest arm. Both on land and at sea, fighting was at close quarters: an exchange of fire at comparatively close range or, less frequently, hand-to-hand, and between opponents who were well within visual range. Mortars, howitzers and “bomb vessels” (ketches that carried mortars) could provide indirect fire, as could the new “rockets”, but most fire was direct, and the long-range fire of modern warfare was absent. Rockets were also wildly inaccurate. Artillery on land and sea continued to be smooth bore bronze or cast-iron muzzle-loaded cannon handled by muscle power. At sea, however, fighting was at less close quarters than it had been prior to the development of line-ahead tactics in the 1650s. Both cannon and handguns were single-shot weapons.
