Quote Originally Posted by eulmanis12 View Post
2. Distances of firing. Yes, a good marksmen with a smoothbore musket has a Good chance of hitting a target at well beyond the distance that musket armed infantry would normally engage at. The chief reason for this was that A, not every man was a good marksmen, B even the good marksmen would be hampered by the fact that most smoothbores had primitive sights at best, often no rear sight, C, Most soldiers did not actually aim (this was more common in Europe than America, in the Americas soldiers depending on the state were encouraged to take careful aim at a specific target), at the command "Present Arms" they leveled their muskets in the general direction of the enemy formation without sighting along the barrel, the assumtion being that it would hit somebody and it didn't matter who. Untrained infantry were more likley to engage at a longer distance, and to take careful aim than veteran infantry. When rifle muskets came along, at first, though now soldiers were all using much more accurate weapons, and now took careful aim at individual enemies, officers who had commanded in the days of the Smoothbore failed to adapt immediatly, massive casualties occured due to the high accuracy an short distance of the engagment. As time went on, most officers adapted to fighting at longer distances, and in looser formations.
1. While individual marksmanship and ability has a bearing, military practice was to use an undersized ball -- this allowed for poor tolerances, and to compensate for fouling. To give you an idea, a .69 musket was to use .65 caliber ball. If it used a .685 ball, accuracy would have been much improved, but loading times would be longer and being slightly out of tolerance would yield to a bullet that couldn't be loaded (this was a problem with minie balls at the time).

Smoothbore muskets were significantly more deadly at very close ranges (~30-40 yards), and there is some evidence to back up the claim that if the soldiers could weather the casualties from rifles to get that close, they could be more effective. The minie ball made it more difficult to close.

2. Unless the soldiers are skirmishing, most of the time your target would be a mass formation, and aiming at individuals wasn't necessary. Skirmishers were ordered to take their time aiming, and to aim using the "rear sight", which involved a different stance, compared to firing in the ranks.

Two-rank fighting was the standard tactic throughout the war. As the war went on, and training increased, more troops probably had better skirmish drill, but rarely did troops get significant target practice. Siege warfare involved different tactics, and in the late war such warfare was more common. But on an open battlefield, infantry would still deploy in two ranks.