A replica flintlock musket!
I’m now at the stage of writing up all the notes I’ve made over the holidays; trying to put them in some logical order so that a wikipedia page on the life of a redcoat can be created.
It’s just dawned on me what a massive task this is. In trying to be concise I’ve found that there is so much I could talk about (and I’ve also found a lot of other wiki pages that can link into my topic so I’m having to be careful not to overlap!) I’m dreading the dissertation stage – if I can write so many pages of notes now, god help me when I have a whole year to make reams of jottings.
So I’ve got myself a structure. That’s a good start. It only took a whole day to work out. But a structure is a necessity and a worthwhile day’s work. That was before I went on holiday and now I’m back the real work begins. Yesterday I managed to write three (out of my many) topics and I’m half way through the fourth this morning. Get in there!
The equipment and weaponry section was fascinating to research and in finding a whole article on musketry in the 18th century I decided that a little description of the flintlock musket (see picture) would be useful. I must include that somewhere. The camp section was also quite fun to write up – imagining myself in barracks on the edge of the battlefield. I’m glad I’m not there! And now for pay (had to get mum to describe the pound/shilling/pence situation but I’m with it now.) Imagine being a foot soldier with a wage of 8d per diem. That seems quite a lot until you realise how much had to be spent on equipment, shoes, clothing, food and all the other necessities that a man needed to take with him to war.
At the beginning of this project I had no idea what it must have been like to be a soldier. But as I’ve done more research I’ve really managed to gain a general picture of the life of a redcoat. Let’s just hope the write up expresses that!
Gemmahistory 