You are a member of the First Mississippi Regiment of volunteers, the so-called Mississippi Rifles, just returned from the war in Mexico.Your local newpaper, the Alligator Independent Advertiser, has asked you to write an article about your experiences in the war and especially at the Battle of Buena Vista,in which your regiment had distinguished itself. Although your regiment had been professionally drilled by your commander, an ex-West Pointer and local planter named Davis, you feel that the success of your regiment really came from the weapon with which you were armed, the Model 1841 percussion cap rifle, which came to be nicknamed the Mississippi rifle after your units use of them during the war with Mexico. When you sit down to write, you think about what your Mexican opponents.were armed withmostly left-over British smoothbore flintlock muskets from the Napoleonic wars.As your audience would be made up primarily of civilians, many of whom would have little acquaintance with firearms at all, you know that youre going to have to explain things like ignition systems and rifling, as you discuss what happened in that desperate battle. How did the two weapons compare in combat, especially when the weather was also very damp (22-23 February, in northern Mexico) and how might that have made a difference?
