As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, WTOP presents “250 Years of America,” a multipart series examining the innovations, breakthroughs and pivotal moments that have shaped the nation since 1776.
HII is proud to partner with WTOP to bring you this series.
When the rifled musket entered widespread military service in the mid-19th century, it quietly detonated a revolution in warfare. Its impact was not immediate tactical brilliance, but something far more consequential: a widening gap between what weapons could do and how armies still chose to fight.
That mismatch, as former U.S. Army Europe Cmdr. Ben Hodges told WTOP, reshaped American military history at extraordinary human cost.
“As usual, technology is in front of tactics,” Hodges said.
The rifled musket dramatically increased both the range and accuracy of the individual infantry soldier.
Smoothbore muskets had been effective only at short distances and were wildly inaccurate, which forced armies to mass soldiers shoulder-to-shoulder and fire volleys at close range. Rifling changed that equation. Soldiers could now reliably hit targets hundreds of meters away. But armies did not immediately change how they fought.
“If you’re still using the same tactics with rifled muskets, people are getting shot down … 400 meters further away than they were previously,” Hodges noted.
Dense formations that once compensated for inaccuracy became ideal targets. The result was “incredible slaughter,” he said.
The American Civil War was the crucible in which this transformation became unmistakable.
As rifled muskets entered service in growing numbers, commanders on both sides continued to order massed assaults rooted in Napoleonic doctrine. The images from the Gettysburg battlefield and Fredericksburg battlefield tell the story: long lines of infantry advancing into withering fire, casualties mounting at unprecedented scale.
Yet the war also became a laboratory for adaptation.
As Hodges pointed out, by 1865, combat looked very different from 1861. Infantry formations spread out. Skirmishers moved forward in open order to probe enemy positions. Artillery grew lighter, more mobile and longer-ranged, complementing infantry firepower rather than merely supporting frontal assaults.
“You begin to see formations spread apart … skirmishers out in front … much more difficult to hit,” Hodges said.
This pattern would repeat itself throughout military history. Even in World War I, armies initially advanced in mass formations into machine-gun fire, again paying for that delayed adaptation. The lesson, Hodges argued, is enduring: longer range and greater accuracy fundamentally alter maneuverability, survivability and command decisions.
That logic still governs modern warfare.
As a young lieutenant in Germany during the Cold War, Hodges trained under the assumption that U.S. forces would be outnumbered. Victory depended on seeing first, shooting first and hitting accurately from a longer range.
“What can be seen can be hit, and what can be hit can be killed,” he said.
The rifled musket did more than change weapons. It forced the U.S. military to confront a permanent truth: technology will always move faster than doctrine. Survival depends on how quickly institutions learn to close that gap.
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