Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

aiontay · 26th April 2009, 09:12 PM

While ammunition certainly was scarce in New Mexico during the Spanish colonial era, I'm not sure that is the only reason lances were favored. I remember watching an episode of "Gangland" on the History Channel recently where they described an incident where several members of a gang attacked a party held by a rival gang with automatic rifles and pistols. Even though they were shooting (on foot) into a crowd of people, they completely missed the people they were trying to kill. The only person killed was the pregnant wife of one of the rival gang, and she was killed by a stray bullet.

Now imagine trying to shoot accurately from a galloping horse at another person on a galloping horse while riding across broken terrain with a muzzle loading carbine or pistol, or a single action cap and ball revolver for that matter. I think your accuracy would suffer quite a bit. For that matter, during the Revoluntionary War there were several occasssions, for example the capture by the Americans of a British redoubt at Yorktown, where commander explicitly ordered their men to rely solely on bayonets, ot loaded guns. Even in situations where men were on foot in massed formations, as opposed to the loose, small groups on horseback common on Spanish frontier, "spears" were the prefered weapon in some situations because they were more reliable.

Also, at least in New Mexico there were the cibolaros (sp?), the Hsipanic buffalo hunters who went on extended buffalo hunts using bows and arrows and lances. Maybe the use of bows and lances was due to lack of ammunition, but it may have been because of the ineffectiveness of gun fire on horseback. As Joseph Jablow notes in his book "The Cheyenne in Plains Indian Trade Relations" several tribes banned the use of guns in buffalo hunts due to misfires and stray bullets. Now I realize hunts and battles are not the same, but I would point out that Plains battle tactics, like Mongol tactics, derived in part from group hunting tactics. I suspect that many of these ideas were adopted by the Spanish settlers.

26th April 2009, 09:12 PM	#13
aiontay Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 88	While ammunition certainly was scarce in New Mexico during the Spanish colonial era, I'm not sure that is the only reason lances were favored. I remember watching an episode of "Gangland" on the History Channel recently where they described an incident where several members of a gang attacked a party held by a rival gang with automatic rifles and pistols. Even though they were shooting (on foot) into a crowd of people, they completely missed the people they were trying to kill. The only person killed was the pregnant wife of one of the rival gang, and she was killed by a stray bullet. Now imagine trying to shoot accurately from a galloping horse at another person on a galloping horse while riding across broken terrain with a muzzle loading carbine or pistol, or a single action cap and ball revolver for that matter. I think your accuracy would suffer quite a bit. For that matter, during the Revoluntionary War there were several occasssions, for example the capture by the Americans of a British redoubt at Yorktown, where commander explicitly ordered their men to rely solely on bayonets, ot loaded guns. Even in situations where men were on foot in massed formations, as opposed to the loose, small groups on horseback common on Spanish frontier, "spears" were the prefered weapon in some situations because they were more reliable. Also, at least in New Mexico there were the cibolaros (sp?), the Hsipanic buffalo hunters who went on extended buffalo hunts using bows and arrows and lances. Maybe the use of bows and lances was due to lack of ammunition, but it may have been because of the ineffectiveness of gun fire on horseback. As Joseph Jablow notes in his book "The Cheyenne in Plains Indian Trade Relations" several tribes banned the use of guns in buffalo hunts due to misfires and stray bullets. Now I realize hunts and battles are not the same, but I would point out that Plains battle tactics, like Mongol tactics, derived in part from group hunting tactics. I suspect that many of these ideas were adopted by the Spanish settlers.