The Destroying Angel

In the Crimean War, trained British soldiers with a new weapon, the rifle-musket, decimated the ranks of their Russian enemies like the of "the destroying angel." Brett Gibbons argues that, outside of the hands of inexperienced American Civil War soldiers, the rifle-musket made a profound impact not just on the battlefield, but also in the development of the modern soldier. Utilizing new primary sources, and examining rarely considered battles of the rifle-musket era in the Crimean War, the 1857 Indian Rebellion, and the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Gibbons makes a compelling argument for the rifle-musket as the first modern infantry weapon.