Although the British Army as we know it was not raised until 1660, it inherited so much from the regiments who fought on both sides in the Civil Wars that they must be included in this survey. By 1660 the heavily armed pikeman had virtually disappeared and will not be considered; incidentally he was so weighed down by his armour that he was not available for picket duties or night guards. The musketeers wore no armour and, according to Firth, carried a load of over 60 lb; Buchan puts it higher. A reliable contemporary authority, Sir James Turner, writing in 1670, says "each man should carry his own knapsack and four or five days provision of meat and two lb of bread and cheese per diem. In his knapsack he should carry two shirts and two pairs of stockings, a pair of shoes and at his girdle a hatchet. This would not weigh as much as (the pikeman's) head piece and corslet." The knapsack of canvas or fur, slung over one shoulder, dated from 1631. We should call it a haversack. Firth states that seven days' biscuit and cheese were carried, at the rate of a pound of the former and half a pound of the latter per diem. The knapsack cost ninepence. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 119 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1971 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com