[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***units of archers could have played a role on the 1860’s battlefield.***

Ben Franklin came to the same conclusion in the Revolutionary War.

[Brad from Tennessee]

Thanks. I found this:

Franklin’s reasons for recommending the longbow over the musket are difficult to refute in an eighteenth century context. Those reasons were essentially the following:

*The bow was often more accurate.
*A man could shoot four arrows in the time it takes to fire and reload a musket.
*No gunsmoke, thus no problems in field vision.
*An incoming flight of arrows is rather disconcerting to the enemy.
*An arrow stuck to a man essentially immobilizes him, until extracted.
*Bows and arrows are more easily provided than muskets and ammunition.

http://americanfounding.blogspot.com/2010/05/guns-and-bows-and-arrows-what-if.html