Black Powder Muzzleloading Muskets.
 The black powder musket came into being in the sixteenth century. The musket is a muzzleloading firearm whose barrel interior (bore) is a smoothbore. A rifle is not a musket and a musket is not a rifle.

 Standard military nomenclature of the period between 1820 and 1860, refered to Springfields, Enfields, etc, as "Rifled Muskets". A musket has a smooth bore, a rifle has a rifled bore. During the transition period between smooth bore Muskets and then the addition of rifling to the bore of muskets, these firearms were commonly, then, referred to as "Rifled Muskets".

 The musket has quite a history as it had seen most of the advances in ignition systems for muzzleloaders and then it evolved into 2 classes of firearms, the addition of rifling it evolved into a rifle, smoothbore with a thinner barrel evolved into a shotgun.

Black Powder Muzzleloading Musket Versatility.
 The musket was quite a versatile firearm as it had the capability to shoot a single lead round ball projectile with reasonable accuracy to about 50 yards yet powerful enough to reach several hundred yards, or it could be loaded with many smaller projectiles or lead shot to harvest small animals and birds for food.

Black Powder Muzzleloading Musketeers.
 Musketeers were nothing more than soldiers armed with black powder muzzleloading muskets practicing the drill of musketry.