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Here are some amazing statistics:  After the Battle of Gettysburg, provost marshals collected 27,514 muskets which had been abandoned on the field during the fight.  It was discovered that 24,000 of them were loaded, 12,000 contained 2 charges each; 6,000 were charged with 3 to 10 loads each; and one musket had 23 loads in it!

Why were there so many guns with multiple loads?  It seems that soldiers would service their guns and then, in the din and excitement of battle, they would either forget that they had not yet discharged their muskets.  So they would load again!

Think of the wasted potential!  Enough unfired weapons to equip a fair-sized army and most of them packed with more than one charge!  Perhaps there is a lesson here for those who fight under the banner of Christ.  Too often we are loading and reloading without ever firing!

Bobby Dockery, Paducah, Kentucky