The armies fought the way they did—on open ground in long lines of musket-wielding infantry standing two and three ranks deep—because that was the most rational way to use the weapons they had.
The main weapon of this combat was the muzzle-loading, smooth-bore, flint-lock musket, equipped with a 16-inch bayonet. It hurled a one-ounce lead ball of .70 to .80 caliber fairly accurately up to 75 yards, but distance scarcely mattered. The object was to break up the enemy's formations with volleys and then rout them with cold steel. The British were masters of these linear tactics, and Washington and his commanders spent the war trying to instill the same discipline in their Continentals so that they could stand up to redcoats on equal terms in battle.
The American rifle was not the significant weapon legend later made it out to be. Though accurate at great distances, it was slow to load and useless in open battle because it was not equipped with a bayonet. But in the hands of skirmishers, the rifle could do great damage, as the British found out at Cowpens.

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