Photo: Rama / CC BY-SA 3.0 frДЄlso, even though firearms such as muskets and arquebuses were relatively effective weapons (more so in general than pistols) and so were issued to the rank and file, they were also somewhat impractical on earlier battlefields.В The main problems with these early firearms were reliability and smoke. Black-powder pistol: Pistolet model 1733. Early pistols were expensive to make, and thus only wealthy men could afford pistols for much of the early era of firearms. For most of human history (with a few notable exceptions, such as the meritocratic Mongol armies) officers have been drawn from the noble classes, and given their commands because of their family names, wealth, and hereditary titles.ДЄs such, tradition and money were both huge factors when it came to the arms officers bore compared to those with which enlisted troops were issued. The use of sidearms by officers goes back to the earliest segments of the gunpowder era, as well as the era that preceded it. The case in point вЂ“ that of military officers carrying only sidearms in an age of lethally-effective long-range rifles and machine guns вЂ“ is a perfect example of tactics failing to keep pace with technological developments, and the stubbornness of old military traditions, even in the face of (lethal) impracticality. Prussian infantry advancing in line and column formation at the Battle of Hohenfriedberg in 1745 While the weapons human beings have used in warfare throughout historyВ have often evolved at a rapid pace, the tactics used to wield these weapons вЂ“ and direct the men who wield them вЂ“ have often been slow to catch up with the pace of the continually evolving technology.

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