The weapon of choice during much of the eighteenth and nineteenth century was the black-powder musket. A nice and simple weapon with an effective range of about 75 yards. In fact, most safety guidelines have no issues with someone standing about 100 yards away from musket drill pointed right at them.

The musket required twelve steps to be fired...

Recover: The musket is brought up to eye level... well, the "lock" (firing mechanism) is with the barrel in the air and the butt usually near the chest. The weapon is not brought up directly in front of the person firing, but slightly off to the left...

This is done for the person firing to check to see if everything is in good working order... that the flint is in place and good and that there's nothing fouling the touch-hole for the next round.

Load: The musket is brought down to the waist... the butt to the rear, the barrel forward. The musket's hammer (where the flint is,) is brought to half-cock (not quite all the way ready, but not touching the frizzen or the metal where the flint makes it's spark on the pan) and pan is opened.

Handle Cartridge: The person firing reaches about with their right hand, while cradling the musket between their left hand, their right arm, and their waist, and snatches a "cartridge". This is a piece of paper which is wrapped around a musket ball (the bullet) and the black-powder. In military orders, which is how I'm giving them to you here, a soldier would then bring the cartridge to his mouth...

Prime: After biting the end of the cartridge (keeping the ball in his mouth,) the soldier shakes just a tiny bit of powder into the pan of the musket... Once done, the pan is closed and you wait for the next order.

Bout: The butt of the weapon is dropped down and the barrel brought down (pointing up) to allow for the pouring of the rest of the powder from the cartridge down the barrel. Once the powder is in, the ball is dropped into the barrel then the paper is jammed in.

Draw Ramrod: The "ramrod" is a metal bar that is part of the musket, just under the barrel. At this command, it's removed from it's place with two pulls (they are long!) and it is then carefully kept at the opening of the barrel.

Ram Down the Cartridge: The soldier would then use the ramrod to push the paper, ball, and powder down to the bottom of the barrel firmly.

Return Ramrods: Kind of an important... this step is where you withdraw the ramrod from the barrel and put it back in it's place in the musket. If this step is missed, you're going to end up shooting your rod at the enemy with the ball!

Shoulder Arms: Just like it sounds... the butt of the gun is cradled in the left hand, the barrel rests against the left shoulder. This also gives the soldier another chance to ensure his ramrod is indeed back where it belongs... usually they "tap" the barrel to feel the ramrod in it's place while they shoulder their weapons... don't feel the ramrod, best fetch it out of the barrel ASAP!

Make Ready: The musket is brought so that the firing mechanism in front of the face with the barrel pointing up. The soldier then pulls the hammer all the way back into firing position (full cock)... and waits...

Present: The musket is brought down, barrel forward, butt against the shoulder... ready to fire at your target. Don't sweat aiming too much... like I said, you're only likely to hit a large target at about fifty yards or so... with no intricate hitting of a target. The idea was to basically have a big line of soldiers firing in unison to create a hap-hazard wall of flying balls hurtling towards the enemy... kind of like a few hundred guys acting as one, underpowered shotgun.

Fire: Straight forward command... the trigger is pulled, the cock is sprung forward with it's flint, which strikes the frizzen (the metal cover of the pan) which causes a spark that enters the pan igniting the priming charge of powder in the pan, which then goes through the touch-hole and ignites the powder in the bottom of the barrel which propels the ball forward and out.

In battle, just repeat the steps above...

Now, it is interesting to note two things...

#1: A good and trained soldier could fire three shots per minute with these steps.

#2: When America's founding fathers wrote the second amendment to the constitution about the "Right to Bear Arms", this is what they figured they'd be dealing with... not the advanced weapons of today.

None-the-less, this is the "Twelve Step Program", as it were, to firing a musket.