"The Muzzle Loading Cap Lock Rifle" by Ned Roberts goes way into the technology of the weapons. This guy lived it.
Training does mean a lot but how does one explain the fact that " The Thin Red Line " Britishicon infantry, the best trained infantry in the world at the time, consistently fired over their intended targets. Or how the Infantry Square was developed to resist attack from Cavalry, but to work required Sergeants armed with swords constantly either slapping , stabbing or killing anyone who tried to run from the formation. At Waterloo, the Frenchicon skirmishers would haul small artillery pieces to within 100' of the British square, dismount and fire directly into the square, like bowling with human pins. It was wholesale slaughter on a scale beyond belief. At Waterloo, Napoleon's personal guards the Garde Impériale, refused to attack in a final suicidal lunge to save the day. The best the French had quitting on the field. A target range at Valley Forge? More likely a field for execution by firing squad. The Continental Army was so short of powder and lead that anyone firing needlessly were flogged or worse. Read "The British Are Coming" by Rick Atkinson for a genuine account of what really happened at Concord. My great great great grandfather Moses Bruce was one of the Minutemen. My great great grandfather Pvt Lucian Bruce 1st Vermont, was shot and disabled at the battle called The Wilderness. My other Great great grandfather Major Jeremiah Hackett was a Union Cavalry commander in Arkansas.