Wads, Grease, cardboard cards, fillers the frontier solider, cowboy, trapper or hunter must of had one big possibles bag.
, or maybe the just carried ball, powder and caps, the solider paper cartridges.
I have to agree, I overthink things sometimes, and maybe this just applies to me, I shoot BP revolvers mostly for fun, not as a combat or defense weapon, so, I do not have the need to be, and, I am not as proficient with reloading them as I am my 9mm or 45 acp carry guns, 38/357 revolvers or 45 SAAs. I don't shoot BP as often as I do other firearms, or as often as the men of old may have needed to.
My guess, and I may be wrong here, is that they probably did not load them the way we all do today, powder, card, wads, ball, crisco, etc. I may not need to use a card under a lubed wad because I typically load, and shoot within a few minutes of each other, so powder contamination due to a lubed wad may not affect the powder in the "short term" unless I used really heavily lubed wads. That said, if I were to have to depend on a BP revolver for SD, I would do everything I could to make sure the powder stayed dry and lube free and the gun would function and shoot its best and most accurate when I needed it.
I read somewhere that Wild Bill emptied and cleaned his revolvers at least once a week, somewhere else that he did it daily, not sure if either of these is true or not, but, since he depended on them to save/defend his life I bet he did what he needed to in order to be doggone sure they went off when he needed them.
I also read that some soldiers used fat drippings over the ball, not sure if this was to lube or prevent chain fires, also not sure if either of the above is fact or not, I read it on the net at one point or another - so take that with a grain of salt
. again, pretty sure this was a preparatory reload, and under fire, it was just powder and ball, and a fresh cap.
Long Winded - Sorry -
For me: I have found MY BP revolvers to be most consistent when using powder, waxed cardboard card, lubed wad, tight fitting round ball .454, with #10 Remington caps. I don't grease over the the ball, never had a chain fire, and hope I never do. So if I were going to carry for SD, that is how I would load them - in advance of heading out.
As for reload in combat, carry two guns (or more aka Josie Wales) if you think that is going to be a need, or carry a rifle/shotgun, or have a bunch of union or rebel buddies to watch your back while you do so, cuz for me, that isn't a quick task, maybe a couple minutes at best, though I would probably skip everything except powder and ball and cap if I needed to do it fast.
d