The infantry at the beginning of the war used either fire-arms or pikes, the former to open the enemy's ranks, the latter to decide the battle by hand-to-hand fighting. At this period we find that the pikemen were the heavy infantry; they wore breastplates, brassarts, swords, and a pike eighteen feet long with an iron point, the handles of the best were of ash; the lance-corporals and subaltern officers had halberds and partisans. The two species of fire-arms which prevailed in the army were the musketoon (which with the Imperialists was a heavy weapon six feet long, with matchlocks and balls, of which there were ten in the pound) and the short hand-gun, a weapon of lighter and smaller calibre, which in the beginning of the war bore amongst the infantry the old name of arquebuss. The musketeer wore also at his side a hanger, a weapon with a small curved point, and over his shoulder a bandolier with eleven cylindrical cases in which the charges were placed, a match holder, and a musket rest, a staff with a metal point and two metal prongs, on the top of which the musketeer laid his weapon: his head was covered with a helmet or morion; this last piece of armour was soon discarded. The foot arquebussier did not carry a rest or a shoulder-belt; he loaded from his shot-pouch and powder-horn. There were pikemen and musketeers in the same company, and long even before the great war there were companies in which fire-arms alone were borne. Out of the light infantry were formed, in the middle of the war, what were called rifle companies, but among whom only a few had rifles. The grenadiers, who threw hand-grenades, were then formed in small numbers; for instance, in 1634, by the Swedes at the siege of Ratisbon.