so arguments like this one your talking about existed and the famous quote comes from a comment after the battle of Waterloo, the problem with these questions is no one actually made the choice in the moment. Everyone fought with guns and thus guns were used (and as Holmes notes, the sound of war which guns amplify do play a role in battles). This doesn't strike me as a Washington question so much as a "why did 18th century Europeans embrace muskets given the quality of bows and arrows?"