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Yes, after we got them from the French, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain. Then, we most certainly took care of business.
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Armed to the teeth
- Thread Starter simon99
- Start date
Yes, after we got them from the French, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain. Then, we most certainly took care of business.
They had Arms and they had them at Home.
8 Types were American Made prior to the Revolution. Plus they stole arms from the British.
American Made Muskets in the Revolutionary War
Images of 8 American Made Muskets appear at the link that were made prior to the revolution. See the muskets at the link provided. Then find a new history teacher.
Excerpt from the site below:
The mixed-pattern muskets used by American Colonists to win our independence testify eloquently to the "can do" spirit that made possible our ultimate victory—and our freedom.
As galloping express riders and ringing church bells spread across New England during the early hours of April 19, 1775, thousands of farmers and tradesmen carrying a variety of firearms poured out of their homes and headed toward Lexington and Concord to intercept the British Army column approaching from Boston. America's War for Independence had begun. Yet, despite their deeply held convictions, these provincials had no realistic chance to win.
In opposition against the finest army and navy in the world, the Colonists possessed no trained armed forces, no established central government, no financial reserves and no industry to supply their effort. The Northern American Colonies had been settled to enrich the mother country by exporting raw materials to England's factories and then serve as a market for their finished goods. Thus, the manufacturing facilities, such as those needed to produce arms and support a war, did not exist this side of the Atlantic.
As a young society gripped in a pioneering spirit, however, the rebels possessed an explosive vitality and ability to innovate. How they defied the impossible and drew upon this "new world energy" to successfully equip their spawning armies is one of the untold stories of our incredible path to freedom.
Militia Organizations: In the beginning, the only existing American military groups were the individual militia systems of each colony. These units were usually identified by their town or county locations and included all men from 16 to 60 years of age. Being loosely structured, they met locally to drill several days each year, but lacked the discipline to stand against professional troops in open battle.
Each member was equipped with a firearm plus a bladed back-up arm, such as a short sword, belt axe or bayonet. Yet, unlike the mother country's own militia regulations—in which the authorities controlled the arms and stored them together in a secured central location between muster days—each American had to provide his own arms and keep them at home. The gun specifications, in turn, were vague. Massachusetts, for example, required only "a good fire arm." Because Britain had done little in past years to furnish her Colonists with military arms, the militia employed a wide assortment of smoothbore muskets, carbines, fusils, trade guns, light or heavy fowling pieces, and rifles—of varied lineages and bore sizes.
In addition, as the new United Colonies hurriedly attempted to create a regular army by enlisting militia members into Continental Line regiments, many of the recruits left their personal arms at home for the hunting demands and physical protection of their families. When Washington arrived at Cambridge opposite Boston in July 1775, he found an estimated 15 percent of the troops without firearms and many others with arms not capable of military field service.
Initial Arms Sources: The immediate American needs had to be satisfied quickly by obtaining existing guns. The provincials proceeded to raid local arsenals, confiscate Loyalist guns, purchase civilian arms, seize British supplies, acquire cast-off or surplus firearms in Europe through independent agents and repair or cannibalize damaged pieces.
Efforts were also implemented to make use of the limited production capabilities within the Colonies. An estimated 2,500 to 3,000 gunsmiths were available, of which perhaps two-thirds favored the American cause (Moller I). Early in 1775, local "committees of safety" were already placing orders with those makers. (Some modern collectors describe all American Revolutionary War muskets as "committee of safety" guns. This term should only refer to those arms produced under a "committee" contract. Few survived and most were not identified by the makers who feared retaliation by Royal authorities.)
Within a year, the committees had largely been superseded by the states, most of which raised and equipped their own regiments during the war. The Continental Congress also began issuing multiple contracts through agents of its Board of War. The rebels' early specifications followed the British Land Pattern with its pinned .75-cal. barrel, but the stipulated barrel lengths varied from 42" to 46" and recommended bayonet blades ranged from 14" to 18". Surviving examples further show that even these official dimensions were routinely disregarded to expedite production.
Foreign Aid: Eventually the patriots' desperate shortage of arms would be relieved by supplies from abroad. Yet this aid raised even more complications. Beginning in 1777, shipments began to arrive from France, as well as the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain. Mixed within these consignments, however, were firearm patterns of virtually all Western European nations, as most of the foreign arsenals supplying American aid had within their inventories captured, abandoned or damaged arms from multiple enemies of previous wars. American agents, such as Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee, also arranged large private deliveries of assorted armaments from Europe's professional arms dealers. Such an overwhelming variety of gun patterns in the American ranks were further aggravated by a substantial number of odd musket components within the cargos.
American Production: The existing provincial gunsmiths included a number of master craftsmen, but the need for volume soon overrode artistry as their primary objective. The most time-consuming work was making locks and barrels. Even before hostilities began, it was usually more cost effective for the makers to import those two components in bulk and make the remaining parts locally. This new flood of used parts changed most gun production to mixed assembly and repair. The author has found as many as five countries represented on a single American musket. Some of these reused parts even had portions cut off to reduce inletting work.
Although the typical American-made long arms favored the familiar British Brown Bess Land Pattern during the early war years, they shifted toward French designs and components as foreign aid expanded and France's serviceable muskets re-equipped most of the Continental Line. The transition came slowly, however, for the maintenance and repair of arms returned from active field use added to the gunsmiths' burdens.
As late as 1778, General von Steuben wrote of Washington's line regiments following his arrival at Valley Forge in February, "The arms were in horrible condition, covered with rust, half of them without bayonets, many from which a single shot could not be fired ... muskets, carbines, fowling pieces and rifles were seen in the same company."
Centralized Locations: To cope with these continuing demands, the individual states and the Congress began to establish larger and more centralized storage/repair facilities. By 1778, there were six Continental arsenals located in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Carlisle, Lancaster), Maryland (Head of Elk), New York (Albany), and Virginia (Manchester). (Moller I). In 1780 Congress created the Philadelphia Supply Agencies, which included The French Factory, The Continental Armory, and related parts suppliers as major repair and production sources centered in that city. Also by this late date, Congress had enough inventory to sell surplus arms to the states which, in turn, had expanded their own capacities. Virginia founded a State Gun Factory in Fredericksburg (1775), but most of the states resorted to encouraging private gunmakers in favorable locations, such as Pennsylvania's Lancaster County, Connecticut's Goshen and Virginia's Rappahannock Forge. The rebels' most complete manufacturing resources were in Pennsylvania, which had important iron furnaces; but much of this capacity was focused on civilian long rifles, which are not covered in this article.
Identification: Because the great proportion of muskets made here during the Revolution mounted a mixture of reused or locally made parts, no standard American pattern emerged from the war. This is why a modern collector is faced with the challenge to identify and date each component in order to determine the probable age of a gun. There are, however, certain indicators for associating smoothbore long arms with our relevant 1715 to 1783 period:
• Most period stocks had a round wrist; it became oval beginning about 1790.
• The musket stock usually included a chair rail crease or pinched channel along the lower edge of a raised comb.
• Locks prior to the 1790s were made with a rounded cock on a rounded lockplate, or a "flat on flat."
• The lockplate ended with a tapered point for its tail versus the 19th century rounded form.
• The tip of a cock's post was either stubby, notched or had a forward curl; after 1795, it often curled toward the rear.
• When present, sideplates were a single, complete piece; two separate components appeared after 1800.
• Many Colonists had an aversion to sling swivels; some cannibalized European trigger guards retained an earlier hole drilled for the lower swivel, but the American stocks frequently omitted a hole for the second swivel in its fore-end.
• Components fabricated by the provincials were usually cruder and cheaper than European made elements, such as rolled sheet brass ramrod thimbles versus the British use of castings.
• Hunting fowlers, which normally extended their stock fore-ends to the muzzle often had them cut back and added a barrel stud to mount a bayonet for military service.
• Roller frizzens are found on some private European guns from our period, but they did not appear on issued long arms until about 1800.
• Most European military stocks were of black walnut or, occasionally, beech. The Americans also employed walnut, but, in addition, showed a preference for cherry and either plain or striped maple. On a limited basis, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will generously test pieces of wood (from inside your stock) to identify North American vs. European species. (For information, write: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, One Gifford Pinchot Drive, Madison, WI 53705-2398).
The great majority of surviving muskets manufactured by the Colonists are not identified by their maker or source. Yet a number of the states did, at times, stamp their issued arms to indicate ownership especially early in the war. These included, "MB" or "CMB", Massachusetts; "SC", Connecticut; "CR", Rhode Island; "PP" or "P", Pennsylvania; "JS" or "PS", Maryland; "SP", New Jersey; "NH" New Hampshire; "CN", New York; and "SGF" (State Gun Factory), Virginia. In addition, by 1777 European arms were arriving in bulk without government ownership identification and the Congress instructed each Continental regiment in the field to stamp or brand its muskets "US", "U:STATES", or "UNITED STATES". Their compliance was spotty, but the practice continued in postwar arsenals (Guthman).
Out of the more than 300,000 long arms used by the American line troops during the War for Independence, probably in excess of 80,000 were the products of America's scattered gunsmiths using mixed components. Yet, because the soldier's round lead bullets were undersized to allow for powder fouling in the bore and the issued socket bayonets had to be individually fitted to each barrel, their odd pedigrees did not create the extreme hardships one might have expected. As such, they filled a vital gap in arming the early regiments and continued as the major repair and maintenance sources for Washington's troops until the war was won. The individual muskets illustrated in this article are considered typical of the variety of long arms produced by this homegrown cottage industry.
After facing an almost impossible supply problem following Lexington/Concord, the committed Colonists vigorously pursued all available sources to create the -desperately needed supply of arms. Today their mixed-pattern muskets comprise a special category for -collectors and historians that -testifies so eloquently to the "can do" spirit which made possible our ultimate victory.
American Made Muskets in the Revolutionary War
8 Types were American Made prior to the Revolution. Plus they stole arms from the British.
American Made Muskets in the Revolutionary War
Images of 8 American Made Muskets appear at the link that were made prior to the revolution. See the muskets at the link provided. Then find a new history teacher.
Excerpt from the site below:
The mixed-pattern muskets used by American Colonists to win our independence testify eloquently to the "can do" spirit that made possible our ultimate victory—and our freedom.
As galloping express riders and ringing church bells spread across New England during the early hours of April 19, 1775, thousands of farmers and tradesmen carrying a variety of firearms poured out of their homes and headed toward Lexington and Concord to intercept the British Army column approaching from Boston. America's War for Independence had begun. Yet, despite their deeply held convictions, these provincials had no realistic chance to win.
In opposition against the finest army and navy in the world, the Colonists possessed no trained armed forces, no established central government, no financial reserves and no industry to supply their effort. The Northern American Colonies had been settled to enrich the mother country by exporting raw materials to England's factories and then serve as a market for their finished goods. Thus, the manufacturing facilities, such as those needed to produce arms and support a war, did not exist this side of the Atlantic.
As a young society gripped in a pioneering spirit, however, the rebels possessed an explosive vitality and ability to innovate. How they defied the impossible and drew upon this "new world energy" to successfully equip their spawning armies is one of the untold stories of our incredible path to freedom.
Militia Organizations: In the beginning, the only existing American military groups were the individual militia systems of each colony. These units were usually identified by their town or county locations and included all men from 16 to 60 years of age. Being loosely structured, they met locally to drill several days each year, but lacked the discipline to stand against professional troops in open battle.
Each member was equipped with a firearm plus a bladed back-up arm, such as a short sword, belt axe or bayonet. Yet, unlike the mother country's own militia regulations—in which the authorities controlled the arms and stored them together in a secured central location between muster days—each American had to provide his own arms and keep them at home. The gun specifications, in turn, were vague. Massachusetts, for example, required only "a good fire arm." Because Britain had done little in past years to furnish her Colonists with military arms, the militia employed a wide assortment of smoothbore muskets, carbines, fusils, trade guns, light or heavy fowling pieces, and rifles—of varied lineages and bore sizes.
In addition, as the new United Colonies hurriedly attempted to create a regular army by enlisting militia members into Continental Line regiments, many of the recruits left their personal arms at home for the hunting demands and physical protection of their families. When Washington arrived at Cambridge opposite Boston in July 1775, he found an estimated 15 percent of the troops without firearms and many others with arms not capable of military field service.
Initial Arms Sources: The immediate American needs had to be satisfied quickly by obtaining existing guns. The provincials proceeded to raid local arsenals, confiscate Loyalist guns, purchase civilian arms, seize British supplies, acquire cast-off or surplus firearms in Europe through independent agents and repair or cannibalize damaged pieces.
Efforts were also implemented to make use of the limited production capabilities within the Colonies. An estimated 2,500 to 3,000 gunsmiths were available, of which perhaps two-thirds favored the American cause (Moller I). Early in 1775, local "committees of safety" were already placing orders with those makers. (Some modern collectors describe all American Revolutionary War muskets as "committee of safety" guns. This term should only refer to those arms produced under a "committee" contract. Few survived and most were not identified by the makers who feared retaliation by Royal authorities.)
Within a year, the committees had largely been superseded by the states, most of which raised and equipped their own regiments during the war. The Continental Congress also began issuing multiple contracts through agents of its Board of War. The rebels' early specifications followed the British Land Pattern with its pinned .75-cal. barrel, but the stipulated barrel lengths varied from 42" to 46" and recommended bayonet blades ranged from 14" to 18". Surviving examples further show that even these official dimensions were routinely disregarded to expedite production.
Foreign Aid: Eventually the patriots' desperate shortage of arms would be relieved by supplies from abroad. Yet this aid raised even more complications. Beginning in 1777, shipments began to arrive from France, as well as the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain. Mixed within these consignments, however, were firearm patterns of virtually all Western European nations, as most of the foreign arsenals supplying American aid had within their inventories captured, abandoned or damaged arms from multiple enemies of previous wars. American agents, such as Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee, also arranged large private deliveries of assorted armaments from Europe's professional arms dealers. Such an overwhelming variety of gun patterns in the American ranks were further aggravated by a substantial number of odd musket components within the cargos.
American Production: The existing provincial gunsmiths included a number of master craftsmen, but the need for volume soon overrode artistry as their primary objective. The most time-consuming work was making locks and barrels. Even before hostilities began, it was usually more cost effective for the makers to import those two components in bulk and make the remaining parts locally. This new flood of used parts changed most gun production to mixed assembly and repair. The author has found as many as five countries represented on a single American musket. Some of these reused parts even had portions cut off to reduce inletting work.
Although the typical American-made long arms favored the familiar British Brown Bess Land Pattern during the early war years, they shifted toward French designs and components as foreign aid expanded and France's serviceable muskets re-equipped most of the Continental Line. The transition came slowly, however, for the maintenance and repair of arms returned from active field use added to the gunsmiths' burdens.
As late as 1778, General von Steuben wrote of Washington's line regiments following his arrival at Valley Forge in February, "The arms were in horrible condition, covered with rust, half of them without bayonets, many from which a single shot could not be fired ... muskets, carbines, fowling pieces and rifles were seen in the same company."
Centralized Locations: To cope with these continuing demands, the individual states and the Congress began to establish larger and more centralized storage/repair facilities. By 1778, there were six Continental arsenals located in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Carlisle, Lancaster), Maryland (Head of Elk), New York (Albany), and Virginia (Manchester). (Moller I). In 1780 Congress created the Philadelphia Supply Agencies, which included The French Factory, The Continental Armory, and related parts suppliers as major repair and production sources centered in that city. Also by this late date, Congress had enough inventory to sell surplus arms to the states which, in turn, had expanded their own capacities. Virginia founded a State Gun Factory in Fredericksburg (1775), but most of the states resorted to encouraging private gunmakers in favorable locations, such as Pennsylvania's Lancaster County, Connecticut's Goshen and Virginia's Rappahannock Forge. The rebels' most complete manufacturing resources were in Pennsylvania, which had important iron furnaces; but much of this capacity was focused on civilian long rifles, which are not covered in this article.
Identification: Because the great proportion of muskets made here during the Revolution mounted a mixture of reused or locally made parts, no standard American pattern emerged from the war. This is why a modern collector is faced with the challenge to identify and date each component in order to determine the probable age of a gun. There are, however, certain indicators for associating smoothbore long arms with our relevant 1715 to 1783 period:
• Most period stocks had a round wrist; it became oval beginning about 1790.
• The musket stock usually included a chair rail crease or pinched channel along the lower edge of a raised comb.
• Locks prior to the 1790s were made with a rounded cock on a rounded lockplate, or a "flat on flat."
• The lockplate ended with a tapered point for its tail versus the 19th century rounded form.
• The tip of a cock's post was either stubby, notched or had a forward curl; after 1795, it often curled toward the rear.
• When present, sideplates were a single, complete piece; two separate components appeared after 1800.
• Many Colonists had an aversion to sling swivels; some cannibalized European trigger guards retained an earlier hole drilled for the lower swivel, but the American stocks frequently omitted a hole for the second swivel in its fore-end.
• Components fabricated by the provincials were usually cruder and cheaper than European made elements, such as rolled sheet brass ramrod thimbles versus the British use of castings.
• Hunting fowlers, which normally extended their stock fore-ends to the muzzle often had them cut back and added a barrel stud to mount a bayonet for military service.
• Roller frizzens are found on some private European guns from our period, but they did not appear on issued long arms until about 1800.
• Most European military stocks were of black walnut or, occasionally, beech. The Americans also employed walnut, but, in addition, showed a preference for cherry and either plain or striped maple. On a limited basis, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will generously test pieces of wood (from inside your stock) to identify North American vs. European species. (For information, write: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, One Gifford Pinchot Drive, Madison, WI 53705-2398).
The great majority of surviving muskets manufactured by the Colonists are not identified by their maker or source. Yet a number of the states did, at times, stamp their issued arms to indicate ownership especially early in the war. These included, "MB" or "CMB", Massachusetts; "SC", Connecticut; "CR", Rhode Island; "PP" or "P", Pennsylvania; "JS" or "PS", Maryland; "SP", New Jersey; "NH" New Hampshire; "CN", New York; and "SGF" (State Gun Factory), Virginia. In addition, by 1777 European arms were arriving in bulk without government ownership identification and the Congress instructed each Continental regiment in the field to stamp or brand its muskets "US", "U:STATES", or "UNITED STATES". Their compliance was spotty, but the practice continued in postwar arsenals (Guthman).
Out of the more than 300,000 long arms used by the American line troops during the War for Independence, probably in excess of 80,000 were the products of America's scattered gunsmiths using mixed components. Yet, because the soldier's round lead bullets were undersized to allow for powder fouling in the bore and the issued socket bayonets had to be individually fitted to each barrel, their odd pedigrees did not create the extreme hardships one might have expected. As such, they filled a vital gap in arming the early regiments and continued as the major repair and maintenance sources for Washington's troops until the war was won. The individual muskets illustrated in this article are considered typical of the variety of long arms produced by this homegrown cottage industry.
After facing an almost impossible supply problem following Lexington/Concord, the committed Colonists vigorously pursued all available sources to create the -desperately needed supply of arms. Today their mixed-pattern muskets comprise a special category for -collectors and historians that -testifies so eloquently to the "can do" spirit which made possible our ultimate victory.
American Made Muskets in the Revolutionary War
Black powder = 75% salt peter, 15% charcoal, 10% sulfur. Easily made.
Just an fyi. Rifled bores were invented in 1400.
I don't know where you folks got your history, but it was the British that stored their arms in centralized locations, not the Americans, theirs were home at the ready as they need to be today.
Now folks can understand how screwed up and twisted the education system is in America today.
Also as the article stated, Americans were making arms since 1740 and they took many from those british storage facilities when they needed them, and they had the capability of making powder.
85% of the Americans were well armed from day one.
Americans were hardcore tough people, so don't let those clothes fool you.
Believe me their descendants are alive and well today.
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Taku, SW.... Great posts... And indeed accurate. However, the Nuevo Educa'sion Policies DICTATE, that these youngsters ~R~ Korrect, Jah Wohl! We Know Nothing! Nothing!
We need not provide them with real history, from such ~Nefarious~ providers as the NRA, we should simply ask the to READ, the literary works of James Fennmore Cooper, to show they are Wrong!
I mean reading the Books written about that time... He wrote accurately... DeerSlayer. His name was known by the Indians and the imigrated peoples populating the New World.
But these sorts of Books are no Longer Politically Correct... I mean of course, who could ~enjoy~ reading about someone killing Bambi, or His Mother :O
When I read above about " ...cutting a Chickens Head off..." I had to laugh! The NON-reality of that thinking: One less chicken to lay PRECIOUS EGGS, rather than a few minutes hunting, and bringing home Squirrel, Rabbit, Grouse, etc...... Show the redundancy in someones thinking, and ~trying~ to Pass it off as Factual!!!!!
It is appalling to see the display of the training they have received: to create a type of citizen, who unknowingly puts out Untruths, And THINKS it correct.
Thank GOD, for the Old Timers, who really Know the TRUTH!!!!!
I am still known, in Ferry County, Washington..... By a ~few~ As the "Great White American SQUIRREL HUNTER" and I am Damned Proud of it.
Five Shots, Five Squirrels. I would have then Cleaned and handed to my Spouse, as she Prepared our Stew... And I would return to building our Log House.
Sixteen Hour Days... Sun Up, to Past Sundown.... Day after Day, The AmericanWay.
philip.
Meh. Go out and chop the head off a Chicken. Our Chickens laid egges they did. Egges!!!!
We need not provide them with real history, from such ~Nefarious~ providers as the NRA, we should simply ask the to READ, the literary works of James Fennmore Cooper, to show they are Wrong!
I mean reading the Books written about that time... He wrote accurately... DeerSlayer. His name was known by the Indians and the imigrated peoples populating the New World.
But these sorts of Books are no Longer Politically Correct... I mean of course, who could ~enjoy~ reading about someone killing Bambi, or His Mother :O
When I read above about " ...cutting a Chickens Head off..." I had to laugh! The NON-reality of that thinking: One less chicken to lay PRECIOUS EGGS, rather than a few minutes hunting, and bringing home Squirrel, Rabbit, Grouse, etc...... Show the redundancy in someones thinking, and ~trying~ to Pass it off as Factual!!!!!
It is appalling to see the display of the training they have received: to create a type of citizen, who unknowingly puts out Untruths, And THINKS it correct.
Thank GOD, for the Old Timers, who really Know the TRUTH!!!!!
I am still known, in Ferry County, Washington..... By a ~few~ As the "Great White American SQUIRREL HUNTER" and I am Damned Proud of it.
Five Shots, Five Squirrels. I would have then Cleaned and handed to my Spouse, as she Prepared our Stew... And I would return to building our Log House.
Sixteen Hour Days... Sun Up, to Past Sundown.... Day after Day, The AmericanWay.
philip.
Meh. Go out and chop the head off a Chicken. Our Chickens laid egges they did. Egges!!!!
Today is little different than then.
We have the urban perps on one side and the wannabe tyrants on the other. Only the scenery is different.
One thing for sure about the NRA.
If it is on their site, they have done the research and can back it up as being true and factual.
They value their 100% credibility in putting it there.
We have the urban perps on one side and the wannabe tyrants on the other. Only the scenery is different.
One thing for sure about the NRA.
If it is on their site, they have done the research and can back it up as being true and factual.
They value their 100% credibility in putting it there.
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You are correct, only enough blackpowder was kept at home to fight, for safety's sake.. (fire) however, in this era it's nearly irrelevant
Many privately held cannons, mortars and such were stored everywhere, including being buried near Concord on that fateful day. Our RKBAs is far more than mere hand held firearms
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I don't mean to threadcrap here but aside from the British, arsenals, armories, etc crack a book or two on the history of hunting habits, market hunting and the war on wolves in the early days of the Colonies. Pretty interesting stuff.
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Leonardo Da Vinci was an inventer of rifled sniper rifles and notably tested one from the walls of a besieged Italian city
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Not to mention the constant need to defend against savage indian attack, which is why the Minutemen were formed
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Very true - What I believe is most don't understand that during the Colonial period not EVERYONE hunted for themselves. As the Colonies became established and people congregated in the towns and city areas the desire and need for wild game was nearly insatiable and the market hunters reigned for a long time. The pressure was so great that rules and regs regarding hunting and shooting had been established earlier than most realize.
My wife's grandmother came out here on the last wagon train to Oregon. She told us about having a rifle at every door and window and a sentry on top of their sod house because of the Indians in Kansas.
Its been a way of life in America since the first European set foot on our soil. Only the enemies and perps change.
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Neat family history! What other experiences did she talk about?
Just the crap tornadoes, and the long dusty dirty wet trip west.
They settled and homesteaded a piece of land in what's now Beavercreek Oregon. Most of the family settled in the Wilhoit and Molalla area.
The wagon was still there when I met my wife.
She dressed just like they did back in the 1800's right into the 70's.
Tough and hard working lady. Sweet as they come, but could handle her own.
You always knew when she went to town. All the traffic was behind here at
one speed. 25 miles per hour
She Told us of wife's great grandfather who was a Pony Express rider in Kansas and Nebraska. Makes my back hurt thinking about it. My trail horse was a Tennessee walker. Cadalac with 4 legs and tail.
Sounds like you dont live far from where that search party originated.
That was damned tough traveling in those mountains in winter in those days.
Revolutionary War - Longrifles
Those Tall American Patriots and Their Long Rifles
by Donald R. McDowell
Editor's Note: Reprinted by permission from the SAR Magazine, Spring 1988.
How did WE win the Revolution and the freedom to invent that wonderful Institution called The United States of America? And for that matter, just who were WE, an unlikely crew to take on the armed might of the greatest military power on earth. Most of us were tradesmen and farmers, with a few trained soldiers who had served in Colonial regiments. And the WE has to include our French friends who supplied us with arms and equipment and manpower without which we could not have won.
But the subject of this treatise is another part of the WE, a breed of unique Americans who were quick to join the Yankee farmers and tradesmen in battle. These eager fighters were the backwoodsmen from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and the Carolinas with their deadly long guns, which later came to be known as "Kentucky" rifles. These men did not win the war, and did not even play what could be called a major role, but their contributions had a dramatic impact wherever they were present in substantial numbers. It is probable that never more than a few thousand served at any one time, and like other militiamen, most of them joined the fight when they were needed and went home when they weren't, after short enlistments. And what kind of men were they?
CONGRESS CREATES ARMY
On June 14, 1775, after Lexington-Concord and three days before Bunker Hill, the Continental Congress authorized ten companies of "riflemen" as a first step toward creating a national army. The quotas were filled so rapidly that Congress authorized two more companies of Pennsylvanians on June 22nd, and Lan-caster County had so many eager volunteers that they formed an additional company, making a total of thirteen and a total force of more than a thousand men. They set out for Cambridge immediately, arriving three to four weeks later after marches of up to 700 miles from their staging points
There are more accounts of these hardy men and their contributions than can be included here. How the company enlisted at Frederick, Maryland under Captain Michael Cresap is well documented; contemporary descriptions of this unit can be applied to others. A letter dated August 1, 1775 from a gentleman in Frederick to a friend in Philadelphia gives the following colorful account: ".. . I have had the happiness of seeing Captain Michael Cresap marching at the head of a formidable company of perhaps one hundred and thirty men, from the mountains and backwoods, painted like Indians, armed with tomahawks and rifles, dressed in hunting shirts and moccasins, and though some of them had traveled near 800 miles from the banks of the Ohio, they seemed to walk light and easy, and not with less spirit than at the first hour of their march. Health and vigor, after what they had undergone, declared them to be intimate with hardship, and familiar with danger...."
When Cresap's company arrived at Lancaster, they put on an exhibition of marksmanship for the townspeople. An eyewitness described the performance in a letter printed in the Pennsylvania Packet of August 28th, which says in pare "On Friday evening last arrived here, on their way to the American Camp, Captain Cresap's Company of Riflemen, consisting of 130 active, brave young fellows, many of whom had been in the late expedition under Lord Dunmore against the Indians. They bear in their bodies visible marks of their prowess, and show scars and wounds... two brothers in the company took a piece of board, five inches broad and seven inches long, with a bit of white paper about the size of a dollar nailed in the center, and while one of them supported this board perpendicularly between his knees, the other at a distance of upwards of sixty yards and without any kind of a rest, shot eight bullets successively through the board, and spared his brother's thighs....the spectators, amazed at these feats, were told that there were upwards of fifty persons in the company who could do the same thing; that there was not one who could not plug 19 bullets out of 20 within an inch of the head of a ten-penny nail...."
The Loyalist Bradford brothers, Philadelphia printers, wrote the following story which appeared in the London Chronicle on August 17, 1775: "This province has raised 1,000 riflemen, the worst of whom will put a ball into a man's head at a distance of 150 or 200 yards, therefore advise your officers who shall hereafter come out to America to settle their affairs in England before their departure".
"WIDOW-AND-ORPHAN MAKERS"
These marksmen were organized into small, independent units and ordered to pick off British officers during the inactivity around Boston after the Bunker Hill fight. Dunlap's Pennsylvania Packet said on August 14, 1775: "The express, who was sent by the Congress, is returned here from the Eastward, and says he left the Camp last Saturday; that the riflemen picked off ten men in one day, three of whom were Field-officers, that were reconnoitering ; one of them was killed at a distance of 250 yards, when only half his head was seen." Such reports caused great indignation when republished in London. The backwoodsmen were called ". .. shirt-tail men, with their cursed twisted (rifled) guns, the most fatal widow- and-orphan-makers in the world".
Some of the accounts of marksmanship are almost too much to believe but can be accepted if considered as a few remarkable shots out of many unreported attempts. For instance, the Philadelphia Gazette of August 21, 1775, carried the following: "A gentleman from the American Camp says that last Wednesday, some riflemen on Charleston side killed three men on board a ship at Charleston ferry, at the distance of full half a mile". Even the deadly "widow makers" would not carry half that far accurately, and American officers discouraged the waste of powder and ball. However, it is very probable that the free-spirited backwoodsmen enjoyed the "sport", as they did their target and turkey shoots back home.
And what were those cursed twisted guns, the first truly American weapons? The curved grooves in the barrel, the rifling, was important, but "rifles" had been used by special units in European armies since the 1600s. In fact, the American long rifle was developed from the Jaeger (hunter) rifle introduced to the colonies by German gunsmiths who settled in Pennsylvania between 1700 and 1740. The Jaeger rifle had a barrel seldom exceeding thirty six inches in length, with a bore between 65 and 70/100's of an inch. These rifles used soft lead balls cast smaller than the bore, so that when they were forced down the barrel on top of the powder, they would fill the grooves and prevent the escape of gases on firing. After a few shots, powder residue would collect in the grooves, making loading difficult until the barrel was cleaned with a dampened swab. Also, the soft lead ball was deformed during the loading with a resultant loss of accuracy.
RIFLES GAIN NEW SPECIFICATIONS
The main clients of the gunsmiths, the frontier hunters and Indian fighters, demanded changes in the design of their rifles to make them better suited to ob- taining food and for protection. By 1750 these changes had created a precision tool perfect for its purpose. The barrel was lengthened to between 44 and 48 inches to insure complete burning of the powder and provide maximum velocity. Bore size was reduced one-third to between 40 and 45/100's of an inch to save powder and lead, scarce commodities on the frontier. These rifles were loaded by a new system, which was the main reason for their extreme accuracy. A greased or saliva-dampened patch of linen was placed over the muzzle, and the bullet, cast slightly under bore size, was seated on the patch and rammed down on top of the powder. The patch served as a gas seal, cleaning the barrel with each shot and avoiding deformation of the ball. This new type of rifle provided a superbly dependable, economical hunting and fighting tool in which the increase in velocity and accuracy more than made up for the decreased weight of the ball. A .45 calibre long rifle would deliver three times the number of shots from the same amount of powder and lead as a .75 calibre smoothbore musket, with a major increase in effectiveness.
The accuracy of the long rifle came from the patched, lightweight, tight-fitting ball and the resulting high velocity, which flattened the bullet's trajectory and obviated the need for "holding over" a man sized target up to 150 or more yards. The rapid spin of the bullet imparted by the rifling provided a gyroscoping effect which further increased accuracy. The difference in accuracy between the long rifle and the smoothbore musket could be compared to that of an expertly spiral led football and a thrown basketball.
SMOOTHBORE MUSKETS HAD ADVANTAGES
However, the large calibre, smoothbore musket had some important advantages over the long rifle. Musket loading was fast, about four shots per minute, due to the charges being made up in paper cartridges. These consisted of a paper tube which contained powder and ball for one shot. The paper was torn open with the teeth, powder was poured into the pan, the pan cover was closed and the remaining powder was poured down the barrel with the rest of the paper and the ball rammed down on top. The musket was designed for use against massed troops and cavalry, and was an effective weapon when so used. It would deliver its one ounce ball into a man-sized target at 60 to 80 yards from a steady rest, but it was not intended primarily for this purpose, particularly when fired in combat from a standing or moving position.
It is often assumed that use of the massed formations which proved so vulnerable to our backwoods riflemen was evidence of a fixation with tradition and pageantry, but this is far from true. Attacks by successive waves of troops were, rather, a tactic which came about be cause of the recognized limitations of the smoothbore musket. The masses of infantry were not there to provide convenient targets, but to deliver a massed fire, still a military objective which is now effected by automatic and repeating weapons.
Muskets were not thought of as precision military tools, and the standard piece did not even have a rear sight, but a large volley of heavy lead balls thrown in the general direction of a foe could do great damage. The principle can be likened to bird hunting; most shotgun pellets are wasted, but enough find the target to kill or disable. And followed by a bayonet charge before the enemy, usually at close range, could reload, the tactic was very effective. However, against dispersed riflemen who stayed out of range of both the inaccurate muskets and the bayonets, this kind of warfare did not work very well.
Loading of the long rifles was slower than the musket because powder and balls were carried separately in a powder horn and a bullet pouch. A little powder was poured into the pan, then more down the barrel, measured by the experienced eye of the rifleman. The patch would then be extracted from the patchbox in the stock of the rifle and placed over the muzzle. A bullet was placed on the patch and the whole rammed down easily with the greased patch acting as a lubricant. Some of the more experienced riflemen speeded up the process by keeping three extra balls between the base of the fingers on each hand, creating odd cavities which stayed with them for life. The usual tactic in a firefight was to get off two or three volleys, and then retreat to avoid the bayonets and get time to reload and fire again.
HELPED DEFEAT BURGOYNE
These sturdy men and their rifles were an important, if not decisive, element in many battles. Contrary to popular legend, there were no eagle-eyed sharpshooters with long rifles in the fight at Bunker Hill, but there were stout New England militiamen armed with their own smoothbore muskets, familiar tools like their plows and axes, which they used with great effect. However, rifles were important in an important engagement two years later. Colonel Daniel Morgan, who had led one of the Virginia companies to Cambridge in July of 1775, commanded a corps of riflemen who opened hostilities on September 19, 1777 at the first Battle of Freeman's Farm, the start of what is often called erroneously the Battle of Saratoga, the point of final surrender of Burgoyne's army.
As the advance party of four regiments of British regulars broke into the clearings of the farm, they heard a chorus of eerie turkey gobblings coming from shadowy figures in fur caps in the surrounding woods. Then the sharp crack of long rifles broke the stillness, and within minutes every British officer was killed or wounded and non-coms and privates began to fall. The rest of Burgoyne's troops rushed to the rescue and the riflemen, thought to be no more than a company, melted into the woods, continuing their gobbling as they joined the rest of Morgan's troops.
The woods filled fast with tall men in fur caps, round hats and hunting shirts. The crack of rifles resumed, joined by the duller reports of muskets as Cilley's New Hampshire Continentals closed up with Morgan's men. Burgoyne tried to bring his artillery into action, but cannoneers and their officers were picked off before their guns could be loaded. The fighting continued for more than three hours, while decimated British regiments closed up again and again, and companies shrank to platoons and platoons to squads in what was, to them, a new type of warfare. They were finally saved from complete annihilation by the arrival of a strong force of Baron von Riedesel's Germans.
The Second Battle of Freeman's Farm on October 7th, in which General Simon Fraser was killed by one of Morgan's riflemen, finished Burgoyne's army as a fight- ing force, and led to the surrender of more than 5,000 British and Germans on October 17th.
AT KING'S MOUNTAIN
Riflemen were entirely responsible for an overwhelming victory at King's Mountain on October 7, 1780. A force of more than 1,100 Tories, trained and equipped by the British and commanded by Major Patrick Ferguson, were ordered by General Cornwallis to march west into the Watauga settlements in the mountains along the present border between Tennessee and North Carolina and force the mountain people to declare their allegiance to the Crown. Word of Ferguson's expedition spread quickly, and the Watauga men, hardiest of the hardy pioneers, chose not to wait, but rather to meet Ferguson before he came anywhere near their homes.
Companies formed rapidly under Colonels Isaac Shelby, "Nolichucky Jack", Sevier and Charles McDowell set out, each man with his horse, his rifle and a bag of parched corn. Along the way they were joined by Campbell's Virginians, Cleaveland with more Carolinians and other local leaders. Major Ferguson got word of this force, now totaling more than 1,400 men, and decided to take refuge on King's Mountain, hoping for reinforcements. They were attacked there by 900 of the best mounted and equipped riflemen after an overnight thirty mile march. The Tories fought well and bravely, repelling the riflemen by several bayonet charges, but the result was inevitable. Completely surrounded by expert marksmen, and with the death of most of their officers — including Major Ferguson, who was hit by seven bullets —they surrendered after one hour and ten minutes of intense fire. Estimates of Tory losses vary from 425 to 800 killed and wounded, compared to less than 100 of the mountaineers.
Long rifles were used effectively after the Revolution, notably at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. It is probable that the long rifles received the name "Kentucky" rifles in this battle, indicating the men who used them, not the Pennsylvania gunsmiths who made most of them. Pennsylvania historians and gun collectors have always resented the terminology.
Those Tall American Patriots and Their Long Rifles
by Donald R. McDowell
Editor's Note: Reprinted by permission from the SAR Magazine, Spring 1988.
How did WE win the Revolution and the freedom to invent that wonderful Institution called The United States of America? And for that matter, just who were WE, an unlikely crew to take on the armed might of the greatest military power on earth. Most of us were tradesmen and farmers, with a few trained soldiers who had served in Colonial regiments. And the WE has to include our French friends who supplied us with arms and equipment and manpower without which we could not have won.
But the subject of this treatise is another part of the WE, a breed of unique Americans who were quick to join the Yankee farmers and tradesmen in battle. These eager fighters were the backwoodsmen from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and the Carolinas with their deadly long guns, which later came to be known as "Kentucky" rifles. These men did not win the war, and did not even play what could be called a major role, but their contributions had a dramatic impact wherever they were present in substantial numbers. It is probable that never more than a few thousand served at any one time, and like other militiamen, most of them joined the fight when they were needed and went home when they weren't, after short enlistments. And what kind of men were they?
CONGRESS CREATES ARMY
On June 14, 1775, after Lexington-Concord and three days before Bunker Hill, the Continental Congress authorized ten companies of "riflemen" as a first step toward creating a national army. The quotas were filled so rapidly that Congress authorized two more companies of Pennsylvanians on June 22nd, and Lan-caster County had so many eager volunteers that they formed an additional company, making a total of thirteen and a total force of more than a thousand men. They set out for Cambridge immediately, arriving three to four weeks later after marches of up to 700 miles from their staging points
There are more accounts of these hardy men and their contributions than can be included here. How the company enlisted at Frederick, Maryland under Captain Michael Cresap is well documented; contemporary descriptions of this unit can be applied to others. A letter dated August 1, 1775 from a gentleman in Frederick to a friend in Philadelphia gives the following colorful account: ".. . I have had the happiness of seeing Captain Michael Cresap marching at the head of a formidable company of perhaps one hundred and thirty men, from the mountains and backwoods, painted like Indians, armed with tomahawks and rifles, dressed in hunting shirts and moccasins, and though some of them had traveled near 800 miles from the banks of the Ohio, they seemed to walk light and easy, and not with less spirit than at the first hour of their march. Health and vigor, after what they had undergone, declared them to be intimate with hardship, and familiar with danger...."
When Cresap's company arrived at Lancaster, they put on an exhibition of marksmanship for the townspeople. An eyewitness described the performance in a letter printed in the Pennsylvania Packet of August 28th, which says in pare "On Friday evening last arrived here, on their way to the American Camp, Captain Cresap's Company of Riflemen, consisting of 130 active, brave young fellows, many of whom had been in the late expedition under Lord Dunmore against the Indians. They bear in their bodies visible marks of their prowess, and show scars and wounds... two brothers in the company took a piece of board, five inches broad and seven inches long, with a bit of white paper about the size of a dollar nailed in the center, and while one of them supported this board perpendicularly between his knees, the other at a distance of upwards of sixty yards and without any kind of a rest, shot eight bullets successively through the board, and spared his brother's thighs....the spectators, amazed at these feats, were told that there were upwards of fifty persons in the company who could do the same thing; that there was not one who could not plug 19 bullets out of 20 within an inch of the head of a ten-penny nail...."
The Loyalist Bradford brothers, Philadelphia printers, wrote the following story which appeared in the London Chronicle on August 17, 1775: "This province has raised 1,000 riflemen, the worst of whom will put a ball into a man's head at a distance of 150 or 200 yards, therefore advise your officers who shall hereafter come out to America to settle their affairs in England before their departure".
"WIDOW-AND-ORPHAN MAKERS"
These marksmen were organized into small, independent units and ordered to pick off British officers during the inactivity around Boston after the Bunker Hill fight. Dunlap's Pennsylvania Packet said on August 14, 1775: "The express, who was sent by the Congress, is returned here from the Eastward, and says he left the Camp last Saturday; that the riflemen picked off ten men in one day, three of whom were Field-officers, that were reconnoitering ; one of them was killed at a distance of 250 yards, when only half his head was seen." Such reports caused great indignation when republished in London. The backwoodsmen were called ". .. shirt-tail men, with their cursed twisted (rifled) guns, the most fatal widow- and-orphan-makers in the world".
Some of the accounts of marksmanship are almost too much to believe but can be accepted if considered as a few remarkable shots out of many unreported attempts. For instance, the Philadelphia Gazette of August 21, 1775, carried the following: "A gentleman from the American Camp says that last Wednesday, some riflemen on Charleston side killed three men on board a ship at Charleston ferry, at the distance of full half a mile". Even the deadly "widow makers" would not carry half that far accurately, and American officers discouraged the waste of powder and ball. However, it is very probable that the free-spirited backwoodsmen enjoyed the "sport", as they did their target and turkey shoots back home.
And what were those cursed twisted guns, the first truly American weapons? The curved grooves in the barrel, the rifling, was important, but "rifles" had been used by special units in European armies since the 1600s. In fact, the American long rifle was developed from the Jaeger (hunter) rifle introduced to the colonies by German gunsmiths who settled in Pennsylvania between 1700 and 1740. The Jaeger rifle had a barrel seldom exceeding thirty six inches in length, with a bore between 65 and 70/100's of an inch. These rifles used soft lead balls cast smaller than the bore, so that when they were forced down the barrel on top of the powder, they would fill the grooves and prevent the escape of gases on firing. After a few shots, powder residue would collect in the grooves, making loading difficult until the barrel was cleaned with a dampened swab. Also, the soft lead ball was deformed during the loading with a resultant loss of accuracy.
RIFLES GAIN NEW SPECIFICATIONS
The main clients of the gunsmiths, the frontier hunters and Indian fighters, demanded changes in the design of their rifles to make them better suited to ob- taining food and for protection. By 1750 these changes had created a precision tool perfect for its purpose. The barrel was lengthened to between 44 and 48 inches to insure complete burning of the powder and provide maximum velocity. Bore size was reduced one-third to between 40 and 45/100's of an inch to save powder and lead, scarce commodities on the frontier. These rifles were loaded by a new system, which was the main reason for their extreme accuracy. A greased or saliva-dampened patch of linen was placed over the muzzle, and the bullet, cast slightly under bore size, was seated on the patch and rammed down on top of the powder. The patch served as a gas seal, cleaning the barrel with each shot and avoiding deformation of the ball. This new type of rifle provided a superbly dependable, economical hunting and fighting tool in which the increase in velocity and accuracy more than made up for the decreased weight of the ball. A .45 calibre long rifle would deliver three times the number of shots from the same amount of powder and lead as a .75 calibre smoothbore musket, with a major increase in effectiveness.
The accuracy of the long rifle came from the patched, lightweight, tight-fitting ball and the resulting high velocity, which flattened the bullet's trajectory and obviated the need for "holding over" a man sized target up to 150 or more yards. The rapid spin of the bullet imparted by the rifling provided a gyroscoping effect which further increased accuracy. The difference in accuracy between the long rifle and the smoothbore musket could be compared to that of an expertly spiral led football and a thrown basketball.
SMOOTHBORE MUSKETS HAD ADVANTAGES
However, the large calibre, smoothbore musket had some important advantages over the long rifle. Musket loading was fast, about four shots per minute, due to the charges being made up in paper cartridges. These consisted of a paper tube which contained powder and ball for one shot. The paper was torn open with the teeth, powder was poured into the pan, the pan cover was closed and the remaining powder was poured down the barrel with the rest of the paper and the ball rammed down on top. The musket was designed for use against massed troops and cavalry, and was an effective weapon when so used. It would deliver its one ounce ball into a man-sized target at 60 to 80 yards from a steady rest, but it was not intended primarily for this purpose, particularly when fired in combat from a standing or moving position.
It is often assumed that use of the massed formations which proved so vulnerable to our backwoods riflemen was evidence of a fixation with tradition and pageantry, but this is far from true. Attacks by successive waves of troops were, rather, a tactic which came about be cause of the recognized limitations of the smoothbore musket. The masses of infantry were not there to provide convenient targets, but to deliver a massed fire, still a military objective which is now effected by automatic and repeating weapons.
Muskets were not thought of as precision military tools, and the standard piece did not even have a rear sight, but a large volley of heavy lead balls thrown in the general direction of a foe could do great damage. The principle can be likened to bird hunting; most shotgun pellets are wasted, but enough find the target to kill or disable. And followed by a bayonet charge before the enemy, usually at close range, could reload, the tactic was very effective. However, against dispersed riflemen who stayed out of range of both the inaccurate muskets and the bayonets, this kind of warfare did not work very well.
Loading of the long rifles was slower than the musket because powder and balls were carried separately in a powder horn and a bullet pouch. A little powder was poured into the pan, then more down the barrel, measured by the experienced eye of the rifleman. The patch would then be extracted from the patchbox in the stock of the rifle and placed over the muzzle. A bullet was placed on the patch and the whole rammed down easily with the greased patch acting as a lubricant. Some of the more experienced riflemen speeded up the process by keeping three extra balls between the base of the fingers on each hand, creating odd cavities which stayed with them for life. The usual tactic in a firefight was to get off two or three volleys, and then retreat to avoid the bayonets and get time to reload and fire again.
HELPED DEFEAT BURGOYNE
These sturdy men and their rifles were an important, if not decisive, element in many battles. Contrary to popular legend, there were no eagle-eyed sharpshooters with long rifles in the fight at Bunker Hill, but there were stout New England militiamen armed with their own smoothbore muskets, familiar tools like their plows and axes, which they used with great effect. However, rifles were important in an important engagement two years later. Colonel Daniel Morgan, who had led one of the Virginia companies to Cambridge in July of 1775, commanded a corps of riflemen who opened hostilities on September 19, 1777 at the first Battle of Freeman's Farm, the start of what is often called erroneously the Battle of Saratoga, the point of final surrender of Burgoyne's army.
As the advance party of four regiments of British regulars broke into the clearings of the farm, they heard a chorus of eerie turkey gobblings coming from shadowy figures in fur caps in the surrounding woods. Then the sharp crack of long rifles broke the stillness, and within minutes every British officer was killed or wounded and non-coms and privates began to fall. The rest of Burgoyne's troops rushed to the rescue and the riflemen, thought to be no more than a company, melted into the woods, continuing their gobbling as they joined the rest of Morgan's troops.
The woods filled fast with tall men in fur caps, round hats and hunting shirts. The crack of rifles resumed, joined by the duller reports of muskets as Cilley's New Hampshire Continentals closed up with Morgan's men. Burgoyne tried to bring his artillery into action, but cannoneers and their officers were picked off before their guns could be loaded. The fighting continued for more than three hours, while decimated British regiments closed up again and again, and companies shrank to platoons and platoons to squads in what was, to them, a new type of warfare. They were finally saved from complete annihilation by the arrival of a strong force of Baron von Riedesel's Germans.
The Second Battle of Freeman's Farm on October 7th, in which General Simon Fraser was killed by one of Morgan's riflemen, finished Burgoyne's army as a fight- ing force, and led to the surrender of more than 5,000 British and Germans on October 17th.
AT KING'S MOUNTAIN
Riflemen were entirely responsible for an overwhelming victory at King's Mountain on October 7, 1780. A force of more than 1,100 Tories, trained and equipped by the British and commanded by Major Patrick Ferguson, were ordered by General Cornwallis to march west into the Watauga settlements in the mountains along the present border between Tennessee and North Carolina and force the mountain people to declare their allegiance to the Crown. Word of Ferguson's expedition spread quickly, and the Watauga men, hardiest of the hardy pioneers, chose not to wait, but rather to meet Ferguson before he came anywhere near their homes.
Companies formed rapidly under Colonels Isaac Shelby, "Nolichucky Jack", Sevier and Charles McDowell set out, each man with his horse, his rifle and a bag of parched corn. Along the way they were joined by Campbell's Virginians, Cleaveland with more Carolinians and other local leaders. Major Ferguson got word of this force, now totaling more than 1,400 men, and decided to take refuge on King's Mountain, hoping for reinforcements. They were attacked there by 900 of the best mounted and equipped riflemen after an overnight thirty mile march. The Tories fought well and bravely, repelling the riflemen by several bayonet charges, but the result was inevitable. Completely surrounded by expert marksmen, and with the death of most of their officers — including Major Ferguson, who was hit by seven bullets —they surrendered after one hour and ten minutes of intense fire. Estimates of Tory losses vary from 425 to 800 killed and wounded, compared to less than 100 of the mountaineers.
Long rifles were used effectively after the Revolution, notably at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. It is probable that the long rifles received the name "Kentucky" rifles in this battle, indicating the men who used them, not the Pennsylvania gunsmiths who made most of them. Pennsylvania historians and gun collectors have always resented the terminology.
Gunpowder manufacturing during the American Revolution
<broken link removed>
Gunpowder manufacturing during the American Revolution
Description
A rare and fascinating collection of Revolutionary War period documents concerning the manufacture and distribution of gunpowder for the American cause. The five documents include several recipes for the all-important substance, the highlight of which is very rare m****cript instructions for powder sent to a man in New Milford, Connecticut, and two published in The Essex Journal and New Hampshire Packet in 1775 and 1776. Other documents detail the procurement from domestic producers, who were critical in the early days of the war to keeping the rebel armies supplied with black powder.
Of particular interest is an important document noting the inspection of 618 pounds of saltpeter, from early 1777. M****cript Document Signed by the Select Men of Milford, Connecticut, 1p. 4to. (8 x 10 in.), Milford, January 13, 1777 in which select men Gideon Buckingham, Isaac Clark and Lewis Mallits, Jr. certify "...that a Quantity of Salt Petre offered for Inspection by William Attwater of Milford the maker thereof amounting to six hundred & eighteen Pounds 1/4 is well and carefully Inspected & according to our best judgment and Skill, the same is found to be pure, clean and dry, free from any corrupt Mixture. The said Willm Attwater having made Oath according to the directions of the Law in such case made & provided, which Salt Peter is received fro the use of this State..." At the middle right, Eneas Munson from the "Powdder Mill New Haven" wrote on January 15, 1777 that he had "Reinspected the above Salt Petre which is approv[e]d in Quality as above amounting to Six Hundred four pounds, ten oz --" Attwater endorsed the verso on February 14, 1777 noting the receipt of £149.17.6 for the sale.
Saltpeter is the key ingredient for gun powder, together with brimstone, coal. The amount here would have produced approximately 750 pounds of black powder. The Continental Army had about 80,000 pounds of powder on hand in the Spring of 1775. But, by December, 1775 almost every ounce of this had been used (much, according to Washington, in a wasteful manner), placing the army in Cambridge in danger. Washington appealed for any quantity that could be produced and state governments began encouraging domestic powder manufacturing which was virtually nonexistent at the time. The entire struggle would rest upon the efforts of Attwater, Munson and others like them to supply the army's needs until more plentiful foreign supplies could be obtained. In all, domestic gunpowder manufacturers produced only 100,000 pounds of powder from 1775 through 1777, but it allowed the struggle to continue. Things improved dramatically as France clandestinely supplied the Americans beginning in late 1776, sending over 1,000,000 pounds helping ensure the continuation of the struggle and allowing for the much needed victory at Saratoga in the fall of 1777.
A few toned spots, usual folds, else bright and clean and in fine condition.
The early revolutionary effort to encourage domestic gunpowder manufacture took many forms, states as well as individuals did what they could to establish powder mills and saltpeter mines. Knowledge of the art of gunpowder manufacture was also freely distributed. Of interest is a m****cript Document, 1p. 4to. (7.5 x 11.5 in.), [no place, no date], addressed to Mr. Davis Marsh of New Milford on the address panel on verso. Entitled To make Gun powder the document provides a fairly detailed method for manufacturing the gunpowder so important to the American cause during the Revolutionary War. The recipe reads, in most part:
Refine salt peter in this way, put it in a clean Iron kittle with water enough to desolve [sic] it When it warm, after it is desovled [sic] let it get cool & it shoot into cristals [sic] take out those crystals & heat it again &^ so on till you get it all refind &c- Prepare you Brimstone in this way - tye [sic] it up in a linen rag & boil it in weak lye about an hour then boil it in clear water till it becomes soft enough to rub fine with your thum [sic] & finger -- To cole [sic] you can get the heart of red ce[a]der that is neither winding nor knotty you can burn your cole in an Iron pot or kittle by covering the top including close & heating it slowly on a fire &c Bass wood will do middling will but hemp stalks is said to be the best however ceder [sic] will be as good perhaps -- Put all our materials into a wooden Morter with water enough when pounded a little to make it like hardish [sic] morter [sic] then pound 2 days at least, the more the better while pounding if it gets to[o] dry, put in a little water so on till it is pounded enough, let it be dry enough to sift, or keep pounding at the last so as to have it dry enough to go through a sieve the size you want the grains, sift it through & let it dry & then take finer sieve & take out all the dust & wet the dust a little & pound it over again & so on till you get it all the seize you want -- Dry it in the sun &c. The water you use should be rain or soft clear water
On the left margin, the amounts of the various ingredients is listed. Clean horizontal fold separation, usual folds, two moderately toned spots, otherwise very good condition.
The other two recipes in the collection are published in two editions of The Essex Journal and New-Hampshire Packet 4p. each, (10 x 15 in.). The first, from December 15, 1775, bears a nearly full-page article which notes that "As the know[l]'edge of making SALT-PETRE, engages the attention of numbers, who at this critical time are zealous for their country's good, induces us to hope that by inserting the following, which we have taken from a late London magazine; we shall, at lest, gratify some, and in the meantime, disoblige none of our readers..." The article discusses the various sources of "Nitre". The second, from the January 19, 1776 edition, features an article by Henry Wisner (1725-1790) who gives detailed instructions for the production of powder. Wisner himself established three powder mills in the Hudson Valley and served as a member of the First and Second Continental Congresses. He notes that he had "...lately erected a powder mill in the south end of Ulster county..." and offers to "Any person inclining to build a powder-mill... a plan, with directions for the constructions of all it's [sic] parts and utensils..." These articles appeared at that most critical time when Washington at Cambridge had virtually no gunpowder in his stores. There was only enough powder to fire off a cannon from Prospect Hill on occasion while the balance of the artillery stood silent. Had Howe learned of Washington's vulnerability, he could have destroyed the main body of the Continental Army in an afternoon. Fortunately Howe never gleaned this critical intelligence. When Washington finally received a quantity of powder in March, 1776, he ordered the Ticonderoga cannon hauled up onto Dorchester Heights. The appearance of American artillery that could bombard Boston directly convinced Howe to evacuate, ending the nearly year-long siege.
Also sold together with a m****cript Document Signed "Enoch Huse", 1p. (6 x 2.5 in.), Boston, December 22, 1787, a receipt for Nathaniel Cushing who purchased "1 Qr Cask Gunpowder" for the sum of £2.2. Nathaniel Cushing commanded a company in the regiment of Col. Joseph Vose. Vose's regiment participated at the Battles of Monmouth, Newport and Yorktown.
Margins slightly irregular, else very good.
Together this fine collection provides a vivid testament to the early days of the American Revolution when the initiative and hard work of many individuals helped to continue the struggle despite tremendous odds
<broken link removed>
Gunpowder manufacturing during the American Revolution
Description
A rare and fascinating collection of Revolutionary War period documents concerning the manufacture and distribution of gunpowder for the American cause. The five documents include several recipes for the all-important substance, the highlight of which is very rare m****cript instructions for powder sent to a man in New Milford, Connecticut, and two published in The Essex Journal and New Hampshire Packet in 1775 and 1776. Other documents detail the procurement from domestic producers, who were critical in the early days of the war to keeping the rebel armies supplied with black powder.
Of particular interest is an important document noting the inspection of 618 pounds of saltpeter, from early 1777. M****cript Document Signed by the Select Men of Milford, Connecticut, 1p. 4to. (8 x 10 in.), Milford, January 13, 1777 in which select men Gideon Buckingham, Isaac Clark and Lewis Mallits, Jr. certify "...that a Quantity of Salt Petre offered for Inspection by William Attwater of Milford the maker thereof amounting to six hundred & eighteen Pounds 1/4 is well and carefully Inspected & according to our best judgment and Skill, the same is found to be pure, clean and dry, free from any corrupt Mixture. The said Willm Attwater having made Oath according to the directions of the Law in such case made & provided, which Salt Peter is received fro the use of this State..." At the middle right, Eneas Munson from the "Powdder Mill New Haven" wrote on January 15, 1777 that he had "Reinspected the above Salt Petre which is approv[e]d in Quality as above amounting to Six Hundred four pounds, ten oz --" Attwater endorsed the verso on February 14, 1777 noting the receipt of £149.17.6 for the sale.
Saltpeter is the key ingredient for gun powder, together with brimstone, coal. The amount here would have produced approximately 750 pounds of black powder. The Continental Army had about 80,000 pounds of powder on hand in the Spring of 1775. But, by December, 1775 almost every ounce of this had been used (much, according to Washington, in a wasteful manner), placing the army in Cambridge in danger. Washington appealed for any quantity that could be produced and state governments began encouraging domestic powder manufacturing which was virtually nonexistent at the time. The entire struggle would rest upon the efforts of Attwater, Munson and others like them to supply the army's needs until more plentiful foreign supplies could be obtained. In all, domestic gunpowder manufacturers produced only 100,000 pounds of powder from 1775 through 1777, but it allowed the struggle to continue. Things improved dramatically as France clandestinely supplied the Americans beginning in late 1776, sending over 1,000,000 pounds helping ensure the continuation of the struggle and allowing for the much needed victory at Saratoga in the fall of 1777.
A few toned spots, usual folds, else bright and clean and in fine condition.
The early revolutionary effort to encourage domestic gunpowder manufacture took many forms, states as well as individuals did what they could to establish powder mills and saltpeter mines. Knowledge of the art of gunpowder manufacture was also freely distributed. Of interest is a m****cript Document, 1p. 4to. (7.5 x 11.5 in.), [no place, no date], addressed to Mr. Davis Marsh of New Milford on the address panel on verso. Entitled To make Gun powder the document provides a fairly detailed method for manufacturing the gunpowder so important to the American cause during the Revolutionary War. The recipe reads, in most part:
Refine salt peter in this way, put it in a clean Iron kittle with water enough to desolve [sic] it When it warm, after it is desovled [sic] let it get cool & it shoot into cristals [sic] take out those crystals & heat it again &^ so on till you get it all refind &c- Prepare you Brimstone in this way - tye [sic] it up in a linen rag & boil it in weak lye about an hour then boil it in clear water till it becomes soft enough to rub fine with your thum [sic] & finger -- To cole [sic] you can get the heart of red ce[a]der that is neither winding nor knotty you can burn your cole in an Iron pot or kittle by covering the top including close & heating it slowly on a fire &c Bass wood will do middling will but hemp stalks is said to be the best however ceder [sic] will be as good perhaps -- Put all our materials into a wooden Morter with water enough when pounded a little to make it like hardish [sic] morter [sic] then pound 2 days at least, the more the better while pounding if it gets to[o] dry, put in a little water so on till it is pounded enough, let it be dry enough to sift, or keep pounding at the last so as to have it dry enough to go through a sieve the size you want the grains, sift it through & let it dry & then take finer sieve & take out all the dust & wet the dust a little & pound it over again & so on till you get it all the seize you want -- Dry it in the sun &c. The water you use should be rain or soft clear water
On the left margin, the amounts of the various ingredients is listed. Clean horizontal fold separation, usual folds, two moderately toned spots, otherwise very good condition.
The other two recipes in the collection are published in two editions of The Essex Journal and New-Hampshire Packet 4p. each, (10 x 15 in.). The first, from December 15, 1775, bears a nearly full-page article which notes that "As the know[l]'edge of making SALT-PETRE, engages the attention of numbers, who at this critical time are zealous for their country's good, induces us to hope that by inserting the following, which we have taken from a late London magazine; we shall, at lest, gratify some, and in the meantime, disoblige none of our readers..." The article discusses the various sources of "Nitre". The second, from the January 19, 1776 edition, features an article by Henry Wisner (1725-1790) who gives detailed instructions for the production of powder. Wisner himself established three powder mills in the Hudson Valley and served as a member of the First and Second Continental Congresses. He notes that he had "...lately erected a powder mill in the south end of Ulster county..." and offers to "Any person inclining to build a powder-mill... a plan, with directions for the constructions of all it's [sic] parts and utensils..." These articles appeared at that most critical time when Washington at Cambridge had virtually no gunpowder in his stores. There was only enough powder to fire off a cannon from Prospect Hill on occasion while the balance of the artillery stood silent. Had Howe learned of Washington's vulnerability, he could have destroyed the main body of the Continental Army in an afternoon. Fortunately Howe never gleaned this critical intelligence. When Washington finally received a quantity of powder in March, 1776, he ordered the Ticonderoga cannon hauled up onto Dorchester Heights. The appearance of American artillery that could bombard Boston directly convinced Howe to evacuate, ending the nearly year-long siege.
Also sold together with a m****cript Document Signed "Enoch Huse", 1p. (6 x 2.5 in.), Boston, December 22, 1787, a receipt for Nathaniel Cushing who purchased "1 Qr Cask Gunpowder" for the sum of £2.2. Nathaniel Cushing commanded a company in the regiment of Col. Joseph Vose. Vose's regiment participated at the Battles of Monmouth, Newport and Yorktown.
Margins slightly irregular, else very good.
Together this fine collection provides a vivid testament to the early days of the American Revolution when the initiative and hard work of many individuals helped to continue the struggle despite tremendous odds
That would be worth reading.
What is the title ?
We love to search local history.
When we go out to the old Pioneer cemetary outside Molalla, on memorial day,
we look at all the headstones and dates and try to imagine their lives back then.
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