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Some firearms were imported from European countries, many muskets were captured during the Revolutionary War, and many firearms were made locally in Pennsylvania. Lancaster County, PA is famous for early US riflemakers. The style developed in Lancaster County was carried by early settlers to the "frontier" (now Tennessee & Kentucky) where it was renamed the "Kentucky" rifle. This name continues today, and only recently historians and re-enactors are recognizing the rifle's origins in Pennsylvania. The earliest known Pennsylvania riflemaker is Martin Meylin (1670–1749) who settled in Pequea Valley in 1710 (details).
Because rifles and muskets loaded slowly, like other early Americans early Pennsylvanians would also have a multi-purpose backup weapon that would also serve as a funtional tool. Two of the more common tools were light hatchets (tomahawks-see image to the right) and a medium to large knife. Soldiers often carried swords for protection when they didn't have time to reload.
Imagine living in your home, but without a refrigerator or any other modern conveniences. To make matters worse, there aren't any grocery stores or police departments around. Unfortunately the only item in quantity is angry Indians and highway robbers. So, having a good rifle was a basic survival item. Colonial era residents used firearms as soon as they could safely hit a target. It was common for children as young as 10 — 12 years old to hunt. Parents or other family members were the most likely instructor. Pennsylvania rifles were known for their exceptional craftsmanship and greatly improved accuracy over the smooth bored muskets. The rifle gained great fame during the Revolutionary War in the hands of able-bodied frontiersmen. The secret was twisted grooves in the barrel, made with a rifling machine (See photo, below). Rifles were almost universally used everywhere people hunted to gather food. Rifles were also used for target shooting and were a highly prized possession.
Early firearms weren't as powerful or accurate as today's firearms, but a few came close. Rifles could hit targets as far away as 400-500 yards (4 to 5 football field lengths). Muskets were close range weapons, so they weren't used on targets much beyond 100 yards. This difference in range caused a serious problem for the British.
A British Officer, Col George Hanger, witnessed his bugler's horse shot out from under him at very long range. He later measured the distance several times , a "full 400 yards" (a respectable achievement even by today's standards), and carefully studied the American rifle. He wrote:
And during the battle for Saratoga, as the exhausted army and its overladen baggage wagons emerged from the woods and climbed toward the open lands around Saratoga, a few isolated bands of Yankee farmers took up position behind the trees, and began "firing on the officers' persons." By these description from the British, it's clear they were victims of sniping by Continental Milita and other sympathizers with long-range rifles. Coming from a class-structured society, they were appalled to learn they too could be hurt or killed like a common soldier. During the US Civil War (1861-65), the term rifle and musket was used interchangeably, or sometimes mixed as in the case of "rifled musket". The early rifled muskets were originally smoothbore, and returned to the factories or arsenals for rifling. |
Later, the term "musket" came to mean "non-rifled" long gun, and "rifle" meant rifled long arm. To further confuse matters, true muskets (like the type found in the US Revolutionary War, 1776-83) were also used in limited numbers during the US Civil war almost 100 years later. Muskets were by far the most common long arm used in early America. Muskets saw heavy use in Pennsylvania: Chadds Ford, Germantown, Brandywine, Valley Forge and other locations that had military activity during the US Revolutionary War. How a flintlock mechanism works:The flintlock mechanism is deceiving simple. It holds a piece of high-grade flint in the hammer jaws or "cock", and scrapes the flint along a steel surface called the hammer. Small pieces of steel shave off and actually catch fire. These burning steel embers readily ignite gunpowder, and was extremely useful. Some were used for other purposes such as lighting fires. Sometimes gunsmiths made "tinder lighters", or flintlocks without barrels. Tinder lighters looked just like a flintlock pistol, but lacked a barrel. The pan was larger and deeper, and contained shredded rope (called "tow" or other fine tinder. When the owner pulled the trigger, the sparks showered down into the tinder or tow, starting a small fire. You should recognize this device as today's lighter.
The steel frizzen is actually a target that the hammer strikes in a glancing blow. As the flint scrapes down, shavings from the frizzen peel off and ignite. A properly hardened frizzen is very important, as soft steel or iron won't spark. Frizzens were either high-grade steel, casehardened iron or had a hard layer of steel brazed on the striking surface. Over time, the frizzen wears down. If it's case-hardened, the hard exterior wears away and it will eventually stop sparking. If this happens, it needs to be rehardened. This is a common job for gunsmiths, and many firearms owners do this step themselves. The process is simple — heat the frizzen until red hot, then quench (dip) into water to quick cool & harden. An interesting feature of flintlock firearms is that the owner can support the firearm a long time if lead's available and they can make gunpowder. The flints came mostly from England. The patches were cut from scrap cloth, and the bullets were cast from lead. During the Armerican Revolution, lead was a very important resource. Soldiers took lead anywhere they could find it, including window points (the lead seal we call caulking) and lead figurines. The lead was melted down and cast into bullets, family members or volunteers loaded musket "cartridges", which were more pre-measured loads than cartridges as we understand them today.
Cartridges were paper tubes sealed at one end, and included a ball and a pre-measured powder charge. The ball end was tied off with string, and the powder end was simply twisted shut. To fire, the user bit off the twisted end, poured a small amount of powder in the pan and dumped the rest down the barrel. Next was the ball, still encapsulated in the paper. The advantage of this system is fast loading, a battlefield necessity. At least two drawbacks are the loose fit required for easy loading causing poor accuracy, and the powder distribution process. The amount of powder placed in the pan would be an arbitrary amount, but obviously less that the main propelling charge. A greater pan charge would meam less available for pushing the ball, reducing velocity. With this system, we would have considerable muzzle velocity variation between shots even with the same shooter firing from the same batch of cartridges. The cartridges were kept in a wood block with an array of holes similar toa pencil holder. This was fastened inside a stiff leather pouch called a cartridge box, and was worn whenever the musket was in use. Non-military arms generally used a powder horn, often using a separate and smaller "pan horn" for priming. This overcame the inconsistent powder charge issue, and also allowed smaller frizzens and pans.
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