American Military Shoulder Arms, Volume I

Colonial and Revolutionary War Arms

George D. Moller

• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9780826349965
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Histoire de l'armée et de la marine

American Military Shoulder Arms, Volume I: Colonial and Revolutionary War Arms focuses on the arms used from the early exploratory period throughout the colonial period and the American Revolution. Arranged chronologically, it contains definitive descriptions of the pre-flintlock and flintlock shoulder arms used in North America and detailed accounts of the development and progression of military regulation shoulder arms of the major colonial powers from the early eighteenth century through the Revolutionary War.

Lavishly illustrated with more than four hundred vivid photographs of muskets, rifles, carbines, and other arms, this book offers an intelligent analysis of the shoulder arms procured and used by the colonists, colonial and state governments, and the Continental Congress.

PART I

COLONIAL ARMS

AMERICAN COLONIAL ARMS HISTORY

012.

Some historians divide North American history, between Columbus's discovery of the New World and the outbreak of the American Revolution, into three time periods. The pre-colonial period extended from 1492, the year of Columbus's discovery, to 1607, the year the first successful English colony was established. The first colonial period extended from 1607 until about 1691, and the second colonial period extended from 1691 to the Revolutionary War.

The pre-colonial period was characterized by numerous explorations by various European powers. These were frequently military in nature. Only Spain was successful in establishing a large colonial population in North America.

The first colonial period was characterized by the initial establishment of settlements by other major European powers. These settlements were usually commercial or religious ventures and were administered by commercial companies, which were granted monopoly rights to the territory by means of royal charters. The period was also characterized by frequent battles and skirmishes between settlers and groups of Indians as the settlers encroached on Indian lands and took the available game. During much of this time the white population was outnumbered and was constantly on the defensive.

The second colonial period was characterized by the expansion and multiplication of these settlements and their populations. During this period many of the colonies achieved provincial status or at least were administered as provinces. The colonists often fought different enemies under different conditions. In addition to the Indian threat, substantial numbers of colonial militia were raised to fight wars within, and outside of, their colonies. Their enemies were not just the Indians: they were the regular armies and colonial militias of other European powers. During this period, over 107,000 men from Britain's North American colonies alone served under the Union Jack. Additional tens of thousands of French and Spanish colonists also fought for their colonies' rulers.¹

PRE-COLONIAL PERIOD, 1492–1607 012.2

Because the early Spanish explorations were military in nature, most of the explorers brought suits of plate armor, mail, and helmets. Almost all of these men had swords, although some had pikes or halberds. These polearms were unwieldy in the rough, forested, new world, and were almost useless against an enemy who fought as the American Indian did. The crossbow was the most widely used projectile weapon during the early explorations, but most expeditions also had a few matchlock harquebuses.

Cortés's 1519 conquest of Mexico included 508 soldiers. Thirty-two of these were crossbowmen, and only twelve were arquebusiers.² Pizzaro had 177 men in his 1533 conquest of Peru. Twenty were armed with crossbows and only three with firearms.

When compared to the light Indian bows, both the crossbow and matchlock were slow to reload and were difficult to use against an enemy who was always changing position. Like the polearms, these were weapons of European linear tactical warfare, where armies faced each other across open ground and charged, or received a charge, en masse. The Indians did not allow the colonists to use linear tactics. They preferred to do battle using the tactics of ambush and surprise attacks. As a result, the Spanish weapons were often inferior in combat to the Indians' bows and stone-tipped weapons. One of the men in De Soto's 1539 expedition in Florida complained: “They never stand still, but are always running and traversing from one place to another; by reason whereof neither crossbow or arcubuse [sic] can aim at them; and before one crossbowman can make one shot, an Indian will discharge three or four arrows; and he seldom misses what he shoots at.”³

The crossbow had several advantages over the matchlock musket: it could be used in wet weather, was fairly silent, did not require the continual ignition of a glowing slow match, and was more accurate. Its main disadvantage was probably that it fired only a single projectile. The muskets were commonly loaded with as many as twelve shot.

The crossbow was gradually phased out during the 16th century, and the matchlock harquebus became the primary projectile arm by around 1550. However, a few crossbowmen were still included in a return of personnel to the Spanish forts of Saint Augustine and Santa Elena (now in Florida) in the 1570s. The last known reference to the use of crossbows in North America was in a proposal for equipment to be used in the New Mexico expedition of 1596. There are no records of any crossbows actually being included in that expedition's equipment.

FIRST COLONIAL PERIOD, 1607–1691 012.5

For their protection, the English colonies placed strong emphasis on the military, and almost every able-bodied man was subject to being called up for watch duty or to defend the settlement in case of attack. Although some weapons were held as “public stores” by the colonies, each man was generally required to supply his own weapons and equipment. Because of this, prospective colonists to Virginia in the early 17th century were advised to bring with them:

A suit of light armor

Sword and belt

A “piece” (shoulder arm) of near musket bore, 5′ to 5½' long

Bandoleer for ammunition

20 lbs of gunpowder and 60 lbs of shot or lead

The colonists who established Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, primarily brought arms with matchlock ignition and a few arms with mechanical ignition, such as wheel-locks and snaphances.⁴ The use of some wheel-lock and snaphance arms in this settlement has been verified by archeological evidence. This archeological evidence indicates that the snaphance system was the most common ignition system used at Jamestown. A 1609 report of Captain John Smith included: “300 [matchlock] muskets, snaphances and firelocks,⁵ shot, powder and match sufficient.”

Because the English government had an inherent interest in the success of its colonies, it supplied a large portion of the military equipment used by the colonies. Following the massacre in Virginia in 1622, the following items were sent from the Royal Arsenal in the Tower:

400	Bows and 800 sheafs of arrows
300	Arquebuses
700	Calivers
300	Short pistols with firelocks
1,000	Brown bills
40	Plate coats
400	Shirts and coats of mail

The English long bow was more accurate and faster to reload than the matchlock musket, although it lacked the psychological impact of the smoke, fire, and noise. The Virginia colonists feared that the Indians would be able to improve their own relatively low-powered bows after observing the long bows, so they requested that the long bows from the Tower be unloaded in Bermuda.

The colonists wore light armor when on various forms of military duty and when traveling. This armor often consisted of a helmet in conjunction with back and breast plates and thigh armor. Because heavy plate armor inhibited extended travel and fast movement, light armor was preferred. Often a combination of mail armor and a buff leather coat was worn, as it could deflect the stone-tipped weapons of the Indians.

Following the 1622 massacre by the Indians in Virginia, an inventory was made in 1624 and 1625 of the arms, ammunition, and equipment owned by the 940 male and 269 female settlers. This inventory included the following:

20	“Pieces of ordnance” (cannon)
47	Matchlock arms
981	Shoulder arms with mechanical locks (wheel-locks and flintlock variations)
55	Pistols
6	Petronels
342	Armor, complete
260	Coats of mail and headpieces
20	Quilted coats and buff coats
429	Swords
1,120	Pounds of gunpowder
9,657	Pounds of shot

The public military stores for 100 men, which the Massachusetts Bay colonists intended to take with them when they sailed from England in 1626, included the following:

80	Bastard snaphance muskets, 4′ barrels, without rests
10	Full matchlock muskets, 4′ barrels, with rests
90	Bandoleers for the muskets, each with a bullet bag
6	Long fowling pieces of musket bore, 6½′ long
4	Long fowling pieces of bastard musket bore, 5½′ long
10	Horn flasks for the fowling pieces, 1 lb capacity
4	Barrels of powder for the above arms
2	Partizans for the captain and lieutenant
3	Halberds for sergeants
100	Swords and belts
60	Corsletts, 60 pikes, and 20 half-pikes
8	Assorted cannon, for the fort, also appropriate shot and 8 barrels of gunpowder for them

The matchlock musket of the early 17th-century English military was a heavy, clumsy weapon with a barrel commonly 4′ to 4½′ long. These arms were usually very heavy, and the musketeer used a forked rest as an aid in aiming. In the latter part of the 16th century, the matchlock “caliver” was introduced. This was a somewhat lighter weight shoulder arm, with a smaller diameter bore. At the time the British North American colonies were settled, it is possible that these calivers were referred to there as “bastard muskets.” A more complete description of these arms is given later in this text, in the sections describing harquebuses and matchlock muskets.

By the late 1630s or early 1640s, most of the English North American colonies had passed laws that specified that each able-bodied man must possess a musket, bandoleer, appropriate powder and bullets, and a sword. These items were to be kept ready and were to be brought with the colonist should he be called to duty.

In 1645 the Massachusetts General Court passed the following law, which further defined the shoulder arms to be furnished by the colonists subject to military duty:⁶

It being requisite upon all inhabitants within this jurisdiction should endeavor after such arms as may be most useful for their own and their country's defense, it is therefore ordered that no pieces shall be allowed for service, in trained bands, but such as are either full musket bore, or bastard musket bore at least, and that none should be under 3 feet 9 inches, nor above 4 feet 3 inches in [barrel] length, and that every man shall also have a priming wire, a worm, and scourer, fit for the bore of his musket.

During the first half of the 17th century, both matchlock and mechanical ignition systems (firelocks) were used. In the early years of this period, colonists relied primarily on the matchlock, which had several inherent weaknesses:

1. The “slow match,” a loosely twisted flaxen rope that had been soaked in potassium nitrate and dried, had to be kept glowing—a difficult task in inclement weather.

2. The glowing match was visible at night, which clearly indicated to the Indians the number and location of guards on watch in a settlement.

3. The match was normally carried apart from the musket. Before firing, it was placed in its holder on the lock, called a serpentine, and secured by a thumbscrew. The pan cover could be slid open as the weapon was brought up for sighting. These operations required some precious seconds, which a victim of a surprise attack or ambush might not have.

As the superiority of the wheel-lock and various flintlock systems became apparent, their use spread rapidly. The wheel-lock and snaphance were the earliest of the mechanical lock systems to be used. They were replaced in the English colonies by the English lock, which was probably the most widely used system during the last half of the 17th century. Archeological research has turned up a number of these locks in excavations in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, central New York State, as well as in Yorktown and Jamestown, Virginia.

As early as 1646, the Plymo...