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Several different types of shoulder arms were used by the colonial militias of the British North American colonies. Records of the early colonial period indicate that the militia relied on matchlock muskets, bastard muskets, and limited numbers of long fowlers. By the late 1620s, the "firelock" musket had begun to supersede the matchlock musket, and its use would be widespread within a decade. These firelocks included some wheel-locks and the flintlock variations described in the previous section. Limited numbers of carbines were used by mounted militia units, and even more limited quantities ofblunderbuss armswere included in inventories ofarms in the colonies at the beginning of the 18th century. Information on and descriptions of blunderbuss arms is included in the section on British regulation shoulder arms. Seventeenth-century military shoulder arms of any given type were only generally similar.The diversitystemmed from the period's crude manufacturing technologies and continuing improvement in the arms and their ignition systems . Most importantly, there were no "regulation models" of arms in that century. There were few definitive specifications set forth for military arms by a central authority. Until the first quarter ofthe18th century, the British procured their military muskets through contracts let to a number of private gunmakers. Except for caliber and inspection standards, there were few parameters in the contract specifications. Therefore, although the gunmakers fabricated arms that were, in general, usually similar to each other, there were always numerous differences in many of the specifications from one military shoulder arm to the next. In addition, each British regimental commander had the option ofdrawing his regiment's arms from the Tower of London or of taking an equivalent value in cash and privately purchasing the arms. Private purchasing happened frequently and resulted in awidevarietyofarmsbeing usedbythe various regiments. The practice would continue until almost the end ofthe first quarter of the 18th century. Available information indicates that the individual regiments within the French Army also procured their own muskets and that the configurations of these arms was left to the discretion of the commander. As a result of the foregoing factors, the descriptions that follow are intended to serve only as a This section describes shoulder arms used primarily by the militias of the British North American colonies from their establishment to the adoption of regulation models by England and France during the first quarter of the 18th century. Descriptions of the regulation models of European arms that sawservice in North America are in later sections of this volume dealing with Revolutionary War import arms. COLONIAL SHOULDER ARMS1 017. 1 COLONIAL SHOULDER ARMS general guidein the description of these arms and to highlight some ofthe design and construction features common to each type. They cannot be considered as typical of all examples of a particular type of arm. There is one type of arm associated with the American colonial period that is not included in this section: the rifle. A limited number of hunting rifles were brought to the American colonies by immigrants from the several German states during the 18th century. Shortly before the American Revolution, some of these German immigrants began to make rifles for the settlers on the western fringes of the colonies. These rifles are included in the part of this text dealing with Revolutionary War arms.The description of the American long rifle isdescribed in its own section, and the description of the German hunting, or "Jager," rifle is in the section on German states' arms. THE HARQUEBUS 017A It is interesting to note that the projectile arms of Christopher Columbus's 1492 expedition to the New World included the ships' cannons, a hand cannon, and a few crossbows. This expedition apparently did not anticipate any major involvement in land combat. There issome evidence that the shoulder firearms of Columbus's subsequent expeditions in the mid-1490s, and also used in Juan Ponce de Leon's 1508 conquest of Puerto Rico, were forms of hand cannon. Surviving documents consisting oforders,requests, and inventories ofthese arms refer to them as hacabuches and espinards, and mention their powder and ball, but no mention ismade ofslow match (medic or cuerda). This suggeststhat these arms were not equipped with matchlocks. During the first two decades of the 16th century, the Spanish hacabuche evolved into the arcabuche. By about 1520 the arcabuche was referred to as the arcabuz, and it was equipped with a matchlock. The matchlock harquebus, as it is now known in English, was the principal military shoulder arm in use...

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