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DEFINITION OF ARMS BY TYPE, SOURCE, AND ORIGIN The extreme diversity of shoulder arms used by the American revolutionaries ranged from arms that had been made over eighty years before the Revolution to the latest and best European military muskets of the period. They included long, awkwardfowling pieces; accurate hunting rifles; crudely assembled muskets utilizing components from any one or more of at least four different countries; muskets entirely fabricated with rudimentary tools in primitive conditions; and new, arsenal-made muskets, fabricated to rigid pattern, whose manufacture was controlled by strict inspection and proof procedures. No one method of definition is adequate to describe this variety of arms. Three methods are used here to provide a better understanding: (1) the type of arm (that is, whether it is a musket, rifle, or carbine); (2) the source from which the arm was procured for service by the American revolutionaries; and (3) the origin of the arm, which was often different from the source of the American revolutionaries' procurement. TYPE OF ARM 027.2 The seven general categories of arms types described in this section include all but a few of the shoulder arms used during the American Revolution. There are some special arms that do not fit into these categories, such as the Nock volley gun used by the British Royal Navy near the end of the war. MUSKET 027.21 A musket is a military shoulder arm intended to be carried by the ranks of line infantry. It was also usually carried by marines aboard ship, heavy dragoons, artillerymen, and certain other units. Bythe time of the American Revolution, most European countries had developed specialized muskets forforces other than line infantry. There were artillery muskets, dragoon muskets, light infantry muskets, and many others. The musket was the basic shoulder arm of the armies from the late 16th through the mid-19th century. Muskets used in the American Revolution usually had barrels with smooth bores ranging from .69" to .80" in diameter. They fired either a single lead round ball or a few smaller diameter balls. The barrels were 027. AMERICAN MILITARY SHOULDER ARMS, VOL. 1 attached to the stocks either by lateral iron pins or by bands of iron or brass. The arm was usually fitted with an angular socket bayonet whose tubular socket encircled the muzzle. The musket was generally a plain arm designed for hard usage, although some British and German states' muskets had decorative raised stock plateaus around the lock and breech, border-engraved locks, and furniture with decorative sculpting. The large-diameter round balls used in these muskets could be loaded rapidly, for the diameter of the balls wasslightly less than the bore's diameter. The linear tactics prevailing during the American Revolution, which consisted of ranks of opposing infantry firing volley after volley at each other from close range, emphasized rapidity of fire at the cost of long-range accuracy. FUSIL 027.23 The fusil wasgenerally the same configuration asthe musket but with slightly reduced dimensions, weight, and caliber. It was usually carried by some officers, by noncommissioned officers, and by a few special-purpose units — such as light infantry, who were required to move rapidly through the rough, wooded North American countryside. Some officers' fusils were more decorated than the muskets carried by infantry. In the British Army, these decorated fusils were privately purchased by the officers. In the French Army, they were supplied by the government. RIFLE 027.24 A rifle isa shoulder arm that has a bore cut with parallel spiral grooves, which impart rotation to a tightly fitting patched round ball, making its flight more stable. It should be noted that some of the rifles had smooth bores, and their accuracy over the musket was achieved solely by the tight-fitting patched ball. Revolutionary War rifles had both front and rear sights, and their barrels were secured to the stocks by lateral pins. Because the rifle's accuracy was achieved at the cost of slower loading and because it lacked a bayonet for hand-to-hand combat, it saw limited, albeit significant, use in most of the major battles of the war. Revolutionary War rifles included the short, German states' Jtiger (hunting) rifles popular in Europe at one extreme and the graceful American long rifle at the other. Somewhere between the two extremes were the few hundred rifles used by British regular forces.Largenumbers ofrifles were used by both American loyalist and revolutionary forces, primarily in the western and southern frontiers...

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