American Military Shoulder Arms, Volume I: Colonial and Revolutionary War Arms

AMERICAN-ASSEMBLED MUSKETS OF BRITISH, FRENCH,AND GERMAN STATES' PATTERNS

AMERICAN-ASSEMBLED MUSKETS OF BRITISH, FRENCH, AND GERMAN STATES' PATTERNS A commonly encountered type of Revolutionary War musket in American collections is one that has been assembled or restocked in America using regulation metal components of British, French, or German manufacture or American-made components of the British or French military style. Very few surviving musketsassembledor restocked with Britishor French regulation metal components are engraved or stamped with the names of known Committee of Safety gunmakers or carry initial stamps that can reasonably be attributed to known continental or U.S. armorers or to continental contract armorers.1 Some of them, ifthey have barrels,locks, and furniture of British or French origin, have their original lockmaker's marks or their country's proof or acceptance marks. These musketsmay have been assembled or repaired by one of the smallarms repair facilities or under contract. These state and continental repair facilities are described in the text under "Revolutionary War Repair of Arms." They may also have been assembled from cannibalized British and French regulation metal components by American gunmakers for private sale to colonial committees of safety, to state militias, or to individual members of militias. There is also a substantial number of unmarked muskets in American collections that are assembled entirely, or largely,from American-made components . These muskets are usually of the British configuration, and many may have been made under Committee of Safety contracts. However, because they are unmarked, any provenance attributing them to Committee of Safety contracts or any other specific manufacturing authority is speculative. Therefore, they are included in this section. It should be noted that, in addition to the British and French pattern arms, there are a very few surviving examples of muskets that have been assembled from Spanish and German states' metal components into American stocks. Because each musket described in this section is unique, it cannot be considered typical of any other musket. These muskets are presented to illustrate both the variety of Revolutionary War arms encountered and to aid a better understanding of the arms that were produced to satisfy the demands of the war. American-assembled muskets, of both British and French configurations, are knownstamped "IP" in their stocks' left breech flats. This mark is attributedto Joseph Perkins,superintendent of the Continental Armoryin Philadelphia from 1780 to 1783. It isspeculated that these initials were his acceptance mark on the muskets repairedand rebuilt at that armory. 045. 1 164 AMERICAN MILITARY SHOULDER ARMS, VOL. 1 MUSKETS CONTAINING BRITISH COMPONENTS 045.2 Muskets with British-made land pattern components may have been assembled in America at any time following the date of origin of the most recent component, but the majority of surviving examples were probably assembled shortly before, during, or shortly after the American Revolution. Although the U.S. Militia Law of 1792 required all muskets to have a bore diameter of .69 caliber by 1797, the federal government continued to repair .75 caliber British muskets and issue them to U.S. Marines for shipboard service for a number ofyears.2 Most American-assembled British pattern .75caliber muskets may be assumed to have been assembled at some time prior to the 1790s. AMERICAN RESTOCKED "FARMER" MUSKET 045.2F Plate 045.2F-A This musket was assembled using both altered and unaltered British musket metal components and some American -made components. (Springfield Armory NHP Museum Collection.) This musket was almost entirely assembled using British Long Land Pattern musket components together with an American stock. The metal components were originally part of a Long Land Pattern (Type I) musket, as described in Section 065.A2, and has a 1746-dated lock made by James Farmer of Birmingham. The stock, wrist escutcheon, trigger guard, and ramrod thimbles are of probable American manufacture. In order to avoid redundancy, the descriptions of the British regulation metal components are abbreviated here, and detailed descriptions may be found in Section 065.A2. Plate 045.2F-B The British land pattern lock is engravedwith the crowned cypher of George IIforward ofthe cock and"FARMER," "1746" in two vertical lines behind the cock. The cock may have been replacedat the timeof this musket's assembly or during its period of use. (Springfield Armory NHP Museum Collection.) These muskets are described in Volume II. 2 AMERICAN-ASSEMBLED MUSKETS 165 This brass-mounted musket is613 A" overall. The 46"round barrelhas baluster rings at the breech and a bayonet lug, also serving...