The War
In popular films, television, and so forth, it’s common to see the glamorous presentation of our Revolutionary War as a campaign of clever guerrilla fighters armed with their accurate Pennsylvania long rifles, hiding in the trees and the brush and sniping at British regulars in their bright-red coats as they marched by in closed ranks. Now, some of that did go on, and these make for great stories, as shown in movies like The Patriot.
By and large, though, the American Revolution was fought the way wars were typically fought in Europe in those days: Fixed ranks volley firing at each other with smoothbore flintlock muskets, usually at under a hundred yards, supported by cannon and cavalry. Exchanged often ended with a bayonet charge and a good deal of hand-to-hand slugging.
But the guns themselves are interesting. These were the state of the art for their time, and while we look back now at the smoothbores, the inaccuracy at much over a hundred years, and the tetchy ignition system, they look pretty simplistic, but at the time, these guns were fully modern, and very well suited for the kind of war they were used in.
Read More: Sunday Gun Day Vol. III Ep. VIII - First Guns, the Fire Lance and the Hand Cannon
The primary arms of the British and the Continentals were very similar: Single-shot, smoothbore, flintlock muskets. Their origins, though, were different. Let’s take a look.
The Muskets
The primary arm of the British was the British Land Pattern Musket, better known nowadays as the Brown Bess. The origin of the name “Brown Bess” has been debated for years, and I don’t think anyone knows now any more than they did then, although it may well have had to do with the brown color of the walnut stock. This was a heavy piece, weighing in at 10-11 pounds. By the time of the Revolution, most troops were equipped with the second mark of the Land Pattern musket, the Short Land Pattern, or 2nd Model. It had a 42-inch, .75 caliber barrel, although the ammo commonly used was a .69-70 caliber ball, to make for a fast reload. An accomplished soldier could fire four shots a minute, making up the mid-18th century version of “accuracy by volume.” The guns had no sights to speak of. It was rugged, simple, powerful, easy to produce, and easy to learn to use.
They weren’t without their shortfalls; like most smoothbore muskets of the time, they couldn’t be aimed precisely, they were inaccurate at ranges much farther than 100 yards, and they were very susceptible to wet weather, due to the flintlock mechanism.
Still, at the time, they were a respectable and, in the hands of a trained British soldier, respected arm. You can still buy one today; originals command a high price, but replicas are widely available from outfits like Dixie Gun Works.
The Continental Army, without British industry to rely on, used a lot of captured British Brown Bess muskets, but as France got involved, the Continentals received a lot of French muskets, all of which got lumped together as Charleville muskets, even though they were not all made at the famous (at the time) armory in Charleville-Mézières.The Charleville-pattern guns were no less weighty than the Brown Bess, but they fired a slightly smaller, .69-caliber ball. This may have allowed the Continental soldiers to carry a few more rounds, which typically consisted of a paper cartridge with a charge of black powder and the ball; priming the flintlock’s pan was usually done with a small flask or horn of fine priming powder.
Both guns had bayonet lugs. Like the Brown Bess, the Charleville was susceptible to wet weather; also like the Brown Bess, its sights were minimal, and its effective range was short.
Read More: Sunday Gun Day Vol. III Ep. V - Guns Nobody Is Making Replicas of, but Should
Consider, though, the primary use to which these weapons were put: Volley fire at short range at tightly packed ranks of enemy troops. They were as accurate as they needed to be, and the smooth bores and undersized balls made for fast reloads.
These guns, too, are now available as replicas.
This was, at the time, their equivalent of our M4 carbine: The primary weapon of the infantrymen, designed and built for the way armies did things in those days.But not everyone fought that kind of war.
The Rifles
The primary rifle used in the American Revolution was typically some variation of what became known as the Kentucky rifle, although the Pennsylvania rifle is more apt, as that is where the design seems to have originated. Almost all of these were hand-made arms, usually by local gunsmiths, and while they were made for hunting for the pot, they proved to be pretty good when the militias, who often brought their own personal weapons to the fight, started hunting British officers. These guns typically had rifled barrels from .45 to .60 caliber, although some were as small as .32. Barrel length was usually around 28-32 inches. They had significant advantages in accuracy and range, as an accomplished rifleman could put a ball in a redcoat at 150-250 yards. The rifled barrel and the closer to bore-sized balls required for that accuracy, though, made for slower loading. This problem was partly solved by using an undersized ball with a greased cloth patch, which not only made the projectile easier to ram home but also softened the inevitable black-powder fouling, making cleaning easier.
Here’s the fun part: The appearance of just a few really good riflemen in support of a fight not only served to reduce the leadership of a body of British troops by targeting officers, but just the knowledge that riflemen were in the area made for a potent psychological advantage; these were, in effect, the United States military’s first snipers, and like snipers today, they were a threat, and just the knowledge that if one stuck one’s head up, one may have a .50 caliber ball put through it, tended to make redcoat officers maladjusted.Of course, other weapons were used as well.
The Other Stuff
Many officers on both sides were armed with pistols and swords. Of the two, the sword may have been the more effective weapon, as the pistols were like the muskets: Single-shot, flintlock, with all the weaknesses of the musket (inaccurate, slow loading), along with being even less effective at range. When fired, though, they did make an effective club, making the off-hand useful while the dominant hand wielded the saber.
Many of the Continentals also brought their own bladed weapons to the fight: Knives, hatchets, tomahawks; militia units were generally expected to bring their own arms, and some of those, reportedly, made for quite a variety of weapons.
These were the arms with which we fought the war. These were the arms with which we won our freedom. And their modern counterparts, today, are the arms with which we will keep that freedom.
Happy 250th birthday, America, and may our right to keep and bear arms not be infringed.
