For over a century, prior to and years after the American Revolutionary War, the Kentucky rifle was the premier weapon of the world. It’s grove-bore accuracy and effective distance literally far outshot smooth-bore muskets. It proved the perfect weapon of the huntsmen who could kill game at up to three hundred yards; incredible when compared …
We’ve seen images of Continental Soldiers of the American Revolution snap to attention with their right hand, palms down, smartly pressed to the forehead or hat’s brim. And Roman legionaries slapping their chests and thrusting their arms straight out from the body. Or Knights of old lifting their visors as a show of respect to …
Matchlocks In the 16th and early 17th centuries, European nations gained a foothold in the New World. The gun of choice, that which paved the way for complete dominance of a native population, was the matchlock. “Lock” meaning the mechanism that fired the gun and “match” for the system of igniting it. Over the next century, these …
We’ve all seen movies of Daniel Boone-like characters whip their powder horn around and pour black powder down a muzzle before ramming home a lead ball. Many believe that during the Revolutionary War, muskets were only primed this way with separate powder and ball and that the use of cartridge, where ball and powder are …
How does a nation defend a spacious new land to which it just laid claim? Consider a land that began with a trickle of settlers, only to surge into a steady stream of immigrants, each year’s population surpassing the next by leaps and bounds; a territory teaming with merchants, farmers, and artisans, who quickly fanned …
The main weapon of choice during the American Revolutionary War was the Long Land Pattern Musket, or smoothbore muzzleloader, used by both the British army and patriotic rebels. This design was developed in the early 1720’s in England and was used by many nations’ infantries throughout the rest of the century until the 1830s. It …
The preferred choice of musket, (also labeled as flintlock, firelock, or smoothbore) in the British Army and subsequently in the American Army during the American Revolution was the Brown Bess. “Rugged, simple, sturdy, and terrible at close quarters”, when fired (if it fired), this smooth bore (grove bored were ‘rifled muskets’, later simply called rifles), …