CHARLEVILLE MUSKETS AND ANTIQUE AMERICAN FIREARMS
The best of smooth-bore Muskets of colonial and Revolutionary days were the Charleville
muskets of France. From 1717 to 1777, they were constantly being improved.
French muskets previous to the model 1763 were extensively used by French
troops in this country and Canada during the early colonial wars, and
demonstrated their superiority over contemporary British muskets, which
remained practically the same from early colonial times until long after the
Battle of Waterloo. After the embargo of 1774, no British arms were...
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JACOB DICKERT, A LANCASTER GUNSMITH
Pennsylvania rifles which played an important part in the French and Indian Wars, the Revolution, and the War of 1812, were the best firearms of their day. An unusually high quality of workmanship was required to produce them. Each rifle was designed and made by a craftsman skilled in the working of not one medium alone but of all the materials used in making the rifle. He had to be competent in welding and boring barrels, in working and carving stocks, in shaping and engraving brass, and in silversmithing and locksmithing. It is rather remarkable, in view of the importance of Pennsylvania rifles and the interest in them on the part of collectors, that we have...
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REVOLUTIONARY WAR MUSKETS
A great deal has been written about the long rifle and the part it played
in turning the tide of many engagements. The cavalry and the rifle companies
stir the imagination, but we should not forget that the bulk of the heavy
fighting in the Revolution was done by the common soldier equipped with his
smoothbore musket. The Revolutionary musket was far from being an instrument
of precision. At about a hundred yards only some four shots in ten would hit
the mark, and even then a good deal of luck was involved. Since the armies
fired in ranks and in volleys...
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