Title
American Flintlock Musket
Description
This American Flintlock Musket illustrates the ingenuity of the American colonists to assemble firearms from various components and available firearms, early in the war. The musket is patterned after the English Land Service Musket, a weapon American colonists recognized and used as a pattern for their own military firearms.
The Chestnut stock secures the iron barrel held by iron pins through the underside of the barrel. The barrel is Dutch manufactured, removed and reused from an earlier Dutch weapon by the Americans. The brass furniture includes an English-style trigger guard, butt plate, and five convex rammer thimbles which secure the rammer. Like many American muskets, particularly early in the war, this firearm was assembled from odd parts or an English contract musket. The barrel is stamped “54.”
Caliber: .78
Weight: 9.8 lbs.
Length: 58"
Barrel: 42"
The Chestnut stock secures the iron barrel held by iron pins through the underside of the barrel. The barrel is Dutch manufactured, removed and reused from an earlier Dutch weapon by the Americans. The brass furniture includes an English-style trigger guard, butt plate, and five convex rammer thimbles which secure the rammer. Like many American muskets, particularly early in the war, this firearm was assembled from odd parts or an English contract musket. The barrel is stamped “54.”
Caliber: .78
Weight: 9.8 lbs.
Length: 58"
Barrel: 42"
Source
Brown, M.L. Firearms in Colonial America: The Impact on History and Technology 1492-1792. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1980.
Date
c. 1775-1780
Rights
George C. Neumann Collection, Valley Forge National Historical Park
Identifier
VAFO 139
Original Format
Photograph