• • Most period stocks had a round wrist; it became oval beginning about 1790.


• • The musket stock usually included a chair rail crease or pinched channel along the lower edge of a raised comb.


• • Locks prior to the 1790s were made with a rounded cock on a rounded lockplate, or a “flat on flat.”


• • The lockplate ended with a tapered point for its tail versus the 19th century rounded form.


• • The tip of a cock’s post was either stubby, notched or had a forward curl; after 1795, it often curled toward the rear.


• • When present, sideplates were a single, complete piece; two separate components appeared after 1800.


• • Many Colonists had an aversion to sling swivels; some cannibalized European trigger guards retained an earlier hole drilled for the lower swivel, but the American stocks frequently omitted a hole for the second swivel in its fore-end.


• • Components fabricated by the provincials were usually cruder and cheaper than European made elements, such as rolled sheet brass ramrod thimbles versus the British use of castings.


• • Hunting fowlers, which normally extended their stock fore-ends to the muzzle often had them cut back and added a barrel stud to mount a bayonet for military service.


• • Roller frizzens are found on some private European guns from our period, but they did not appear on issued long arms until about 1800.


• • Most European military stocks were of black walnut or, occasionally, beech. The Americans also employed walnut, but, in addition, showed a preference for cherry and either plain or striped maple. On a limited basis, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will generously test pieces of wood (from inside your stock) to identify North American vs. European species. (For information, write: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, One Gifford Pinchot Drive, Madison, WI 53705-2398).

The great majority of surviving muskets manufactured by the Colonists are not identified by their maker or source. Yet a number of the states did, at times, stamp their issued arms to indicate ownership especially early in the war. These included, “MB” or “CMB”, Massachusetts; “SC”, Connecticut; “CR”, Rhode Island; “PP” or “P”, Pennsylvania; “JS” or “PS”, Maryland; “SP”, New Jersey; “NH” New Hampshire; “CN”, New York; and “SGF” (State Gun Factory), Virginia. In addition, by 1777 European arms were arriving in bulk without government ownership identification and the Congress instructed each Continental regiment in the field to stamp or brand its muskets “US”, “U:STATES”, or “UNITED STATES”. Their compliance was spotty, but the practice continued in postwar arsenals (Guthman).

Out of the more than 300,000 long arms used by the American line troops during the War for Independence, probably in excess of 80,000 were the products of America’s scattered gunsmiths using mixed components. Yet, because the soldier’s round lead bullets were undersized to allow for powder fouling in the bore and the issued socket bayonets had to be individually fitted to each barrel, their odd pedigrees did not create the extreme hardships one might have expected. As such, they filled a vital gap in arming the early regiments and continued as the major repair and maintenance sources for Washington’s troops until the war was won. The individual muskets illustrated in this article are considered typical of the variety of long arms produced by this homegrown cottage industry.

After facing an almost impossible supply problem following Lexington/Concord, the committed Colonists vigorously pursued all available sources to create the desperately needed supply of arms. Today their mixed-pattern muskets comprise a special category for collectors and historians that testifies so eloquently to the “can do” spirit which made possible our ultimate victory.

American-Made Muskets Photo Gallery