I own guns. Not as many as some people, but enough to make people who don’t know about guns—but have strong opinions anyway—uncomfortable. While these people are not always easy to reason with, it might reassure at least a few of them to know that my favorite gun is no more likely to turn up at a mass shooting or even a drive-by than a Nerf gun, water pistol or, for that matter, a frying pan.
Still, it is the gun I especially like to shoot, and when I hold it, I feel like I have American history itself in my hands.
It is a black powder, flintlock musket. A fifty-caliber Pennsylvania long rifle. Loaded from the muzzle. The powder followed by a ball and patch which you force down with a ramrod. Then you prime the pan, cock the hammer, set the trigger and fire. It is an almost choreographed series of moves and even at my steadiest, I am lucky to get off three shots a minute.
Yet it was, arguably, the decisive weapon in the American Revolution.
Quick story. In October of 1777, in what would be the decisive engagement of the conflict, Battle of Saratoga, the Redcoats were early on having the better of the Colonial army, one element of which was “Morgan’s Riflemen.” They were under the command of legendary frontiersman Daniel Morgan, and carried Pennsylvania long rifles. The British musket – known as the “Brown Bess” – had an effective range of some 50 yards; Morgan’s men were lethal out to 300 or more.
