Lock, Stock, and Barrel: the Origins of American Gun Culture by Cramer Clayton E.;

Author:Cramer, Clayton E.; [Неизв.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC-CLIO, LLC
Published: 2018-12-16T20:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

State Militia Gun Contractors in the Early Republic, 1783–1846

In addition to the dichotomy between contractors to the federal government and gunmakers who produced for the private sector, Bellesiles largely missed the substantial industry that made guns under state contracts. Let’s start with Pennsylvania militia contracts. Along with Thomas and John Ketland’s November 15, 1797, contract with Pennsylvania to make 10,000 firearms in Britain (voided by the British government), there were a number of contracts with American gunsmiths as well, totaling 11,200, 19,000, or 19,200 guns, depending on whose version you believe. (The details of the contractors and the contracts can be found in appendix B.) At least some of these arms were made, and Holt provides photographs of surviving muskets, some with government proof marks produced under these contracts by Lether & Co., William Henry, Melchior Baker, Owen Evans, and John Miles.1

Other muskets made for the Pennsylvania militia have survived as well, including one (based on markings inside the gunlock) believed to have been made by Adam Angstadt. Another surviving musket was made by a Joseph Miles (perhaps John Miles’s brother, or the result of misreading the maker’s mark). An 1814 Pennsylvania militia contract for 200 rifles is represented by two surviving examples, one made by Henry Deringer and another by George Tyron.2

How many other Pennsylvania militia contracts were there? The records are somewhat scattered. For instance, we know of a January 2, 1815, contract with Joseph G. Chambers of Washington County to make 25 “Swivel Guns” of a proprietary design and the “alteration of five hundred muskets belonging to the State.”3

Other silent survivors tell us of contracts for which the paperwork has not surfaced. Lindsay lists a surviving pistol signed “Land & Read Boston” that was made for the Massachusetts militia, apparently in the middle 1820s to 1830s.4 How many other gunsmiths made guns for state militias, for which neither guns nor contracts have come to light? We do not know, and it would be presumptuous to guess.

Virginia also armed its militia through a combination of private contracts and a state gun factory, and Bellesiles does describe Virginia’s attempt to arm its militia with standardized weapons. There is a near-complete disconnect between what Bellesiles’s sources say and what Bellesiles says that they say. The entire paragraph to be dissected below from Arming America has a single footnote. The source Bellesiles lists is Giles Cromwell’s marvelously detailed history of the Virginia Manufactory of Arms:

The shortage of gunmakers in the early republic is clearly illustrated in the history of Virginia’s effort to establish an armory. In 1797 Governor James Wood informed the legislature that his government had searched the state to find anyone who could make arms for the militia, without success.5

Bellesiles’s source for this claim, Cromwell’s book, tells a somewhat different story:

At the junction of the Rivanna and Fluvanna Rivers, the Point of Fork Arsenal centered around the storing of munitions and repairing arms, and a small force of artificers was maintained there from 1781 to 1801. Furthermore, scattered

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.