By George C. Neumann
On June 17, 1775, Patriot New Englanders faced the
might of the British Army in a battle known today as Bunker Hill.
Included among their muskets—often without bayonets or lugs at this
stage of the war—were arms of English, French, American and Dutch
origin. Dutch muskets were common from the very beginnings of the
American Revolution and were employed through the end of the epic
conflict.
When it comes to arms used by American
colonists during the Revolutionary War, the names Brown Bess and
Charleville are well known. But “Dutch/Liege” arms played a
significant role in winning our Independence, a role that dated back
to the start of New World colonization.
As the known world
expanded through intense exploration and spawning settlements in
North America during the 1600s, the most dynamic traders encouraging
this phenomenon were the Dutch. Made up of an association of seven
“United Provinces”—of which Holland was the largest—they followed
claims based upon the travels of Henry Hudson in 1609, to establish
their primary trade fort (later New Amsterdam) in the New World on
the present site of New York City in 1614, six years before the
Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts. Moving up the Hudson River, they
then built Fort Orange (Albany, N.Y.) in 1624, which penetrated the
lands of the Iroquois and Canadian tribes to establish the base for
a major fur-trading network. At the
same time, as English settlements proliferated along the northeast
and mid-Atlantic seacoasts, the aggressive Dutch also forged lasting
commercial ties with them. To coordinate these activities the
Netherlands created the Dutch West India Company with a monopoly of
control over their trade throughout the Americas in 1621. After
Britain finally occupied New Amsterdam in 1674, the Dutch continued
to advance this flow of goods. Even facing England’s Navigation Acts
and other restrictions, they were not averse to following the common
practice of smuggling on an impressive scale when
advantageous. Importance
Of Firearms: A critical item in this trade,
especially with frontier colonists and Indians, was the firearm.
Although such arms sales were officially restricted in many areas to
discourage hostilities, the ongoing willingness of the Dutch to deal
in guns and ammunition continued up through the American Revolution.
The prime motivation of their aggressiveness was to stimulate trade
rather than build domestic manufacturing. Thus, although they
established a sizeable arms industry in Amsterdam, Maastricht and
Rotterdam, they commonly subcontracted much of their needs to
outside sources, such as Liege, Solingen, Suhl or Zella. Of these,
Liege, an independent principality on the Meuse River now in modern
Belgium and probably the largest private contractor in the world at
that time (70 to 80 gunmaking workshops in 1788), was their major
back-up supplier. Because of this close association, American
collectors today often refer to unmarked Low Country guns from this
period as “Dutch/Liege” arms. New Focus as Merchants: By the time of
the American War for Independence in the 1770s, however, the tough
Dutch traders had prospered and become the comfortable merchants and
bankers of continental Europe. Responding to the urgent demands from
Washington to equip his army, France supplied large amounts of arms
before and after it declared open war itself in 1778. This was
followed by Spain’s entry in 1779. The Netherlands, however,
struggled to remain neutral in order to generate profits from
selling to both sides. The Dutch
were already strongly attached to Great Britain as a long-term ally
in war. Moreover, William III of Orange had married Mary, the
daughter of England’s James II. They, in turn, became the rulers of
Britain as “William & Mary” following the “Glorious Revolution”
in 1688. William’s surviving impact on his adopted country was
widespread even to the visible Dutch influence in the ultimate
design of the Brown Bess muskets. Records indicate that Britain
regularly ordered shipments of Dutch arms to supplement her needs
during the early 1700s, including the purchase of as many as 18,000
obsolete “Dutch/Liege” muskets in 1741 for distribution to her
worldwide colonies. At least 4,500 of these are known to have been
supplied to America prior to and during the French & Indian War
(1754-1763). As the Revolutionary
War progressed, however, the Netherlands made valuable contributions
to the rebel cause. In addition to the sale of their own arms, many
shipments from European sources supplying the colonists were routed
through the Low Countries for transportation in their “neutral”
vessels to evade the British naval blockade of France and Spain. As
a result, the Netherlands was torn between the opportunity for
wartime profits, which attracted the governing class (Regents) and
the working masses whose memories of the sacrifices for their own
freedom favored the struggling Americans.
Colonial agents in Europe encouraged this sympathy at every
opportunity. When John Paul Jones, for example, left on his
Bonhomme Richard from France to raid England, Benjamin
Franklin urged that, if successful, he should return to a Dutch
port. Thus, following his victory over the HMS Serapis and the loss
of his own ship, Jones brought his prize into Texel, Holland, to the
great acclaim of its populace. Importance of St. Eustatius: Beyond
their material aid, the ultimate Dutch contribution to the winning
of America’s freedom was the establishment of a conduit or supply
route by which critical European aid could safely reach the rebels.
In 1756 they had declared their small island of St. Eustatius
(“Statia”) in the leeward group of the West Indies a free open port.
Because the Dutch were neutral it could not be attacked, so the
island now became the principal depot for the transshipment of goods
to and from the American colonies. In 13 months from 1778-1779, for
example, 3,182 ships cleared the island (i.e. 7 to 8 a day) while
American vessels delivered 12,000 hogsheads of tobacco plus
1,500,000 ozs. of indigo and large amounts of rice in payment. The
rebels then returned to their colonies loaded with wartime goods and
arms. This arrangement permitted various suppliers in Europe to ship
cargoes directly to St. Eustatius or to the English, French, Spanish
or Danish islands in the West Indies for transshipment to neutral
“Statia,” which circumvented interference from Britain’s
navy. It also offered a special
opportunity on November 16, 1776, to directly further the American
cause. On that date the rebel brig-of-war Andrew Doria
entering the port of St. Eustatius had its customary cannon salute
unexpectedly answered by Fort Orange. More than a simple act, this
was the first acknowledgment by a European power of the American
colonies as a nation. War is Declared: Understandably
Britain was deeply upset by the Netherlands’ participation in
American aid traffic and searched for a proper opportunity to end
it. Finally in 1780, Henry Laurens, the former President of the
Continental Congress who had just been appointed representative to
The Hague was on his way to the Netherlands in the ship, Mercury,
when it was captured by the British cruiser, HMS Vestal,
off Newfoundland. At that time he properly emptied his diplomatic
papers into a bag, which was weighted by shot, and threw it
overboard. Regrettably the air remaining inside allowed the bag to
float and be recovered by his captors. He was imprisoned in the
Tower of London, and Britain used his documents as evidence to
declare war against the Dutch in 1780.
The English Admiral Sir George Rodney quickly attacked St.
Eustatius. The 130 vessels he captured in the port included 50 armed
American ships and 2,000 of our seamen. Moreover, records he
confiscated implicated many leading European merchants (including 57
English firms) who were transshipping contraband to the rebels
through Statia and the West Indies. By that late stage of the war,
however, the bulk of the aid had been
delivered. Lists of the total
number of Dutch arms and supplies sent to the New World colonists
are incomplete, but their ships carried a substantial share of the
European tonnage and the obscure island of St. Eustatius was a vital
rendezvous in its traffic pattern. Of equal importance to America’s
destiny was the granting of four major loans by the Netherlands from
1782-1788, which probably saved our young nation from bankruptcy and
possible economic collapse at the end of the war. The contribution
of “Dutch/Liege” arms to America’s early history is evident from the
large number of surviving examples in our collections as well as
their reused components on many of the guns locally assembled by the
colonists. Firearm
Characteristics: The wide variety of firearm
patterns traced to the Netherlands reflects their emphasis on
fulfilling contracts to satisfy varied customers worldwide as well
as their own internal needs. Most of the Dutch fowlers and muskets
have round barrels of .75 to .80 caliber, which were usually pinned
prior to the 1750s by which time three or four bands became typical.
Their furniture was usually brass while the walnut stocks included a
heavy buttstock with a raised comb plus teardrop and arrowhead
carving surrounding the lock, sideplate and barrel tang. Broad
rounded locks predominated early and late in the 1700s, as opposed
to the less expensive flat/faceted edge form which was favored
c.1720-1770. The majority of ramrod pipes accompanying the pinned
barrels were faceted, and one or two visible screws usually held the
extended butt tangs. Such features were popular with the American
colonists and were incorporated into their Hudson Valley fowler
patterns being developed here as early as
1730. Today these firearms continue
to represent the survival of our early settlers struggling through
incredible hardships to establish their dreams of freedom thanks in
large part to the aggressive Dutch traders who early realized the
potential of the New World and contributed mightily to our success.
Sincere appreciation is given to Joseph
C. Devine for his generosity in photographing the collection for
this article at his J. C. Devine facilities and to the photographer,
Jerry Desmarais. |