By George C. Neumann
Brown Bess muskets were issued to
“Redcoats” for nearly a century and served on both sides during the
American Revolution.
It began with a
contract by Britain’s Royal Board of Ordnance dated September 15,
1714. The document’s purpose was not to authorize additional arms,
but to develop a system of manufacture and control. The board would
accumulate components of a new standard longarm pattern and
inventory them at the Tower of London armory for release to private
contractors in time of need. They, in turn, would provide the
stocking and finishing of the final arms in conformity with a
prototype musket (usually bearing an official wax seal). Locks,
barrels and other iron components were to originate largely from
Birmingham, while most brass furniture, stocking and assembly would
be centered in London. All of the parts would then be subjected to
close quality and tolerance inspections by the Board of
Ordnance. The new procedure was a
brave attempt to remedy the chaos of arms diversity that England
faced at the conclusion of the war of the Spanish Succession in
1713. Unfortunately, it challenged some of the most powerful groups
in highly stratified English society. The majority of army regiments
were controlled by colonels who were important private individuals
with established economic and political power. Each would be given
governmental funds to recruit, equip and maintain a regiment. Any
money remaining was considered his to keep. Prior to this date, the
colonel was constrained only by vague requirements limiting barrel
length and bore size for his regiment’s longarms. As a result, he
arbitrarily chose among a wide range of domestic and foreign
patterns of varying quality and price.
Further opposition came from the entrenched, private London
Gunmakers’ Company that saw this change as a threat to its
traditional control of the design, specification and production of
England’s existing arms industry.
As might be expected, the new system was strongly opposed
and then deliberately ignored. Nevertheless, the board’s patient yet
focused efforts finally resulted in a new musket design in 1722
called the “King’s Pattern.” Resistance to the new discipline along
with the absence of wartime pressures delayed its production until
1728. The new standard musket that ushered in England’s organized
ordnance control was first issued in 1730 as the “Long Land”
pattern. It was the beginning of the famed “Brown Bess” series that
would become a legend through its contribution to the winning of
Britain’s empire and to America’s eventual freedom.
Firearms
Capabilities:
The 18th century musket
was essentially a large smoothbore shotgun. After loading from the
muzzle with loose blackpowder and a round lead bullet from a
cylindrical, paper-wrapped cartridge, the musket was fired by the
flintlock action above the trigger. A rotating cock holding a piece
of flint snapped forward to strike a pivoting L-shaped frizzen or
“steel.” That action created sparks that ignited a small portion of
priming powder in a projecting flashpan sending flame through the
barrel’s touch hole to reach the main charge. Obviously, it would
not perform in the rain and depended upon a sharpened flint and
properly hardened steel frizzen for
reliability. The real problem,
however, was the blackpowder quality. Follow-ing each firing,
roughly 55 percent would remain as a black sludge that built up
inside the barrel clogging the touch hole and coating the lock. To
cope with this fouling residue, the average ball was four to six
hundreds of an inch smaller than bore size. Upon ignition, the
undersized ball bounced and skidded up the barrel and proceeded in a
direction determined by its last contact with the bore. Beyond 60
yds., the ball would lose its reliability to hit a man-size
target. These limitations
determined 18th century battle tactics, which employed long lines of
men trained for speed of loading rather than accuracy. They were
expected to average four rounds per minute. The soldiers typically
pointed their arms and fired in controlled volleys at enemy troops
positioned 50 to 60 yds. away. The typical battle was decided by a
disciplined bayonet charge ending in a hand-to-hand
melee. To meet these combat
conditions, the new British Brown Bess standard musket was designed
to deliver a large bullet at low velocity. It employed a sturdy
stock for use as a club in close fighting and had an overall length
that combined with a long, socket bayonet to create a spear or pike
for impacting an enemy’s line. It was also designed to be durable
and to withstand the rigors of years of active campaigning. The
Brown Bess was to successfully fulfill all of these
demands.
The Brown Bess Pattern:
Britain’s military
long arms during the 18th century were officially considered in two
groups: Land Service and Sea Service. We are concerned with the
former. The unofficial term, “Brown Bess,” has various claims for
its origin, but a mention in the April 2-9, 1771 issue of the
Connecticut Courant verifies the name’s acceptance in America
preceding our War for Independence.
The basic Brown Bess musket mounted a round, smoothbore,
.75-cal. barrel on a walnut “heart wood” stock held by a vertical
screw through the breech plug tang plus lateral cross-pins that
pierced tenons brazed to its underside. The upper stock terminated
4" below the muzzle to permit attaching a bayonet. A rectangular top
stud behind the muzzle secured the bayonet after sliding through
slots in the socket and also functioned as an aiming guide. There
was no rear sight. Its butt
included a round wrist extending back to a handrail form beneath the
comb. The ramrod, in turn, slid into a bottom stock channel and was
retained by four pipes. Just below the bottom pipe was a stock swell
intended as a forward “hand hold.” All of the attached accessories
(or “furniture”) were of cast brass. The two-screw lock had a
rounded base plate that mounted a swansneck cock. Two swivels for a
shoulder sling were also included. Its weight totaled 10 to 11
lbs. Like the soldiers who fired
them, traditional British arms designs were known for their
consistency. These fundamental features would persist until the late
years of the 18th century despite an interim reduction in length and
a gradual simplification of the lock and furniture. Official control
and proofing sources for the King’s arms were the Board of Ordnance
at the Tower of London and the less disciplined Dublin Castle armory
supplying troops in the “Irish Establishment.” During war-time,
supplementary contracts were often made with continental European
manufacturers. Similar muskets approximating this design were also
ordered directly from private contractors in England by some British
regimental colonels, local militias, private trade organizations and
various American colonies. The
Brown Bess patterns employed in the Revolu-tionary War are best
considered in two categories that are most easily identified by
their barrel lengths: the 46" “Long Land” and the 42" “Short Land”
muskets. They are also named by some modern collectors as the
“First” and “Second” patterns. (A “Third” pattern is often included,
but refers to a 39"-barreled musket privately produced in England
for the East India Co. Army in India. It did not officially reach
America during the Revolution, but it was finally adopted by the
British government in the 1790s.)
Long Land Brown Bess (“First Pattern”):
There were three
fundamental variations of this first category: the 1730, 1742 and
1756 patterns.
Long Land Pattern
1730: Considered
the first of the Brown Bess series, it included a 46" barrel (.75
cal.) with a baluster-shaped breech pinned to a walnut stock, a
curved banana-shaped, rounded lock bearing a single (internal)
bridle, heavy brass furniture, a wooden ramrod, plus raised stock
carving around the lock and sideplate. The arm was issued without a
nosecap, although some regiments added a brass end band. Its total
length was approximately 62". After the War of Jenkins Ear commenced
in 1739, a special effort was made to replace most of the remaining
non-conforming “colonel’s” muskets with this 1730
design.
Long Land Pattern 1742:
As the fighting
expanded into the War of the Austrian Succession (ending in 1748),
this updated version added an exterior bridle joining the lock’s
flashpan and frizzen screw, introduced a new trigger guard, reduced
the raised stock carving, and defined the final beavertail shape
carved around the barrel tang. Its basic form remained unchanged.
These 1730 and 1742 Patterns were the primary British infantry
firearms used in America during the French and Indian War
(1754-1763).
Long Land Pattern
1756: In the late
1740s, further im-provements were initiated based upon wartime
experience. They were incorporated into this last of the three Long
Land Brown Besses and included: a steel button-head ramrod now
accompanied by a lengthened 4" upper rammer pipe having a flared
front opening; the former banana-shaped lock was straightened along
its bottom edge; and the raised stock carvings (including the
forward hand hold) were further reduced. A cast brass nose cap at
the end of the fore-end was also adopted. The 1756 Long Land musket
experienced most of its North American usage in the Revolutionary
War.
Short Land Brown Bess
(“Second Pattern”):
This second and shorter of the two Land Pattern categories
is best defined in three stages: The Marine or Militia, 1768 and
1777 patterns.
Marine or Militia
Pat-tern 1756 and 1759:
The need for a lower cost
musket to arm the Marines and English militia led to the adoption of
this arm in 1756. It retained the Brown Bess form, but reduced the
barrel to 42" (still in .75 cal.), used a wooden ramrod and
economized further by omitting the nose cap, tail pipe and
escutcheon. Moreover, the rounded sideplate shape of the Long Land
design was now flattened while the prior 6" long brass butt tang was
shortened to 3 3/4" and included a distinctive upper screw
head. In 1759, it was upgraded by
replacing the earlier version’s wooden ramrod with a steel
button-head form and adding a tailpipe, nose cap and lengthened
upper pipe.
Short Land Pattern
1768: The British
infantry was already leaning toward a shorter arm. (Many 4" sections
of sawed-off Long Land barrels have been excavated from French and
Indian War sites.) Impressed with the success of the Marine or
Militia musket, they adopted the 42" barrel to create a new Short
Land standard infantry Brown Bess in 1768. This configuration
retained many features of the previous Long Land Pattern 1756
design, but with the reduced 42" barrel length, flattened side
plate, shortened butt tang (no top screw) and reduced stock
carving.
Short Land Pattern
1777:
As an adjustment to wartime demands, two changes were
authorized for the Short Land Brown Bess in 1777. A less expensive
lock then specified for the private East India Co. was adopted and
the second ramrod pipe was changed from the previous barrel shape to
a straight sloping profile with an expanded front opening (“Pratt’s
Improvement”) already in use.
The
Brown Bess’s Role in the American
Revolution: As with
any country suddenly involved in a war, the American Colonies in
1775 had to acquire a great number of arms quickly. Their immediate
supply was already in the militia system of each state that required
men from 16 to 60 years of age to own a longarm plus a bladed
secondary arm such as a sword, bayonet or belt axe. Those and other
flintlocks they pressed into service included a broad mixture of
various locally made hunting and military designs using assorted old
and new parts, commercial arms contracted from private makers,
inventories of provincial arsenals, confiscated Loyalist arms, state
purchases of spare guns from civilians, surplus supplies from
European dealers and muskets issued here by the British during prior
wars. These latter arms were largely obsolete and repaired arms, and
in many cases were vintage Dutch, Liege and other European
cast-offs. Thus, the few Brown Besses initially in American hands
were usually worn versions of the early Long Land 1730 and 1742
designs, which were later supplemented by at least 17,000 more
recent patterns captured during the conflict (Moller, Ref. 5).
The convex brass side plate shape (top) with its
distinctive tail appeared on all three Long Land patterns
(1730 example shown). Beginning with the Marine or Militia
musket in 1756 and through the subsequent Short Land
configurations, the original design (bottom) continued but
with a flat surface. |
The majority of locally
manufactured rebel arms followed the English pinned barrel format
prior to the heavy import of French and other European military aid
beginning in 1777, which supplied most of the Continental Line for
the remainder of the war. Yet the Brown Bess remained a major share
of the arms carried by provincial forces through 1783—both as
complete muskets and as surviving components remounted on the large
number of locally assembled American arms.
At the beginning of hostilities, the Royal forces had at
least 5,200 muskets in storage mostly in New York and Quebec
(Bailey, Ref. 1,2). They were primarily wooden ramrod Long Land
1730s and 1742s. Most active British regiments here were equipped
with the later 1756 version having the steel ramrod. Through the
war’s first two years, the Long Land remained the primary British
arm in America, and earlier wooden ramrod patterns were normally
given to Loyalist units or as replacements to Hessian troops. Some
Short Land muskets arrived early with a few of the new regiments
from Britain, and they became the British army’s principal arm after
1777. The English carbines and fusils, although not covered in this
article, usually adopted the Brown Bess configuration in reduced
dimensions. During the Amer-ican
Revolution’s eight years, England produced more than 218,000 Land
Service longarms and contracted for another 100,000 of the Short
Land Pattern 1777 from Liege and German sources after France entered
the hostilities in 1778 (Bailey, Ref, 1,2). Created as the beginning
of a new system for standardization and quality control, these
venerable Brown Bess muskets became the workhorse that was
instrumental in determining the future of North America and much of
the world. Today, they remain as icons reminding us as collectors
and historians of the courage and sacrifices during those formative
years of our heritage. Special
appreciation is extended to Joseph C. Devine for his generosity in
photographing the arms for this article at his J.C. Devine, Inc.,
facilities. |