18th Century Army
A favorite firearm of this per-1800 period, and for 50 or more years thereafter, was a model we now call “The Northwest Gun.” These light fusils were made with a full stock under the round smoothbore barrel; they had an unusually large trigger guard; and the flint firing lock was the bar action type. They could shoot either a ball or shot and are generally thought of as trade guns.
The pelts of the beaver and the hides of the buffalo were major items of trade with the Indians, and inasmuch as firearms could enable the redmen to devote more time to the harvesting of pelts and hides, traders took the calculated risk of putting guns in Indian hands.
Shortly after the Louisiana Purchase in early 1803 the United States began planning to send an exploring party through this vast new domain. Captain William Clark and Captain Meriwether Lewis were chosen for this arduous adventure. They started from St. Louis on May 14, 1804, leading a party of 43 men, and were destined not to see that city again until September of 1806. With Lewis and Clark went a few of the new U.S. rifles, Model of 1803, made at Harpers Ferry. These handsome brass-mounted guns, with their short half-length forestock, hand round barrels with 54 caliber rifles carried by Americans across the continent to the west coast. Here we have a beginning of a great variety of firearms destined to serve thise with a pioneering spirit whose actions were to shape our western history.
James Bridger, one of the great guides of
The early West; founder of Fort Bridger.
Great events were in store for the first half of the 1800s, and guns were to figure importantly in almost all. The exploration of Lewis and Clark and some others had uncovered the potential of the western fur trade. In 1810 John Jacob Astor deciding this alone was a basis for expanding the American empire to the Columbia River basin. Soon St. Louis became the home of the nation’s principal fur companies.
The steamboat was a familiar sight on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and by 1820 was nosing up the Missouri, revolutionizing commerce toward the west.
Within five years the American Fur Company became a major factor in the push westward. Employed in the fur trade were great pathfinders like William Ashley, Andrew Henry, Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger, William Sublette, James Clyman, Joe Meek, Tom Fitzpatrick and kit Carson. All these men needed dependable guns – Jake and Sam Hawken of St. Louis were the men to provide them.
Sam Hawken joined his brother Jake at St. Louis in 1822 and their reputation for what became known as a sturdy “Mountain Rifle” spread rapidly. The name Hawken on a rifle was like the Sterling stamp on silver. Hawken rifles were the favorites of the bold group we call Mountain Men. Jedediah Smith carried one over his saddle when he led the first group of white men overland by the southern route, arriving at California’s San Gabriel Mission in 1826, Kit Carson owned several, one now the property of Montezuma Lodge No.1, F.&A.M., in Santa Fe, and currently on loan to the Museum of New Mexico. Another of Carson’s Hawken rifles was presented to Lt. Edward F. Beale, whose heirs later gave it to Theodore Roosevelt. It is now in the collection of the Boone & Crockett Club.
A favorite firearm of this per-1800 period, and for 50 or more years thereafter, was a model we now call “The Northwest Gun.” These light fusils were made with a full stock under the round smoothbore barrel; they had an unusually large trigger guard; and the flint firing lock was the bar action type. They could shoot either a ball or shot and are generally thought of as trade guns.
The pelts of the beaver and the hides of the buffalo were major items of trade with the Indians, and inasmuch as firearms could enable the redmen to devote more time to the harvesting of pelts and hides, traders took the calculated risk of putting guns in Indian hands.
Shortly after the Louisiana Purchase in early 1803 the United States began planning to send an exploring party through this vast new domain. Captain William Clark and Captain Meriwether Lewis were chosen for this arduous adventure. They started from St. Louis on May 14, 1804, leading a party of 43 men, and were destined not to see that city again until September of 1806. With Lewis and Clark went a few of the new U.S. rifles, Model of 1803, made at Harpers Ferry. These handsome brass-mounted guns, with their short half-length forestock, hand round barrels with 54 caliber rifles carried by Americans across the continent to the west coast. Here we have a beginning of a great variety of firearms destined to serve thise with a pioneering spirit whose actions were to shape our western history.
The early West; founder of Fort Bridger.
Great events were in store for the first half of the 1800s, and guns were to figure importantly in almost all. The exploration of Lewis and Clark and some others had uncovered the potential of the western fur trade. In 1810 John Jacob Astor deciding this alone was a basis for expanding the American empire to the Columbia River basin. Soon St. Louis became the home of the nation’s principal fur companies.
The steamboat was a familiar sight on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and by 1820 was nosing up the Missouri, revolutionizing commerce toward the west.
Within five years the American Fur Company became a major factor in the push westward. Employed in the fur trade were great pathfinders like William Ashley, Andrew Henry, Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger, William Sublette, James Clyman, Joe Meek, Tom Fitzpatrick and kit Carson. All these men needed dependable guns – Jake and Sam Hawken of St. Louis were the men to provide them.
Sam Hawken joined his brother Jake at St. Louis in 1822 and their reputation for what became known as a sturdy “Mountain Rifle” spread rapidly. The name Hawken on a rifle was like the Sterling stamp on silver. Hawken rifles were the favorites of the bold group we call Mountain Men. Jedediah Smith carried one over his saddle when he led the first group of white men overland by the southern route, arriving at California’s San Gabriel Mission in 1826, Kit Carson owned several, one now the property of Montezuma Lodge No.1, F.&A.M., in Santa Fe, and currently on loan to the Museum of New Mexico. Another of Carson’s Hawken rifles was presented to Lt. Edward F. Beale, whose heirs later gave it to Theodore Roosevelt. It is now in the collection of the Boone & Crockett Club.
