Period Quotes Concerning Riflemen's Equipment

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EQUIPMENT

"Their guns, having rifled barrels five feet long, are much too heavy for one to aim well without support. They have a kind of cartridge box, from which hangs a powder horn and in which is a wooden frame holding twenty-three cartridges."
- Revolution in America; Confidential Letters and Journals 1776-1784 of Adjutant General Major Baurmeister of the Hessian Forces, Translated by Bernhard A. Uhlendorf, Lib. of Congress # 57-6221

"I have formed two companies of grenadiers to each regiment, and with spears of 13 feet long. Their rifle (for they are all riflemen) slung over their shoulders, their appearance is formidable, and the men are conciliated to the weapon. I am likewise furnishing myself with four-ounced rifle-amusettes, which will carry an infernal distance; the two-ounced hit a half-sheet of paper 500 yards distant."
-Charles Lee, Letter to George Washington, 1776.

"Sirs: I am favor'd with yours of the 16th. The Spears have come to hand, and are very handy and will be useful to the Rifle Men. But they would be more conveniently carried, if they had a sling fixed to them, they should also have a spike in the but end to fix them in the ground and they would serve as a rest for the Rifle. The iron plates which fix the spear head to the shaft, should be at least eighteen inches long to prevent the Shaft from being cut through, with a stroke of a Horseman's Sword. Only those intended for the Rifle Men, should be fixed with Slings and Spikes in the end, those for the Light Horse need neither. There will be 500 wanting for Rifle Men, as quick as possible."
- George Washington, Letter to the Board of War, 1777.

"Each man of the three companies bore a rifle-barreled gun, a tomahawk, or small axe, and a long knife, usually called a ‘scalping knife’, which served for all purposes, in the woods."
- John Joseph Henry, An Accurate and Interesting Account of the Hardships and Sufferings of That Band of Heros, Who Traversed Thru The Wilderness in the Campaign Against Quebec in 1775.