American Rifle - Alexander Rose [229]
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34. Lukens to Shaw, September 13, 1775, printed in Commager and Morris, Spirit of ’Seventy-Six, pp. 156–57;Washington, General Orders, September 13, 1775; September 11, 1775. Lukens and the official records give slightly different numbers for the mutineers: Lukens says there were 32, the general orders, 33. I have used the latter.
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35. See the account in “Extract of a Letter from Cambridge, Dated July 31,” in Pennsylvania Gazette, August 9, 1775, p. 2.
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36. Washington to Congress, April 22, 1776.
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37. In Remembrancer, 1776, quoted in Higginbotham, Daniel Morgan, p. 39n15.
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38. M.J.P.Y.R.G. du M. Lafayette, Memoirs, Correspondence, and Manuscripts of General Lafayette . . . (London: Saunders and Otley, 1837), p. 1:252.
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39. H. B. Gill, The Gunsmith in Colonial Virginia (Williamsburg and Charlottesville: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation/University Press of Virginia, 1974), p. 34.
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40. “Letter from Richard Peters to Maryland Committee of Safety,” October 26, 1776, in Force, American Archives, 5th ser., II, col. 1247.
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41. On the gunpowder mills of the time, see J. L. Bishop, E. T. Freedley and E. Young, A History of Manufactures from 1608 to 1860 . . . (Philadelphia: Edward Young & Co., 1861–64), pp. 23–25n1.
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42. N. L. York, “Clandestine Aid and the American Revolutionary War Effort: A Reexamination,” Military Affairs 43, no. 1 (1979), pp. 26–30; on the number of muskets produced each month, see Wright, “Some Notes on Continental Army,” p. 87.
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43. J. E. Hicks and F. P. Todd, “United States Shoulder Arms, 1795–1935,” Journal of the American Military History Foundation, 1, no. 2, pt. 2 (1937), pp. 75–79. Over the course of the War, while French-made imports were overwhelmingly Charlevilles, there were some muskets made as long before as 1718 and a few as recently as 1777. See Wright, “Some notes on Continental Army,” p. 87. See also J. E. Hicks, Notes on United States Ordnance: Small Arms, 1776 to 1940 (Mount Vernon, N.Y.: James E. Hicks, 1940), plate 2.
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44. York, “Clandestine Aid and American Revolutionary War Effort,” pp. 26–30. Regarding the vital importance of these military supplies to the victory at Saratoga, see O. W. Stephenson, “The Supply of Gunpowder in 1776,” American Historical Review 30, no. 2 (1925), p. 281.
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45. Wright, Continental Army, p. 68.
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46. Thus General Muhlenberg told Washington that his “whole regiment consists at present of riflemen; and the campaign we made to the southward last summer fully convinced me that on a march, where soldiers are without tents, and their arms continually exposed to the weather, rifles are of little use. I would therefore request your Excellency to convert my regiment into musketry.” Muhlenberg to Washington, February 23, 1777, in H. A. Muhlenberg, The Life of Major-General Peter Muhlenberg of the Revolutionary Army (Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1849), pp. 72–74.
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47. G. Johnston (Washington’s aide-de-camp) to Muhlenberg, March 9, 1777, in Muhlenberg, Life of Peter Muhlenberg, p. 354.
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48. Washington, General Orders, June 13, 1777. See also Wright, Continental Army, p. 108; Higginbotham, Daniel Morgan, pp. 55–57.
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49. Washington to Morgan, June 13, 1777.
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50. Washington to Morgan, August 16, 1777.
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51. On Gates at Monongahela, see G. A. Billias, “Horatio Gates: Professional Soldier,” in Billias, ed., George Washington’s Generals (New York: William Morrow, 1964), pp. 81–82.
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52. “Riflemen, as riflemen only, are a very feeble foe and not to be trusted alone any distance from camp; and at the out-posts they must ever be supported by regulars, or they will constantly be beaten in, and compelled to retire,” judged one contemporary. On this subject, see G. Hanger, Colonel George Hanger, to all sportsmen, and particularly