Tag Archives: revolutionary war

Chatting at the Range

03 Saturday Jan 2015

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1777 Charleville

1777 Charleville

As with all niche hobbies, black powder firearms come with a particular set of requirements. A proper outdoor venue is a must. If you don’t have access to land that is free of firearms restrictions then an outdoor range is your next best option. Don’t even think about an indoor range unless the range in question doubles as a smokehouse for BBQ (no luck in finding that YET).

The closest outdoor range to my home in Marietta is Creekside firing range in Taylorsville GA. The range manager is Fred, and aside from a few good natured rate of fire jabs, Fred has been nothing but friendly and accommodating to us old school firelock folks.

Naturally, people are curious when they see the muzzle loaders. We happily answer all questions and we even promise that some of those answers are actually factually true. Here are some of the common answers to questions about the Charleville (whether they specifically ask them or not).

  1. Its a 1777 Charleville smoothbore musket. It is not a rifle. Rifles have grooved bores.
  2. This is a late Revolutionary War/Napoleonic era firearm. A few Americans as well as the French soldiers used this musket at Yorktown.
  3. French support was essential in winning the Revolutionary war. They also used this musket to conquer all of Europe (too bad it didn’t double as a space heater in Russia eh?).
  4. 50 Yards

    50 Yards

    .69 caliber.  Here is the lead ball. It’s hand made by my buddy Wesley. He used lead from wheel weights to make them.

  5. The inaccuracy of a musket is overstated. No issue hitting a target at 50 yards.
  6. It doesn’t kick as much as it shakes. 
  7. Of course you can fire it. Let me load it for you.
  8. Want to load it yourself? Ok. Don’t put too much powder in the pan. Remind me to tell you a story about that…
  9. If the spark ignites the pan but does not discharge the musket, this is called a “flash in the pan”. This is where the phrase originated from.
  10. Its heavy for a reason. This weapon also serves as a pike for defense against cavalry and other infantrymen. Thinner and lighter weapons don’t hold together well when used as a club. This is a soldiers weapon–not a hunters.
  11. Washington insisted that he Continentals be equipped with muskets because they were faster loading, sturdier, and could be fitted with bayonets. It was superior to any rifle technology at the time and was the preferred weapon of war.
  12. The flint strikes the frizzen which creates a spark that ignites the powder in the pan. The resulting fire travels through the touchhole to ignite the powder in the barrel. There is VERY little delay in this series of events.
Blowed that wood up!

Blowed that wood up!

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West of the Revolution

18 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by in Weapons of the Revolution

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worThe American Revolution was a global event and well documented. West of the Revolution by Claudio Saunt focuses its lens on the other stories of this period–namely the interactions between the old world and the new during this period of history. Even though the stories are less familiar to us, the patterns are predictable. Europeans show up on Native American soil and things go south from there.

While it is tempting to go down the well trodden path of Native American suffering and blame, it does give me pause to consider the reasons behind the catastrophe that fell on nearly every group of native peoples.

Analogies may work here, and what we see could be described as the introduction of an invasive species. But what made the Europeans so powerful and so intentionally and unintentionally destructive? Lets look at a few of the many reasons:

Technology

Eskimo boats are some of the finest naval technology at the time. Find out more about them in West of the Revolution

Eskimo boats are some of the finest naval technology at the time. Find out more about them in West of the Revolution

European military technology has often been overstated as an significant factor. Native Americans had comparable technology and numerical superiority. But naval technology is an often overlooked yet essential factor. Naval technology made the trip possible, and impressed the natives upon arrival.

This being said, Saunt also points out some impressive Native American naval technology such as Eskimo boats. These sturdy, waterproof boats took months to build and were superior to anything the Europeans had for fishing. Sadly, these boats were often sabotage targets for Europeans looking to cripple their Native American adversaries.

The Spanish brought horses to assist with colonial domination. Picture taken at the Columbus Alcazar in Santo Domingo

The Spanish brought horses to assist with colonial domination.

Horses were another piece of technology Europeans brought to the shores of America. Men riding these beasts would be a terrifying site to any Native American who never laid eyes on this uniquely European coupling. Like firearms, horses would be eventually integrated into the Native American lifestyle.

Disease

Some estimates say that after initial contact with Western ships, European diseases wiped out up to 90% of the Native American population in North America. While that number is high, consider that even a smaller number would essentially ‘clean the plate’ for Europeans who looked to colonize many years later.

Europeans had spent generations in filth that essentially culled those with lesser constitutions and created a somewhat more resistant human figure. Native Americans had no such exposure and less genetic diversity to protect themselves.

The tragedy of European diseases like smallpox, the plague, tuberculosis and even measles could not be overstated. It is one of the saddest chapters in human history and shrouded in mystery. The spirits of those who passed on took their stories to the next world, leaving us with little but vague clues and speculations.

Determination

What motivates Europeans to make a deadly trip thousands of miles away from home with a great possibility that they will never see their homeland again? One can point to two separate yet powerful motivations: greed and religion. While greed is a simple yet powerful motivator, religion is a much more complex topic.

Native Americans had very practical religion and nothing to parry the aggressive institutional Christianity that Europeans brought to their shores. Theological motivations were core to the European mind. Generations of wars over religion (religion in this case being essentially a cloak for power and cultural control) were fresh on European minds and they took this war to the natives.

Now there were certainly some who genuinely wished to bring the Good News to the natives, yet it is nearly impossible to separate the good intentions from the power and control grab. Religion at this point in history was too intwined with international politics, and the aggressive theology that sprung from it was unlike anything the Native Americans knew.

Conclusion

Technology, disease and determination are admittedly shallow and oversimplified reasons for European domination of the new world (that’s why they write books and not blogs on this topic). For more information, I suggest checking out West of the Revolution. Check out a more detailed (and professional) review here. 

Zellner History?

27 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Revolutionary War

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As a Zellner, I’ve occasionally pondered the history of the name and its obvious German roots. The curiosity never stretched beyond the cursory until my mother started digging up the family history. As it turns out, there is a strong possibility that the Zellner name can be traced back to a particular German mercenary brought over to fight in the Revolutionary War.

Zellner History

Das Ansbach-Bayreuther Infanterie

Das Ansbach-Bayreuther Infanterie

Born in Hannover Germany, George Peter Zellner (or Zöellner) came to Staten Island as an enemy of America. George was most likely a member of a 1778 contingent of reinforcements sent to the rebellious colonies to bolster the British mercenary army of Anspach-Bayreuth. Known to Americans under the blanket term of ‘Hessians’, these soldiers owed no particular allegiance to the British cause other than a shared view of Americans as a rebellious people who had turned against their rightful King.

George may of been a member of the Anspach-Bayreuth Infantry, or perhaps a member of the Jägercorps. The Jäger, (the German word for ‘Hunters’)  were light infantry troops that specialized in skirmish tactics and reconnaissance. These elite troops were an essential component of Cornwallis’ army. Mostly composed of hunters and woodsmen, these troops were well equipped to handle the heavily wooded terrain and counter the skirmish tactics of the American militia.

History of the Anspach-Bayreuth

Shortly after inheriting the Bayreuth territory, Markgraf Christian Friedrich Carl Alexander von Anspach signed a treaty on 1 February 1777 to provide troops in support of the British Army in North America. These Anspach-Bayreuth units hailed from a politically fractured region located today in modern Germany.

Screen Shot 2013-11-22 at 9.56.49 PM

Anspach-Bayreuth Standard

18th century Germany bared little resemblance to the Germany we know from more recent history. These Germanic people (as Caesar coined them), were a disjointed group of principalities that would not see any cohesion until Napoleon arrived to set the foundation of a unified state through the Code Napoleon and other administrative reforms.

As a recent inheritor of Bayreuth county, Markgraf saw an opportunity for profit from the American Revolution. However his decision to send troops across the perilous Atlantic into a foreign war would have repercussions.  The suffering endured by the troops fractured the connection between he and his people. Markgraf would eventually sell the two counties of Anspach and Bayreuth to his cousin, the King of Prussia.

Ansbach-Bayreuth Light Infantry

Ansbach-Bayreuth Light Infantry

By all accounts, the Anspach-Bayreuth troops performed admirably during the Revolution. A contingent of these troops were captured and subsequently imprisoned after Yorktown.

Like many of the German mercenaries, George Peter Zellner decided to remain in the colonies after the war. He would eventually migrate from North Carolina to Georgia. As a resident of Georgia and a bearer of George’s middle and last name, I am perhaps a representative of his lineage. I’ll probably never know for sure, but I can thank my mother’s research to bring to light this exiting possibility!

Update

Marie over at The Rasnickfamily.org shared with me a Bayreuther Zeitung newspaper clipping from 1802. It it lists the names of the Ansbach-Bayreuther troops who did not return to Germany. Sure enough Georg Peter Zollner was listed here.

Bayreuther Zeitung

Bayreuther Zeitung

Georg was a musketeer in the Ansbach regiment who hailed from Markt Erlbach. He was captured at Yorktown and “probably slipped away during the march from the Hessian Barracks in Maryland to New York where his comrades boarded ships to go home back to Germany”

Happy 4th!

03 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by in 4th of July, Revolutionary War

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Everybody has a first draft

As it it Twistification’s first Independence Day post, I thought I would start out dispelling a few of the more common myths and misunderstandings of the Revolutionary War.

  1. Despite what the header image of this site portrays, the founders were never in a single location while signing the Declaration of Independence. They were wanted men on the run. So it took even more courage to sign the document that basically guaranteed their ruin if the British won the war.
  2. George Washington crossed the Delaware river, defeated the Hessians, and was all downhill from there. George Washington’s victory over the Hessians in Trenton was a moral victory only–but a critical moral victory. The revolution was on the edge of collapse and another defeat would of sapped the revolutionary spirit and ended the war before it really began. The war slogged on for 8 years afterward, and the real tipping point was the victory at Saratoga and the subsequential French alliance.
  3. The war was mostly fought in the North. The British mounted a long southern campaign in that eventually wore them down and led to their defeat at Yorktown.
  4. The Star Spangled Banner was written during the Revolutionary War. Nope. The war of 1812. Come on, the British didn’t have rockets in 1776! Silly….
  5. The American’s won the war by using guerrilla tactics and taking cover while the British stood in the open. Certainly, skirmishing tactics were used in the war, particularly at Lexinton & Concord, but all the essential battles were fought using traditional 18th century tactics. Inaccuracy of the common musket forced soldiers to cluster together to effectively concentrate their fire. For more on this click here.

Now for some little known facts…

  1. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both passed away on the same day, July 4th, 1826. Exactly 50 years after the ratification of the Declaration of Independence.
  2. Admiral Howe, commander of the British navy at the beginning of the war, made an effort to effect peace. Howe offered pardons to all but a particular list including John Adams (he and his cousin Samuel were to be hanged).
  3. Benedict Arnold’s leadership during the battle of Saratoga was essential for the Patriot victory. Without Benedict arnold, a French alliance may never of occurred.
  4. Without Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, Common Sense, it is very likely that the Patriots would never of been able to gain enough support to win the war. It is hard to understate the impact of this document. Up until this publication many American’s were riding the fence, unable to put together enough reasons to risk their lives for the Patriot cause.

Victory in the Revolutionary War was a far from certain thing. It took many acts of fortune and luck for things to fall the way they did. Our founders were risking their lives, along with the soldiers on the lines. Even more remarkable was the creation of a new republic founded on the Constitution, but I’ll save that for another post.

Everyone have a happy 4th and remember our Veterans and active servicemen.