Flintlock Firearms And Muzzle Loaders

 At Curtiss House

By Dottie Evans

James Cook of Milford paid a visit Sunday afternoon to the Matthew Curtiss House at 44 Main Street and led a living history demonstration of antique firearms for a number of interested onlookers. The event was sponsored by the Newtown Historical Society, the group that has owned the museum home since the 1960s. The date of the Main Street landmark has been set at approximately 1750.

It could not have been easy for Mr Cook to transport his large collection of numerous, very heavy muzzle-loading guns to Newtown, but they were carefully laid out on long tables in the historic back kitchen. Each one was a replica of firearms that would have been used in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Even Mr Cook’s clothes were weightily authentic, custom made in the style of 1759 red and black wool Montgomery Highlander garb.

“Men had to be strong in those days. Their wool clothing weighed at least 15 pounds, and they carried another 15 pounds of accoutrements –– haversack, sword, belly box cartridge holder, and canteen. Then you add the 15-pound musket and whatever the provisions they carried, and you’ve got a tremendous load to shoulder in the heat of battle. I don’t know how they did it.”

As he displayed the guns, he described the process of construction. The metal gunlocks were made and cast from a mold, and Mr Cook’s career experience as a machinist and machine tool operator for AVCO had clearly played a large role in his craft.

“It might take me about six months to finish one gun if I worked nonstop on it. But I don’t do it that way. I’ve got guns hanging on my wall from the 1970s that I still haven’t finished,” he said.

Mr Cook grew up in Bridgeport. He was motivated to build his first flintlock rifle in the late 1960s when he decided he wanted to learn how this type of old gun would shoot. A continuing desire to construct a better rifle has made building rather than shooting his primary interest.

“I often compete in shooting matches, and my favorite gun is the 1750 blunderbuss,” he added.

Most of the muzzle-loaders on display were highly finished and smooth to the touch.

“I’ve probably overpolished these wooden stocks. In the old days, they didn’t have sandpaper so the appearance would have been rougher.”

 “Show us how they fired the guns,” said one little boy, no doubt hoping for something loud and exciting to happen in the Curtiss House’s dark kitchen.

Mr Cook picked up a flintlock musket that might have been used by a British office in the Revolutionary War.

“Everything was by command. You stood in a line, raised your gun to your shoulder, pointed in the general direction of the enemy and pulled the trigger. You were not supposed to aim at anyone in particular. If you did, you were considered a murderer.

“The way people thought at that time was that God directs everything so if you got hit, it was God’s will. When the Americans were taking deliberate aim to take down British officers, the British were outraged. And the Americans were succeeding because they had been shooting to kill game and to kill Indians. They knew how to hit targets.”

Mr Cook explained that the British did figure out how to counter this tactic, however.

“A musket, which can hit a target at 40 to 60 yards, takes a long time to reload. So they would wait until the Americans finished firing their first round, and then they would charge in with their bayonets and finish them off.”

By the time of the Civil War, rifled muskets had been invented, Mr Cook added, so men standing in the traditional lines of battle were mowed down from a distance of 600 to 800 yards.

“They also used miniball bullets, which were fast-loading and elongated so they spread out upon impact and shattered bone, which was devastating. That’s what led to so many amputations,” he added.

“To avoid the miniball muskets, the Civil War soldiers eventually turned to trench warfare, a tactic that was still in use by World War I.”