The Brown Boss

Anyone who has read the history of Bedford and Bedford County could not fail to discover that in the late 1750's to the late 1770's both were under the rule of the British. The fort at Bedford was occupied by the British. However, in our searches we have failed to find any mention of the types of weapons these soldiers carried. Recently we came across the history of the Brown Bess. What was a Brown Bess, and why was it so named? The Brown Bess was a military musket. It was about a .75 caliber weapon which was the standard firearm of the British Army dating back early in the 18th century. It had the reputation of being "The gun that won an empire".

Historians in most part do not agree as to the real reason for the name of Brown Bess. One school seems to believe the 'brown' came from the fact that the barrel had a deep brown cast. The other thought it came from the brown wooden stock. Bess was thought to be an affectionate nickname, yet another thought it was a derivation from the German word 'Busche' which meant 'gun'.

The Brown Bess was carried by the soldiers in 1755 when General Burd cut his road from Carlisle with the intentions of meeting the Braddock trail. Forbes' and Bouquet's soldiers also carried the Brown Bess musket in 1757 and 1758 as well as in 1764. All weapons were flintlocks, with the exception of the very first issues which were matchlocks. They were fired by touching the powder with a glowing match. In the 1600-1610 period a French gunmaker invented a flintlock musket. The platelock was a very complicated one but found to be far safer than the matchlock.

A chip of flint was held between the two jaws of the striker. When the trigger was pulled, the flint scraped downward on the face of an U-shaped piece of steel, called the frizzen, sometimes written fizzen. Sparks were formed which fell into small cup located on the outside of the barrel that contained a fine-grain powder which instantly ignited. The force of the explosion in the cup or pan entered the small hole in the barrel thus igniting the powder in the barrel. Most flints were good for at least a dozen firings, but there were flints that lasted longer. It depended upon the composition or degree of hardness of the flint.

To load a Brown Bess, the soldier had to place the hammer, holding the flint at halfcock. Most of the soldiers usually prepared powder charges in a round paper roll, resembling our modern cartridges. These were carried in a leather bag, with a strap over his shoulder. When he prepared his musket he held one end of the paper cartridge between his teeth, ripping one end off and poured the powder into the muzzle, with just a pinch of powder poured into the flash pan. A lead ball was forced down the barrel to the powder by using a thin iron rod. The paper which held the powder was used as a wadding to hold the ball and powder in place.

These muskets in the 1725 period had a barrel 45 inches long, with the barrel being thicker at the muzzle end where the pressure was the greatest. On top of the barrel was a small metal block. This was for holding a bayonet which had a tubular socket wide enough to slip over the muzzle of the barrel. With a twist of the bayonet it was made secure to the metal lug.

Even though the Indian warrior could fire almost a dozen arrows to one firing from a Brown Bess, and the colonists, in the 1770's could fire their Pennsylvania Rifles on the run, both were in greater fear of the shiny bayonet than they were of the muzzle and the bullet.

Perhaps the greatest concentration of Brown Bess muskets in the United States is in Williamsburg, Virginia. We saw many types of Brown Bess muskets in the Tower of London in London, England. The Brown Bess muskets were made by the Tower of London as a governmental project. The lock plates, we noticed, had 'Tower' stamped on them as well as a crown. We also noticed some muskets had letters stamped under the crown. We inquired from several of the guards present what the letters represented. Much to our surprise they were unable to tell us.

The letters "G.R." indicated the musket was made during the Reign of King George, while "W.R." stood for William IV (1830), and in 1837 the letters were changed to "V.R."-Queen Victoria's Reign. The practice of showing the letters and the year of manufacture was discontinued later.

The first Brown Bess model, also known as the Long Land pattern was 62 inches long, with no rear sight. This was the model that was used during the seven years war (17561763), and the type was used by the soldiers under Forbes and Bouquet while they were stationed here at Fort Bedford. It was also this same model that was used throughout the Revolution (1776-1781).

Much to our surprise many of our colonial gunmakers copied this musket in order to build up their own supply of firearms. The Brown Bess was a very cumbersome weapon. Even with the previous prepared powder charges, the best trained soldier could not fire more than three shots per minute, and the weapon was by no means as accurate as the Colonial rifle.

In 1807, a Scottish minister, Maynard Forsyth, became interested in the field of chemistry. In his experiments, he discovered a new system, of firiearm ignition. This became known as the percussion method. It was to revolutionize the design of all firearms within a decade. Instead of the complicated method of the lockplate and gooseneck jaws with flint chips, as well as the fizzen plate and flashpan, we now find that a small nipple was drilled into the barrel. A small copper cap containing an explosive substance was placed on the nipple. By means of a hammer released by the trigger mechanism, the copper cap is struck, igniting the explosive mixture, which ignites the powder in the barrel. This improvement was, at first, not acceptable by the gunmakers, but soon they began to see the advantages of the percussion method over the flintlock.

The British Army by 1830 found the simplest solution to maintaining the Brown Bess muskets was to remove the cock with the gooseneck holding the flint and replace it by a solid hammer. The fizzen and flash pan were also removed from the platelock and the nipple was screwed into the barrel. Within seven years the Brown Bess was replaced by the New Brunswick rifle which contained a percussion lock.

Today the Brown Bess is much sought after by gun collectors. I do not know of a single Brown Bess existing in Bedford County. It did not take the gunmakers of the American Colonists long to adopt the percussion mechanism on their rifles. However, a few gunmakers continued to make flintlocks but only upon the requests of their customers. Today gunmakers are making a few flintlocks in both the Pennsylvania Rifle and the Brown Bess muskets. Occasionally gun collectors will find a few original flintlock weapons at gunshows with a fancy price shown on the tag.