Customer Reviews

Muskets of the Revolution and the French & Indian Wars

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Muskets Of The Revolution And The French & Indian Wars is an extensive reference, history, and discussion of the smoothbore longarm musket as used in Early America. Covering British, French, Dutch, German, Spanish and American weapons, Muskets of the Revolution is filled with black- and-white photographs of sample muskets on virtually every page, and the thoroughly researched and detailed history is supplemented with footnotes, a bibliography, and an index. A "must-have" resource for collectors, historians and gun aficionados, Muskets Of The Revolution And The French & Indian Wars covers its topic with singular depth and brilliance.

Perhaps I am a bit spoiled having been lucky enough to acquire a copy of George Moller's American Militery Shoulder Arms but I do think that though this work is overpriced and does not measure up to that standard it is still an excellent source of information on the shoulder weapons of this period and would serve as an excellent companion to George Neuman's Battle Weapons of the American Revolution. Another great book to go with it would be the excellent work of Flintlock Fowlers by Tom Grinslade. Its own section on Colonial fowlers though good would be well augmented. It also provides insights into some of the fighting men of the period. It certainly could use a little work on the French section as well as German but none the less is an excellent book.

It would have been a much better book with color illustrations and comparison photos of different locks close together, but it is still a very good book on this subject and I recommend it.

I genuinely enjoyed this book. The author chose many muskets to describe where the piece could be traced to a unit or sometimes an individual. The battles that these units fought in are briefly described and are traced to the likelyhood of the place of their use or possible capture, due to where the muskets were found or purchased, or the date that units were captured or left campaigning. This illustrations would have been nice in color, but this is not neccesary. What I like is the fact that each musket chosen for inclusion comes with a story. I have had enough of books that give all of the statistics, but tell you nothing of the history of the weapons pictured. To know the likely history of each piece is fascinating. I have several weapons that have a story to tell, but no markings let me know where they were or who used them. This book gives these weapons a voice.