Brown Bess Musket
name: label: maker
content: Tower
notes: label: Description
content: The British made flintlock, .71 caliber smooth bore design.
label: Description
content: British Short Land Pattern musket
label: Description
content: Brown Bess is the nickname of the British Short Land Pattern musket. It was the standard arm of the British soldier during the American Revolution. Unlike modern weapons, the musket was slow to load, inaccurate and frequently unreliable. The Brown Bess fired round lead balls, some the size of a quarter. With such an inaccurate gun, soldiers were often massed tightly together, firing a shower of lead balls at the enemy. For charges and fighting at close quarters, soldiers fixed deadly, spear-like bayonets to the ends of their muskets. There has been much conjecture as to how the “Brown Bess” came by her nickname. The walnut stock may have been an explanation for the brown. Another explanation is the russeting of the barrel, a process used to prevent corrosion which also left the barrel a rich brown color. The origins of “Bess” are much more varied. Some believe it was a reference to Queen Elizabeth I, though she had been dead more than 100 years before the rifle was standard issue. Some feel it was an illusion to a notorious highwayman whose horse was named “Black Bess.” It may have been the mispronunciation of two foreign words. The Dutch word for gun barrel is “buss” while the German for gun is “Buchse.” It could have been a simple case of poetic alliteration. In 1785 in the Dictionary of Vulgar Tongue a vernacular dictionary of the time the following entry appears: “Brown Bess, a soldier’s firelock”.
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom
label: associated place
content: United States
label: made at
content: United Kingdom: Grand Bretagne
topic: label: Subject
content: Firearms
label: related event
content: Revolution and the New Nation
setName: label: See more items in
content: Military and Society: Armed Forces History, Military
label: See more items in
content: Military
label: Exhibition
content: Price of Freedom
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Division of Military History and Diplomacy, National Museum of American History
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AF.70924M
label: accession number
content: 278301
label: catalog number
content: 70924M
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Musket
label: Other Terms
content: musket; Firearms; Flintlock; .79 In; Smooth Bore; Muzzle Load; Sa
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 61 1/4 in; x 155.575 cm