Model 1805 Rifled Flintlock Pistol
date: label: date made
content: ca 1808
name: label: maker
content: Harpers Ferry Armory
notes: label: Description
content: Physical Description:
label: Description
content: This .54 caliber rifled flintlock Model 1805/1807 Pistol was made by Harper’s Ferry. It has a round barrel with a supporting iron rib, a wooden ramrod with swelled tip, brass mountings and an iron flashpan.
label: Description
content: It is rifled with eight grooves – unlike the Harpers Ferry Model 1803 rifle with seven. The lockplate is stamped “SPRING/FIELD/1807” and “US” under an eagle. The barrel is stamped “1818” and “US”.
label: Description
content: History:
label: Description
content: Harper’s Ferry was named after Robert Harper – a mill owner – who purchased the land from Lord Fairfax in 1798. This land was personally inspected and chosen by General George Washington as the site for an armory. An Act of Congress on April 2, 1794 established the Harper’s Ferry armory in Virginia. This gun manufactory created many pistols and firearms for government use between 1796 and 1861. On April 18, 1861 however, Lt. Roger Jones – in charge of Harper’s Ferry at the time – burned the armory for fear of it falling into the hands of the Virginia militia.
label: Description
content: A .54 caliber smoothbore Harpers Ferry Model 1805 pistol was common. A rifled one is incredibly rare. The only other known rifled Model 1805 pistol is found in the Jefferson County Museum in Charlestown, West Virginia.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Flayderman, Norm. Flayderman’s Guide to Antique American Firearms…and their Values, Gun Digest Books, Iola, 2007. 9th edition.
label: Description
content: Gardner, Robert E. Col. Small Arms Makers: A Directory of Fabricators of Firearms, Edged Weapons, Crossbows and Polearms, Crown Publishers Inc, New York: 1963, p. 185.
label: Description
content: Smith, Samuel E. and Edwin W. Bitter. Historic Pistols: The American Martial Flintlock 1760-1845, Scalamandre Publications, New York: 1986, p. 178.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Military and Society: Armed Forces History, Military
label: See more items in
content: Military
label: See more items in
content: The Bitter Collection of Firearms
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: The Adriana and Edwin W. Bitter Family Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1987.0014.34
label: accession number
content: 1987.0014
label: catalog number
content: 1987.0014.34
label: serial number
content: 1818
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pistol
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel (part material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (part material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (part material)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 16 1/4 in; 41.275 cm
label: Measurements
content: barrel: 1.422 cm x 25.718 cm; 9/16 in x 10 1/8 in