The American Revolution, from a New Hampshire perspective, was saved in part by the French made Charleville Musket?

The French invested muskets in the American Revolution with the 1763 Charleville Musket. It eventually became the most abundant battle weapon of New England Soldiers after the 1777 American win at the Battle of Saratoga. Many Brown Bess Muskets were owned by Minute Men (adult males as British law required), but as the war got under way there were not enough Brown Bess Muskets to go around in New Hampshire, especially for new recruits.

Note: The Pennsylvania Rifle saw little action here in New Hampshire but has its place of honor as a sniper/”over mountain man” rifle in many battles such as the Battle of Saratoga and the Battle of the Cowpens and my hero General Daniel Morgan.

It was in 1777 that quantities of the Charleville, with Lafayette’s assistance to General Washington, arrived in Portsmouth, NH via Ship from the Charleville Armory north of Paris, France. In total, in 1777, the Continental Army eventually received 25,000 of these muskets.

Like the Brown Bess, the Charleville shown below was a smooth bore. It was a 69 caliber vs the Brown Bess (Long Land Pattern) of 75 caliber and each could support a bayonet.

Its use, like the Brown Bess, was to directly engage the British who also used the Brown Bess, force on force on the battle field at short range. It had a similar firing rate of 3 rounds a minute.

Both the Charleville Musket and Brown Bess Musket are on display at the Independence Museum in Exeter, NH. https://www.independencemuseum.org/

The Brown Bess eventually fell out of favor as the Charleville was stronger and banded with metal rings vs pin’s and many say it had a better bayonet locking ring. It became the model for which the US Government copied at the Springfield Armory as the M1795.

Accordingly, here in New Hampshire we had the Charleville and Brown Bess. If you are interested In New Hampshire during the Revolution you can go to the website below and read more.

https://www.societyofthecincinnati.org/pdf/downloads/exhibition_NewHampshire.pdf

A bit of History for you…