Maryland Council of Safety Musket

The Laurens County Museum is excited to have in its collection a Revolutionary-era musket, which can be viewed as part of its ongoing "Life & Liberty in Laurens County" exhibit. Below, explore insights about the musket from historian Durant Ashmore:

 

While the vast majority of Revolutionary War muskets were either British Brown Bess or French Charleville, the Maryland Council of Safety musket at the Laurens County Museum is one of the very few muskets made in America.

In 1776 the nascent state of Maryland commissioned 10 local gunsmiths to produce 20 muskets a month. The firelocks and many of the barrels were made in England and then assembled in America. This musket was made with a walnut stock for one of at least six Maryland officers with the initials E. H. in 1776-78. We know it is this time period because the escutcheons are brass. Escutcheons are plates on the stock for emblems, nameplates, etc. Starting in 1779, escutcheons were iron. 

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In his research of the Council of Safety musket, Ashmore discovered a letter to John Unseld, who had apparently failed to follow through on his contract with the Maryland Council of Safety: 

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"Twenty nine Muskets very roughly made with Pickers and Wipers and one Bullet Mould have been delivered but not one Bayonet. The Residue of the Arms and the Bayonetts &c are immediately wanted, the Province has been greatly disappointed by your Non Compliance with your Contract, We therefore require you will immediately send them on Pain of answering all the evil Consequences that may ensue. “