“Until the Netherlands was drawn into war with Britain on the side of France and Spain, the carefully neutral Dutch Republic was better known for its weapons than its tulips.”
By John Danielski
PRIOR TO ITS entry in the American War of Independence in 1780 on the side of the Rebels, the mercantilist Dutch Republic made excellent money selling weapons to both sides.
Although initially in the conflict, most Americans used the British Brown Bess (either imports or domestic copies), a sizeable number of Dutch long arms were also in service with the Continental Army. Some were hybrids; using locks and metal parts scavenged from old Dutch muskets and mated to American stocks of walnut, beech, chestnut, or maple. Even after 1778 and the formal alliance with France’s King Louis XVI and the subsequent adoption by the Continental Army of the French Charleville musket (and American reproductions), Dutch military hardware continued to play a key role with the Rebel militia.
While there is no exact count of how many were used in Revolutionary War, a muster list of the Hyde County New York Militia in 1783 suggests that their use was widespread. Indeed, fully one third of those troops were armed with Dutch muskets.
Agents of Ben Franklin bought 2,000 Dutch muskets that were delivered to Massachusetts in 1777: many are labelled either “Thone Amsterdam” or “Tomson” on the lock plates. Not long after, agents of South Carolina purchased a sizeable quantity in Rotterdam. A good number were Seven Years War surplus and not in the best of condition; giving Dutch muskets an undeserved reputation for unreliability.
Until the Netherlands was drawn into war with Britain on the side of France and Spain, the carefully neutral Dutch Republic was better known for its weapons than its tulips. The 31,000 German troops hired by George III – representing six different states but lumped together by Americans under the catchall term “Hessians” – were often armed with Dutch muskets. When Hessian troops under General John Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga in 1777, 1,200 of their captured muskets were used to rearm the Massachusetts militia.
In 1778, the British government contracted with the gunsmiths of Liege for 100,000 Brown Bess copies. Though that city was not in the Seven United Provinces of the Dutch Republic, its products were referred to as Dutch. Dutch muskets were chiefly made in the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Maastricht and Utrecht as well as another city outside of the Dutch Republic’s boundaries, Namur.
Dutch muskets generally had one of two appearances. In the those made before 1750, the barrel was held to the walnut stock by pins. The weapon was usually just over five feet long with a 46-inch barrel, and had a caliber varying from .72 to .80. The lock plate was banana-shaped, the side plate serpentine, and the cock was a rounded, goose-neck affair. The buttstock had a high comb, narrow waist, and was more squared at its rear than either a British or French musket. The front finial of the trigger guard often ended in an arrow shape. Its design had strongly influenced the appearance of both the British Brown Bess prior to 1730 and the Prussian Potsdam musket of 1740: unsurprising since both armies regularly awarded significant contracts to Dutch gun-makers.
In the second variant, generally made after 1750, the barrel was held to the stock by three brass bands; one in place of a nose-cap, one round the middle of the barrel, and one at the swell of the stock. These specimens showed characteristics of the French infantry musket models of 1746, 1754, and 1774; having a flat, throat hole cock, straighter side plate, and sometimes one or more retaining springs behind the barrel bands. The end of the buttstock is less squared, the comb is lower, and the wrist is a little wider than in earlier pinned specimens. These muskets were usually around .69 caliber, featured a barrel of from 39 to 42 inches, and were 55 to 59 inches in overall length.
Dating Dutch muskets can sometimes be a problem as older variants were still being made in small numbers as late as 1790.
Quite a few Dutch muskets used in the Revolution passed through the Dutch Island of St. Eustatius in the West Indies. Substantial quantities of gunpowder accompanied them. Being a free port, it was not subject to British blockade and attracted lots of American merchant ships. Dutch guns were paid for with American lumber, dried fish, rice and tobacco. When Britain’s Admiral Rodney finally shut down the port in 1780, he discovered that in the years 1778 to 79, 3,200 ships had passed through it; an average of eight per day. He also discovered 57 British merchants among the population who had been secretly trading with the Americans.
This author purchased a musket recently that illustrates the problems of dating and discerning the provenance of Dutch weapons. Though the musket is probably at least as old as the Revolutionary War, it may well have been made much earlier. It has a 46-inch barrel but is .69 caliber. Though it features three barrel-bands, closer examination reveals that it had started life as a pinned musket. Most puzzlingly, it has three proof marks on the barrel that four trusted 18th century firearms experts could not identify; a crown over a C I with a small fleur-de-lis below, a Maltese cross, and an elaborate capital ‘R’ with a crown above. There is also a small Maltese cross carved into the buttstock.
After much research, this author discovered that the crown over the C I likely stands for Carl I, the Duke of Brunswick from 1735-1780. As many as 6,000 of his soldiers were hired out to the British in January 1776 and a number of them were captured at Saratoga in October 1777. Since the musket was originally found in a Massachusetts attic, it could well be this gun was one of the 1,200 muskets used to rearm Bay State militia after Burgoyne’s surrender.
The Maltese Cross was a symbol of the Huguenots in the 18th century. Famous for their skill as craftsmen, more than 60,000 had fled to the Protestant Netherlands after Louis XIV had revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685. The cross and fleur-de-lis argue that this weapon was probably made by a Huguenot gun smith under a contract from the Duke of Brunswick. The stylized R suggests he worked in Rotterdam.
The Duke of Brunswick recruited many foreigners for his soldiers. Probably at least one user of the weapon was a Huguenot: he is likely the author the carved Maltese Cross on the buttstock.
Dutch muskets are often treated as mere background scenery in discussions of the American Revolution; little noted and seldom remarked upon. They may lack the reputation of Brown Besses and Charlevilles, but they performed yeoman service and were employed in nearly every battle of the war. Their main recognition problem may just be one of words: they simply lack an easily remembered nickname.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Danielski is the author of the Tom Pennywhistle series of novels about a Royal Marine officer in the Napoleonic Wars. Book six, Bombproofed, has just been released. Book five of the series, Bellerophon’s Champion: Pennywhistle at Trafalgar, was published by Penmore Press last year. Check out all his books on Amazon.
One of the worst written articles about the subject ever written. Full of errors. Please don’t take the content for granted.