Guns on the Early Frontiers

About the Book

This is an account of the guns which, in the hands of Indians, trappers, and soldiers, helped shape the history of the American West. Much more than a descriptive record of gun types, the volume also relates the guns to the people who made, sold, and used them, and to the momentous events of westward expansion that were often strongly influenced by the gun trade.

Guns on the Early Frontiers is concerned particularly with the arms used in the West during the first half of the nineteenth century, but since the guns used in the earlier settlement of the eastern half of the continent were the antecedents of the western arms, these too are discussed, together with the significant European influences which affected both the mechanisms of guns and the politics of the traders of guns.

The guns of the fur traders or "mountain men," the Hudson's Bay fuke or "Northwest gun," the rifles and other arms of traders and soldiers-all are treated in detail. Ammunition and small cannon are also covered, and the more important guns and the features of particular significance in identifying guns are illustrated. A thoroughly documented record is given of such intriguing matters as the determination of the Indian to obtain the exact guns of his own choosing and how this choice affected specifications and trademarks. Here also is the story of how different arms competed; why the musket never was displaced by the rifle in the esteem of the early nineteenth-century red man; how the flint persisted on the frontier long after the percussion method of firing was perfected; why the light, short carbine displaced long-barreled arms in the West; how the first users of early repeating arms struggled to win acceptance for the improved guns in the U.S. Ordnance Bureau; and how the breechloader and the formidably effective revolving arms were eventually the means of the white man's domination over the horse-riding Indians of the Plains.

This authoritative history of frontier firearms will appeal to the reader interested in American lore, to historians and students of guns, and to private arms collectors everywhere.

Carl P. Russell (1894-1967) was formerly Superintendent of Yosemite National Park, and earlier spent many years in Washington, D. C., as Chief Naturalist in charge of Park Service naturalist programs, geology, wildlife, and museums. The National Park Service has important gun collections in a number of its museums. Dr. Russell collected information on guns for twenty-six years, and this volume is notable among gun books for its thoroughness in identifying the guns used on America's moving frontiers and for its careful and objective documentation.

Guns on the Early Frontiers was first published in 1957.