United States Martial Flintlocks by Robert Reilly

Table of Contents

With the publication of United States Martial Flintlocks, Robert M. Reilly completed the cycle of an illustrated history of American martial firearms, beginning with the Revolutionary War and continuing essentially through that period that ends with our war with Mexico in the mid-1840s. When taken together with the author's earlier work (United States Military Small Arms 1816-1865), every known variation of firearm from our country's beginning through the Civil War has been illustrated and described by the author ... totalling more than 1,500 illustrations.

The large format of this volume has enabled the illustrations to be displayed to their greatest advantage. Each of the shoulder arms has been rendered in one-eighth scale, while the handguns, locks and lockplates are drawn to half of their actual size all in the clear and precise manner that was Mr. Reilly's hallmark over the years. Among the most significant aspects of this work are those illustrations of every known marking variation of the lockplates of the flintlock era ... many of which appear here for the first time.

United States Martial Flintlocks, which was over fifteen years in the writing/researching, details the complete evolution of the flintlock rifle; a category essentially overlooked by earlier writers. The early musket contracts have also been thoroughly covered, including those for the so-called "assembled" muskets that were delivered under the very first U.S. musket contracts.

And possibly the most overlooked segment of American military weapons is covered in the author's chapter "Special Weapons." In this chapter, the reader will find a full discussion of all known martial blunderbusses, rampart or wall guns, and some of the most unusual primary and secondary martial firearms to be encountered anywhere.

The material that appears in this book's appendices will also prove of great value to the researcher, since it includes (among other things) a listing of the arms inspectors of the American flintlock era, a discussion of the major parts of these early weapons, along with a brief coverage of the basic types of bayonets that relate to them.

There can be little doubt that this work has become a standard in its field, filling a substantial gap in military Americana. Beyond question, it is a volume that has been eagerly sought after and consulted by curators and historians as well as collectors of firearms.