Shooting Accessories
Gunflints
Members of the colonial militia were required to provide spare gunflints for their firearms. Flints had to be replaced periodically,as every encounter with the lock's steel frizzen resulted in chipping and fracturing of the stone. Ten flints examined from the site were manufactured in a French spall style. These flints were black to grey-black, mottled in colour and small, measuring from 2.2 to 3.2 cm in width and from 2.0 to 3.2 cm in height. Five of the flints contained evidence of chipping on the striking edge, which could be interpreted as indicative of use. The remaining five possessed rough blades acquired through manufacture rather than use. Found in the same lot as one of the cartridge pouches, these flints may represent spares.
Load-carrying gear
Twenty-six artifacts have been identified as elements of load-carrying gear. This category is extemely valuable in that it reveals the accoutrements accommodated, and their arrangement in period battle order. Two distinct systems, bandoliers and cartridge boxes, were detected in the analysis of the artifacts from the site.
Bandoliers
Remnants of at least two bandoliers are represented. Powder and shot were carried as separate elements in this system, which consisted of twelve small, leather-covered, vial-shaped containers suspended from a wide, leather cross-belt by means of two small cords extending through two holes in the body and cap. Each compartment, popularly termed an “Apostle”, owing to the fact that twelve usually accompanied the bandolier, carried a premeasured musket charge. Residual, compacted black powder within the cartridge carriers indicates use at the time of deposition. Elements of a ball bag in which the shot was carried and what appears to be a brown leather frog to accommodate a bayonet, sword or, most likely, a belt axe were also associated. These bandoliers, in fashion by the early 1600s, were still in use by the time of the organization of Britain's New Model Army of the 1660s. Recovery of similar wooden “Apostles” from the Belle, one of La Salle's vessels lost off the coast of Texas in 1686, indicates the wide time range associated with this style of load-carrying gear.
Cartridge Boxes
The second load-carrying method encountered was the cartridge box, a rigid leather case probably suspended from a shoulder belt which stored prepared cartridges. Evidence of two such boxes were encountered within the collection, as well as an ensemble of cartridges which may represent the contents of such a carrier. The cartridge box assumed a rectangular shape and measured approximately 6.5 cm high by 14 to 15.3 cm in length. The container's rigidness was the result of the wood lining which was sewn to the leather interior. The flap contains a slot for a fastening, probably a button or toggle that was attached to the remaining leather thongs. Ten cylindrical and fifteen round shot were recovered in this cartridge box. Fifteen round shot made up the contents of the second cartridge box.
Cartridges
British colonial ordinances of the mid to late 17th century stipulated that members of the militia were required to maintain a cartridge pouch with a specified number of carefully prepared cartridges as part of their militia obligation. Seldom recovered intact, the cartridges from the site provide a unique opportunity to study the traditional technology of 17th-century cartridge manufacture. Cartridges consisted of a premeasured charge of granulated powder with lead shot at one end, all contained in a rolled sheet of brown paper. Cartridges prepared the powder and shot for a quick, controlled shooting process. The shooter extracted the cartridge from the pouch, bit open the lower end and poured a small amount of powder into the pan on the lock plate, an action known as “priming the pan”. With the pan cover then closed, the rest of the powder was poured into the barrel, followed by the shot and finally the paper which served as wadding. The procedure was finished by ramming the contents of the barrel with the ramrod. When the flint struck the frizzen, the action created a spark and also drove the frizzen back, simultaneously exposing the priming powder in the pan. The spark ignited this powder which spread through the barrel's touch hole, setting off the main charge which propelled the shot.
Twelve cartridges were recovered adhering to an as yet unidentified matrix. The unit undoubtedly represented the contents of a cartridge pouch similar to the kind mentioned above. The cartridges were folded neatly at both ends with the paper seam still apparent on many of those examined. Radiographs indicate that three of the intact cartridges were prepared with an additional lead ball which provided extra fire power.
Shot
Numbering in excess of 1 000, lead shot constituted the most frequently encountered type of artifact in the weapons category. Various calibres were found as well as evidence of a curious cylindrical style of shot in addition to the more conventional circular ball form (Fig. 2).
The cylindrical shot may be a form of “tumbled” shot, made by cutting or moulding lead into cubes and then tumbling them in a barrel to round off the corners. Although tumbled shot is believed to have been superseded by Rupert shot ca. 1665, examples from a site dating into the 1700s, attest to the persistence of this tumbled method of shot manufacture.
Swords
Swords are an interesting study in a colonial context as these weapons were becoming anachronistic in the wilderness campaigns of the North American continent. English colonial militia regulations of the period offered the choice of sword, bayonet or hatchet. Both sword styles recovered represent examples spanning from the last half of the 17th and early 18th centuries. The sophisticated small sword examined probably belonged to an individual of some social standing. The second style of sword encountered is indicative of a cutlass intended for shipboard use, i.e. an arm that served as a boarding sabre.
Belt Axes
One weapon that remains synonymous with warfare in North America is the belt axe, sometimes referred to as the camp axe or, popularly, the tomahawk. Axes were more suited to campaigning in the wilderness than swords and bayonets, as the former could be employed in a number of useful day-to-day functions in addition to combat. Three belt axe handles and an additional two fragments were recovered at the site. Although heads of these weapons are periodically recovered archaeologically, handles seldom survive. Two handles contain drilled holes at the base to accommodate a leather strap, one of which was recovered in situ. Two also possessed grooves for hands, which were either the result of wear or had been deliberately worked into the handles. An incised, cross-hatched decoration accompanied by the owner's initials appears on one example.
