Fur Trade Axes & Tomahawks

CLICK HERE FOR LINK to a superb website with lots of Trade Axe & Tomahawk details & photos you won't find anywhere else.

Use your bayonet when hunting deer and bear

George Larrabee in an article "The Flintlock Musket in War and Peace, Part III" (Muzzleloader Magazine, March/April 1982, page 47-50) said it might be a good idea to bring your bayonet along (if you have one for your Bess or Charleville) when hunting deer and bear.

He said: "Should you knock down a big game animal, you could reload (from a prepared cartridge) and fix your bayonet before approaching the beast - of course approaching so as not to be seen, so it won't jump up and run off if only stunned.  Probing at last, if it should suddenly jump up you can dispatch it with a round, but if you suffer a misfire, with the bayonet you can stab the beast to death instead of of springing back impotently to avoid its lashing hoofs or ripping claws.  The long blade and the musket it is affixed to will give you plenty of reach."

Maybe this is a good advice given the number of close calls and injuries sustained by hunters when approaching supposedly dead deer and bears, as documented in an article "Woods Sense and Wilderness Danger" by John Woolfolk (Muzzle Blasts Magazine, September 1999, page 51-54).

Hunting Guns in Colonial America

CLICK HERE FOR LINK to an NRA American Rifleman article about Hunting Guns in Colonial America.

Are you throwing your tomahawk far enough?

In the Lyman Draper Manuscript 9S:36-37 - John Cuppy recalled: "Spies often practiced before going on a scout, shooting at a mark, throwing their tomahawks and sticking them in a tree [at] two or three rods and jumping over fences."   Well, a rod measures 16.5 feet, so two or three rods is 33 to 49.5 feet.  Many reenactors today throw their tomahawks from 14 to 18 feet.  Maybe that's way too short in comparison to how far tomahawks were really thrown in the old days.

Scalping During the French and Indian War

CLICK HERE FOR LINK to Scalping During the French and Indian War By George A. Bray III

Battles of the French and Indian War

CLICK HERE FOR LINK to a nice index of Battles of the French and Indian War provided by Wikipedia.

Lord Jeffrey Amherst's germ warfare

CLICK HERE FOR LINK to Lord Jeffrey Amherst's letters discussing germ warfare and usage of dogs against American Indians.

Rogers' Rangers dogs

A paragraph in THE HISTORY OF ROGERS RANGERS, VOLUME I by BURT GARFIELD LOESCHER says:  "Several of Rogers Rangers had dogs (particularly the officers) who accompanied them on their scouts and in their battles.  These dogs were useful in these Bloodhound Scouts as well as fighting the enemy in battle.  Cadet William Stark, who became a Captain in Rogers Rangers in 1758, had a Wolf Dog named Sergeant Beaubier, who became famous.  He accompanied Stark on all his Ranging expeditions and was present in several of the Rangers' Indian battles, and it is said, assisted in the destruction of more of them, than any individual of the Corps.  When he became a Ranger Captain, Stark returned "Sergeant Beaubier" on his muster roll, and drew pay and rations for him."

Notes on the Settlement and Indian Wars of the Western Parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania from 1763 to 1783

CLICK HERE FOR LINK to Notes on the Settlement and Indian Wars of the Western Parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania from 1763 to 1783 by Doddridge, Joseph, 1769-1826

Journal of Major Robert Rogers - Rogers, Robert, 1731-1795

CLICK HERE FOR LINK to Journal of Major Robert Rogers - Rogers, Robert, 1731-1795

A battle fought on snow shoes : Rogers' Rock, Lake George, March 13, 1758 (1917)

CLICK HERE FOR LINK to a battle fought on snow shoes : Rogers' Rock, Lake George, March 13, 1758 (1917) by MARY COCHRANE ROGERS Great-Great-Granddaughter of. Major Robert Rogers.