Gun ownership in early America: A survey of manuscript Militia returns

William and Mary Quarterly

Volumn 60, Issue 3, 2003, Pages 615-642

  Churchill, Robert H ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 17744396418     PISSN: 00435597     EISSN: 1933-769     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3491553     Document Type: Review

References (49)

1. Bellesiles, "The Origins of Gun Culture in the United States, 1760-1865, " Journal of American History, 83 (1996), 425-55,
2. Bellesiles, Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture(New York, 2000).
3. For criticism of Bellesiles's work, see James Lindgren and Justin Lee Heather, "Counting Guns in Early America, " William and Mary Law Review, 43 (2002), 1777-1842;
4. the contributions of Gloria L. Main, Ira D. Gruber, and Randolph Roth tothe "Forum: Historians and Guns, " William and Mary Quarterly, 3d Ser., 59 (2002), 211-40;
5. Robert H. Churchill, "Guns and the Politics of History, "Reviews in American History, 29 (2001), 329-37.
6. For examples of legislation from the revolutionary period establishing areporting mandate, see "An Act for Forming and Regulating the Militiawithin the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, " 1776, in Ellis Ames et al., eds., Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, 21 vols. (Boston, 1869-1922), 5:445;
7. "An Act for Regulating the Militia of the State of New York, "1778, in Laws of the State of New York, 5 vols. (Albany, 1886-1887), 1:62;
8. "An Act for Regulating and Disciplining the Militia, " 1777, in William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large, Being a Collection of allthe Laws of Virginia ..., 13 vols. (Richmond, 1809-1823), 9:267.
9. See also "An Act more effectually to provide for the National Defence, by establishing an Uniform Militia throughout the United States, "1792, in Laws of the United States of America, 3 vols. (Philadelphia, 1796), 2:92 (hereafter cited as "Militia Act of 1792").
10. On the Massachusetts militia return of 1775, see William Lincoln, ed., The Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts in 1774 and 1775(Boston, 1838), 99, 756.
11. The towns of Massachusetts returned some 21, 000 guns to the Provincial Congress in 1775. Unfortunately, the Provincial Congress did not report thenumber of militiamen returning these arms. For the returns of the New Hampshiregun census of 1775, see New Hampshire Provincial and State Papers, 40 vols.(Concord, 1867-1943), 7:724-81.
12. On the Rhode Island gun census of 1775, see the proceedings of the Rhode Island General Assembly for June 28, 1775, in John Russell Bartlett, Records ofthe Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England, 10 vols.(Providence, 1856-1865), 7:356.
13. The Connecticut returns are in the Jonathan Trumbull Papers, vol. 24, Connecticut State Archives, Hartford. For the Massachusetts returns, see the Muster Rolls of the Revolutionary War, 68:196, 69:97, in Massachusetts State Archives (Mass. Arch.), Boston.
14. These aggregate returns are reprinted in American State Papers. For the Returns of the Militia of the United States for the years 1804, 1810, and 1813, see American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congressof the United States ..., Class 5: Military Affairs, 7 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1832-1861), 1:168-72, 259-62, 331-34.
15. The receipt of state returns is usually noted in the Registers of Letters Received by the Office of the Secretary of War. A search for two dozen returnsin the relevant correspondence files turned up only a few cover letters. Thisindicates that these returns were generally separated from their cover lettersand filed separately. The files for state militia returns before 1822 are nolonger extant. See Registers of Letters Received by the Office of the Secretaryof War, Main Series, 1800-1870 (microfilm publication M22) and Letters Receivedby the Secretary of War, Registered Series, 1801-1870 (microfilm publication M221), National Archives and Records Administration, Mid-Atlantic Region, Philadelphia. After 1822, returns were filed in Returns, 1822-1902, Records Relating to the Militia Prior to the Passage of the Militia Act of 1903, RG168.2, Records of the National Guard Bureau, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D. C.
16. For Pennsylvania, see Thomas Lynch Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, 6th Ser., 7 (Harrisburg, 1852). For Georgia, see boxes 5, 64, and 65of the Telamon Cuyler Collection, 1754-1951 (MS 1170), Hargarett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia, Athens. For Ohio, see Ohio Militia Records, 1805-1848, State Archives Series 77, Archives/Library Division, Ohio Historical Center, Columbus. For Kentucky, see Military Papers, 1796-1804, Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives, Frankfort. For Tennessee, see RG21, Records of the Adjutant General, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville. I have not identified any manuscript returns for Vermont, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.
17. For a published reproduction of a gun census, see the return from New Holderness for the New Hampshire Gun Census of 1775, N. H. Provincial and State Papers, 7:757. I have not seen any evidence of post-revolutionary gun censusesor of gun censuses outside of New England.
18. "Return of the Brigade of Essex County Militia, " June 1797, folder 28, Anthony Walton White Papers.
19. Lindgren and Heather, "Counting Guns in Early America."
20. For flows of arms during the Revolution, see Bellesiles, Arming America, 182-203.
21. For an example of a Massachusetts town arming poorer militiamen, see Robert A. Gross, The Minutemen and Their World (New York, 1976), 60-61.
22. For northern arms distributions during the War of 1812, see "An Act Directing the Commissary General to Procure Arms for this State, " 1812, Vermont Session Laws, in Records of the States of the United States of America(Washington, D. C., 1949) (hereafter cited as Vermont Session Laws);
23. Annual Returns of Ordnance and Military Stores, 1800-1828, Records of the Massachusetts Adjutant General, in Mass. Arch.; "Return of Ordnance Storesbelonging to the Quartermaster General's Department, " May 1815, box 202, RG 8, Records of the Comptroller, Conn. St. Arch.; and "The Governor Reports to the Legislature the Military Conditions of the State, in The Public Papers of Daniel D. Tompkins, Governor of New York, 1807-1817, ed. Hugh Hastings, 3 vols. (Albany, 1898-1902), 3:540-47.
24. On New Jersey's peacetime distribution of 2, 000 stands of arms, see"A Supplement to the Act, intitled, 'An Act for Organizing and Training the Militia of this State, '" 1793, New Jersey Session Laws. On programs tosell arms to individual militiamen,
25. see "An Act Further to Provide for the Defence of the Frontiers, andfor Other Purposes, " 1812, New York Session Laws; "An Act to Make Appropriations for the year 1807, " 1807, South Carolina Session Laws;
26. "An Act to Alter and Amend the Militia Law of this State, and to Provide for the Arming of the Militia thereof, " 1799, Georgia Session Laws. On distributions of public arms in Pennsylvania and the South,
27. Militia returns tell us nothing about gun ownership among segments of thepopulation not liable for militia service. On gun ownership among early American women, see Lindgren and Heather, "Counting Guns in Early America."
28. Some Massachusetts towns did purchase small numbers of guns for thosemilitiamen unable to afford them. In April 1775, however, Massachusetts townsmade partial returns of 21, 549 guns in the hands of their militias, of whichjust 68 were returned as town stock. See William Lincoln, ed., Journals of Each Provincial Congress, 99, 756.
29. In Rhode Island, Gov. Cooke indicated in a letter to George Washingtonthat all of the provincial arms had been reserved for those militia called intostate service. See Nicholas Cooke to Washington, Jan. 25, 1776,
30. in Philander D. Chase et al., eds., Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 12 vols. to date (Charlottesville, 1985-), 3:185-86.
31. The New Hampshire Provincial Congress directed that towns "return aseparate account" of town stocks of arms and ammunition. None of the censusreturns indicates the presence of public arms. See N. H. Provincial and State Papers, 7:724-25.
32. In New York, the Provincial Congress recalled the public arms of theprovince in the summer of 1775 and began buying private guns to arm the first 4Continental regiments bound for Canada. See New York Provincial Congress to Lord Sterling, Dec. 6, 1775
33. in Calendar of Historical Manuscripts Relating to the War of the Revolution, 1:198-99.
34. This count of guns is drawn from the inventories published in Jones, American Colonial Wealth: Documents and Methods, 3 vols. (New York, 1977), 331-52, 403-1153. I have excluded all inventories not sufficiently detailed todetermine the presence of a gun and also inventories of female estates. Theinventories compiled by Jones demonstrate that women owned guns, but at farlower rates than men.
35. Based on my count of the inventories in Jones, American Colonial Wealth, 1155-1294, 1405-1619.
36. See Virginia Military Records (Baltimore, 1983), 449-642.
37. The degree to which the 1781-1784 returns understate prewar rates of armsownership in the piedmont is illustrated by the case of Brunswick County. Sixof the 8 detailed 1774 probate inventories from the county published by Jonescontained guns. One of the county's militia officers reported in 1781 that hehad mustered 225 men for service but found only 15 guns among them. See Jones, American Colonial Wealth, 1343-51.
38. On the social composition of the Continental army, see John Shy, A People Numerous and Armed: Reflections on the Military Struggle for American Independence (New York, 1976).
39. The statewide annual return for 1790 gives a total of 39, 208noncommissioned officers and privates in the trained band and 18, 732 in thealarm list. Together, these men brought 35, 818 muskets to the annual muster. By1794, the alarm list was excused from duty. Of 43, 602 noncommissioned officersand privates, 33, 447 brought muskets to the field. Those figures may reflect themore vigorous enforcement of the state's militia laws; they also suggest thatsome degree of generational transfer took place. See the Annual Return of the Militia of Massachusetts for 1790 and 1794, in Massachusetts Archives Collection, 294:127, 133, Mass. Arch.
40. Delaware Archives, 4:181-84, 271-76, 289-92.
41. "Abstracts from the Annual Return of the Militia of North Carolinafor the Year 1809, " AG 1, Letters, Orders, Returns, etc., 1807-1812, Records of the Adjutant General's Department, N. C. St. Arch. I have not foundany manuscript returns for South Carolina. The only detailed manuscript returnfor Georgia that has come to hand dates from 1794. In that return, the statecounted enough "rifles, muskets, and fusees" to arm 56% of itsnoncommissioned officers and privates. See "A General Statement of the Militia of the State of Georgia, 1794, " Apr. 10, 1794, box 65, folder 22, Telamon Cuyler Collection, 1754-1951, Hargarett Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
42. "Return of the Militia of the United States, " 1813, in American State Papers: Military Affairs, 1:331-34.
43. This conclusion rests on my survey of the manuscript adjutant general'srecords of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey; of Public Papers of Daniel D. Tompkins, ed. Hastings; and of all legislation relating tothe militia of the states of this region contained in the session laws of the Records of the States of the United States of America.
44. For legislation that indicates the presence of a significant stock ofpublic arms in North Carolina, see "An Act Raising the Proportion of Militia Required of this State, " 1794, North Carolina Session Laws.
45. For an example of this loophole, see "An Act to Amend and Reduceinto one Act, the Several Acts of Assembly for Regulating the Militia of this Commonwealth, " 1795, Virginia Session Laws.
46. Return of the Fourth Brigade of the Militia of Rhode Island, Sept. 28, 29, 1812, folder 18, Military Returns, Rolls, Correspondence, and Orders, 1790-1828.
47. For an illustration of the problems faced by American commissary officersduring the Revolution, see the "Return of Small Arm Cartridges in the Laboratory at Providence, " July 17, 1779, Papers of Horatio Gates, microfilm ed., reel 19, frame 214. According to this return, the store ofammunition at the laboratory held 210, 000 cartridges, but this stock was dividedinto 9 different calibers.
48. For detachments of militia ordered to leave their arms at home whenmustering into service, see the militia calls of May 8, May 13, June 29, 1814, in Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 10:328-31, 349-50.
49. See, for example, the returns of Epping, New Market, and Portsmouth, in N. H. Provincial and State Papers, 7:738, 758, 765-66.