KIRKPATRICK... A 1827 MILITIA-MAN

[Larry Koschkee]

I came across this short narrative that gives a small glimpse of the world of a 1827 Winnebago War militia volunteer in a newspaper article titled OLD SETTLERS REUNION . The source is Grant County Herald, Lancaster, Wisconsin, Oct. 16, 1872. It was one of four papers that had been presented to the Old Settler's Reunion Vice President for filing in the reference library.

Mr. F. C. Kirkpatrick, who came to the county in 1827, related his first effort at plowing, being the first plowing done in the present limits of Grant County. He had a horse and harness, but nothing in the similititude of a plow. The frame work he easily manufactured similar to the frame of a single shovel; through the beam he inserted a pick, commonly called a sinking pick. With this and his one horse he broke about two acres; the two acres produced a bountiful harvest of corn. The corn was taken to Armstrong's mill near where Dickeyville now is and ground, or rather cracked; the cracklings were grated and the gratings made into bread. In those days we went to Galena for our supply of necessaries, such as tobacco, tea, sugar etc. In the region where he located, settlers were scarce but sociable. Wild animals were plenty and ugly, and snakes abounded. Snaking was a favorite amusement, and on a sun-shiny Sunday, from 150 to 180 rattlesnakes, could be seen collected together; he had known as many as 80 killed in one day, and on not a very good day for snaking either.

In 1827 he was at Galena to celebrate the 4th of July. A boat came up from below and brought news of Indians on the war path. Volunteers were called for to join Gen. Atkinson. One Dr. Morrow had a few little fowling pieces and these constituted all the fighting equipments that could be collected. he, Kirkpatrick, was one of the volunteers; they started from Gratiot's Grove, August 1st, 1827; they had a map drawn by a squaw, this was their only guide---and crossed the Wisconsin river below where Avoca now is. The march was tiresome and dangerous, and he noticed that their knees were apt to become shaky, and bullets would drop out of their mouths; but whether from fear of Indians or some effect of the atmosphere upon the system he did not say. They marched to Baraboo, recrossed the Wisconsin river near Sauk and finally returned and camped above Highland. They had got the chief, Red Bird, and his son who were put in irons.

Was it common practice at this time to march with bullets in your mouth??

Larry K.

[Robert Braun]

As luck would have it, I happened to discuss this practice with a curator at the Buffalo Bill History Center in Cody WY last August. Mostly, this was in the context of pre-metallic cartridge weapons used in the West.

He related that some of the early mounted buffalo hunters would carry some bullets in their mouths, in order to literally "spit" them down the barrel during a hunt-- thereby acheiving a faster reload. Later, as cartridge ammunition came in vogue and hunting methodologies evolved, this practice was done away with.

Now I dislike this phrase... but... "I seem to recall reading" where this practice appeared in the Revolutionary War among some of Morgan's riflemen... who used round ball of a diameter adjusted for an estimated "windage" in the barrel, thereby acheiving a faster reload than was ordinarily achieved with the rifle of the period.

The idea of using a ball of smaller caliber that the weapon's barrel was well-established during the Rev. War... with both sides issuing ammunition that took into account fouling residue that would take up expected windage in the barrel. For example, men armed with .75 cal. Second Land Model "Brown Bess" muskets frequently carried cartidges or loose ball of .69 cal. This being said, I suggest that the caliber of these projectiles made them too large (and too heavy) to hold for any reasonable length of time in the mouth. However, round ball earmarked for rifles that hovered arouind say .50 cal could likely be held for a time in the moutn.

To return to your original question, I have not yet run across a reference to this practice among American soldiery circa 1832.

And I strongly discourage any reader from attempting to duplicate this practice!

[pshrake]

Larrys quote raised another point which I think is begininning to illustrate a trend for me.

"Volunteers were called for to join Gen. Atkinson. One Dr. Morrow had a few little fowling pieces and these constituted all the fighting equipments that could be collected."

I ran into a similar situation with the settlement at Prairie du Chien. The Menominee Indians living in the vicinity of the settlement offered thier services as auxillary milita against the HoChunk but a general want of a adequet supply of arms kept them from doing any real service except messenger runners. The only significant supply of arms the Prairie seemed to have were the dilapedated, broken down stand of arms left behind by the regular garrison when they left in 1826.

I may be wrong, but, at the time of the uprising, there seemed to be a general lack of available firearms for all of the militia men of the region.

Pete

[Robert Braun]

I had noticed that many of the older men had the trigger finger missing. He said it was caused by the bursting of the old muzzle loader when running buffalo. No time was spent in re-loading as it was all done on horseback, at the gallop. They would ride close to a buffalo and shoot, then pour some powder in the barrel by guess, spit a ball, of which they had one or two in their mouth, into the gun, give the barrel a slap with their hand, ride up close to another buffalo and shoot. Sometimes the bullet had only gone a short distance down the barrel, then likely the gun burst and the hunter was short a trigger finger at least.

Source: NARRATIVES OF SASKATOON [Saskatchewan]1882-1912
p. 43

[Mike Thorson]

Robert said:

As luck would have it, I happened to discuss this practice with a curator at the Buffalo Bill History Center in Cody WY last August. Mostly, this was in the context of pre-metallic cartridge weapons used in the West.

He related that some of the early mounted buffalo hunters would carry some bullets in their mouths, in order to literally "spit" them down the barrel during a hunt-- thereby acheiving a faster reload. Later, as cartridge ammunition came in vogue and hunting methodologies evolved, this practice was done away with.

Now I dislike this phrase... but... "I seem to recall reading" where this practice appeared in the Revolutionary War among some of Morgan's riflemen... who used round ball of a diameter adjusted for an estimated "windage" in the barrel, thereby acheiving a faster reload than was ordinarily achieved with the rifle of the period.

The idea of using a ball of smaller caliber that the weapon's barrel was well-established during the Rev. War... with both sides issuing ammunition that took into account fouling residue that would take up expected windage in the barrel. For example, men armed with .75 cal. Second Land Model "Brown Bess" muskets frequently carried cartidges or loose ball of .69 cal. This being said, I suggest that the caliber of these projectiles made them too large (and too heavy) to hold for any reasonable length of time in the mouth. However, round ball earmarked for rifles that hovered arouind say .50 cal could likely be held for a time in the moutn.

To return to your original question, I have not yet run across a reference to this practice among American soldiery circa 1832.

And I strongly discourage any reader from attempting to duplicate this practice!

I did one live fire rifle/musket shoot a few years ago and had to resort to spitting on the thing to get it rammed down the barrel becasue of the gunpowder fouling up the barrel.

[Larry Koschkee]

It appears there was more than one way of getting a case of lead poisioning on the frontier... a ball shot into the body or swallowing a mouthful of lead balls.

Either way is the result the same? That is "sweating bullets."

Bob, great references to the act of carrying a mouthful of balls... and Mike a terrific anectdotal account..

[Larry Koschkee]

Pete brings up an interesting topic of discussion: I maybe wrong, but, at the time of the uprising, there seemed to be a general lack of available firearms for all the militia men of the region.

My curiosity is why would you be on the frontier without a adequate firearm for hunting game or protection purposes?

What say you?

Larry K.

[pshrake]

It is indeed a interesting theory...

I will admit on the surface of things, it does not seem to make much sense. However, there is evidence supporting this idea. As mentioned before there is the quote submitted by Larry concerning the issuing of fowling pieces at Galena, there is the lack of available firearms for the Menominee auxilliaries around Prairie du Chien, and there is the story of the settlers at the Prairie scrounging for available weapons from the dilapadated left over stores abandoned by the army at Old Fort Crawford.

To this I would add that in 1832 there was a similar lack of available firearms among the civil population at Green Bay. When the Menominee companies were formed by Col Stambaugh there was a general lack of available firearms and a quantity had to be procured from the stores at Fort Howard.

The only thing I can think of that would explain this phenomenon is that not everyone who lived on the frontier had a firearm, or for that matter needed one. Many of the residents of Green Bay and the Prairie were French Metis, long time workers in the fur trade and many intermarried into the tribes in which they worked. Perhaps they felt there was little need for firearms. Perhaps when they were forced to defend themselves they were able to do so with knives and such.

Other individuals who were living along the fronter were certainly business men, government men, mill workers and such who lived in the settlements. Indians almost never attacked a town, so would you really need a gun if you lived there?

I am unsure as to the actual cost of a gun in the 1820's but I imagine that like today, it was not a cheap thing to buy. So perhaps one is most likely to have a gun only if you really needed one. Perhaps the only indiviuals who were most likely to have a firearm were the American traders, isolated settlers, isolated millers, and miners who lived and worked outside the confines of established villages.

A lot of perhaps, and maybes, and "most likelys" here, but perhaps that is what you get when you cap a theory on top of a theory.

Pete

[Robert Braun]

One other item to throw into the mix...

I think that there were sufficient firearms on the frontier, based on several accounts. However, I am starting to form the opinion that when it came to bona fide Indian uprisings (or reports of same) settlers were perfectly content to use their own weapons in defense of their own families.

When it came to the militia, however, there was a clear expectation that the government (state or federal) was going to supply them.

WHY?

I don't have a complete answer yet.. but one of the answers must be logistics. It's far easier to re-supply an armed militia using weapons of generally uniform caliber than it is to haul bulk lead or inventories of pre-made musket ballls of dissimilar caliber to fit every civilian firearm in the company/regiment/battalion. The easiest way to establish a uniform caliber is to provide weapons of a uniform caliber. And the first place to look for generally uniform caliber would be the state or federal depots. Judging from the number of accounts in which bayonets are mentioned in association with the militia, I suspect that the primary reason for the precence of bayonets was that the volunteers were issued military muskets from state or federal sources, or both.

Second... why should I risk losing or ruining my own investment in a firearm if I can get one from the government? I'd rather use THIER stuff than my own, right? I mean, particularly if I'm agreeing to enlist for 30 days... right?

Great discussion.... !!

[Larry Koschkee]

Messrs. Braun and Thorson posted references to carrying round balls in the mouth or spitting on them to ease ramming down the barrel. I would like to share yet another example here:

The source is: The Northern Expeditions Of Stephen H. Long, Edited by Lucile M. Kane, June D. Holmquist, and Carolyn Gilman, 1978, Minnesota Historical Society, pp 321- 322. The quote is found in the expedition journal of James E. Colhoun, 1823.

Colhoun was on the Red River in what is present day Minnesota and North Dakota hunting buffalo with the Indians.

In this country a horse is valued in reference to his capacity for "running buffalo." If pushed, a buffalo soon tires down, otherwise he will run a long time. The hunter keeps within a few paces on the starboard quarter of the animal & aims to pass his ball from about the middle of the side to the heart or lungs. Should the discharge be ineffectual he loads while running: the powder is poured between the thumb & forefinger into the hand, clenched to form a cavity; the hand is emptied, resting the little finger & the lower part of the hand upon the muzzle of the gun: the ball is dropped from the mouth: no wadding...