American Rifles

The following interesting item was printed in the Cooperstown, New York newspaper titled “The Watch-Tower,” August 10, 1815. Those were the good-old-days!


American Rifles

It is a fact creditable to our manufactures, that American rifles have obtained a preference among British officers, to those manufactured in Europe. Several have been purchased in this city, of Albany manufacture, by officers returning to Canada, and orders have been sent down for others. It is not unlikely that our rifles owe in part their celebrity to the dreadful destruction which they caused in the British ranks during the late war; and that the object may be to take them to England as matters of curiosity. If so, it may be found necessary, in order to prove their destructive qualities, to take along also a few American riflemen, for we are persuaded our rifles owed their efficiency, in a great measure, to the men who wielded them. The men were freemen as well as marksmen. It may be difficult to find such in Europe.