After writing a few articles about our live-fire studies of Revolutionary War-era arms, one was shared on an archaeology social media page and a question was asked about flints: Were the flints being used here when the American Revolution began native to the area, or were they imported? I can only speak for flints found in Massachusetts on archaeological digs, but I can answer that question here.
I’ve mentioned the flints found by avocational archaeologist Benjamin Lincoln Smith before, but I’ll do a brief synopsis again as they are important to answering the question.
In 1934, Smith noticed a field had been plowed in Concord for the first time in his life, so he received permission and began searching in the freshly tilled soil for Native American objects. What he found were musket flints. He went back the next day after it had rained, and “gun flints seemed to be everywhere, and they stood out amongst the dark, wet ground like glittering jewels.” He soon realized this ground was the staging area for minute and militia men on the morning of April 19, 1775, before they marched to the north bridge and returned fire on the British soldiers positioned there. Within a short amount of time, he had found about 100 in two rows, roughly 50 feet apart, facing down towards the bridge. Although no written record of this exists, the men must have been ordered to change their flints.
The flints were presented to friends of Smith over the years, but most of them are now in the collection of the Concord Museum. I’ve spent some time studying them and the majority are all English gun spalls with a couple of French blade-type flints. I’ve done newspaper searches to see what was available for sale here in Massachusetts, and literally tons of English flints were imported here between the years 1750 and 1775. There are also mentions of thousands of French flints captured during the French and Indian War which were for sale. An advertisement dated January 12, 1756, lists both English and French gun flints for sale, amongst lead, shot, powder, and many other items. These advertisements continued up to the start of the Revolution.
As a part of the militia laws in Massachusetts, each man was to have flints fit for his gun. A 1739 newspaper article related that the province law required each man to have twelve flints. The town of Salem published the laws for their men in March 1775, and it stated a half a dozen per man.
After importation of arms and other material from England stopped, we began to purchase those materials from the French, so along with many thousands of arms, flints were shipped here also. Thus, while other colonies may have sourced flint locally, there really was no need for those in the Massachusetts area to do so with so many thousands being imported over the years. They were readily available!
