As tensions with both Britain and France rose in the 1790s Congress acted to purchase arms and equipment and set up two national armories in 1795, but states were largely left to their own devices to arm their militia forces, which the Militia Act of 1792 established as all able-bodied free white male citizens between 18 and 45 years old. Pennsylvania acted in 1797 to procure 20,000 muskets on its own and offered contracts for 10,000 that could be imported and another 10,000 to be produced in the U.S., all of the Charleville pattern in .69 caliber, which had proven itself in the Revolution. John Miles of Philadelphia County signed a contract for 2,000 muskets on Sept. 3, 1798,  indenturing a piece of real estate in the Northern Liberties to cover an advance of $600 offered on the contract. When the British government voided contracts with the Ketland Company for 10,000 imported muskets, Pennsylvania issued a second round of contracts to make up for the shortfall, and Miles received a second contract for another 2,000 muskets in April 1801, and also supplied some additional guns under a contract given to McCormick and Johnson.

This is a nice example in very good condition of a Charleville pattern musket delivered under Miles’s first contract of 1798. Miles was paid $13.33 apiece for these guns, and he had two years to complete the contract. Characteristic of his muskets under this contract was a lockplate stamping behind the hammer reading, “MILES / CP” for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. A “CP” stamp on the lock plate and breech of the barrel was required in the contract, but the name of the maker was not. (Miles marked his later contract muskets, “MILES / PHILADA / CP.”) This musket shows the “CP” breech marking as well. The “C” is light, but visible and the “P” is very evident. Barrels were to be proofed in the same degree, “as is now in use for the proof on those made for the service of the United States,” the proofmark consisting of a Liberty Cap over a “P.” In this case the “P” is very distinct, but the liberty cap has been distorted by the use of a two-piece die strike known on another Miles musket where the “P” was struck into an already impressed oval bearing the liberty cap partially damaging the impression (Steward and Reid 2005.) Contracts also called for stocks to be branded “PENNSYLVANIA” in small capital letters, but this was not often done and, as is correct, it is not present on the belly of the stock.

The barrel is stamped lengthwise at the breech, just forward of the barrel proof, “80. Rt. 7 Co. No. 13, indicating it was issued to Philadelphia County’s 80^th Regiment  of Pennsylvania Militia, and numbered as the 13^th musket in the regiment’s 7^th Company. First contract Miles muskets from 80^th Regiment and the 42^nd Regiment have been published, both listed as assigned to Philadelphia County in an April 6, 1802, “Act for the regulation of the Militia of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”

The musket is full length, with full stock and barrel. Ramrod, bayonet stuff, band-mounted front sight, barrel bands, springs, and swivels are all in place. The barrel is smooth metal, a mix of thin brown and underlying pewter tones, back to the breech where there is corrosion around touchhole and some vise marks on the left. The wood has good color, a rich, undisturbed brown, with good fit to the metal, but slight shrinkage gaps from age along the breechplug tang, and an old chip out at the bottom rear of the lockplate, likely done by a spring while being disassembled for cleaning. There is a short hairline running back from the lower band on the underside, another on the left flat from the upper screw, and a slightly wider but still stable one running forward from the buttplate on the upper left of the buttstock. The right butt flat shows a lightly inscribed set of initials “C.E.” (or “G.E.”)

This is a nice example of a scarce musket produced by Pennsylvania to fill a pressing need. Arms for the newly increased militia were in great demand and often saw hard service in the hands of citizen soldiers. Even after arms began to flow from the U.S. government to the states after 1808, the militia were usually armed with a mix of privately owned, state and federal purchases or products, if they were armed at all.  [sr]

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