Archaeology can sometimes unravel an historical mystery, or create a new one. In the case of the weapons used or thought to be used at Apple River Fort, modest archaeological evidence may provide some clues as to the type, or at least the caliber of civilian and militia arms in use at the stockade during the Black Hawk War.
The Evidence:
The 1996 archaeological report “Perfectly Panic Struck” by Floyd Mansberger and Christopher Stratton listed some 19 lead shot recovered from the investigation done at Apple River Fort. The report did not describe the bullets as showing flattening, distortion, rifle groove marks, or other evidence of being fired— indeed “all the lead balls clearly exhibited mold seams suggesting they had been manufactured in two-piece molds.” All but one, which bore a fabric impression, were likely dropped at some point after the molding process or lost through floorboards when in storage. Relic hunters know these unfired bullets by the unlovely name of “drops.”
In using the dropped lead balls as a means to come to some conclusions regarding the guns available at Apple River Fort, one caveat should be discussed. The bullets found may be associated with the Black Hawk War, or they may be associated with post-war occupants of the site. Mansberger and Stratton hint at this caveat during their write-up, although it seems clear that the investigators have centered their theories in associating artifacts with weapons available or believed to be available in 1832.
Mansberger and Stratton list the following finds:
Number Diameter
2 .30 - .34 inches
5 .42 - .44 inches
1 .47 inches
6 .52 - .53 inches
3 .60 - .61 inches
2 .68 - .70 inches
Total = 19
The investigators reported that lead bullets were found in archaeological diggings known as “Feature 3” (or the lead miner’s cabin foundation area, three artifact lead balls found); “Feature 4” (or the “storehouse” cellar, ten lead balls found); “Feature 5” (a cellar near the double wall, three lead balls found); and Feature “8” (a cellar associated with the blockhouse, two lead balls found.) The largest concentration of these lead balls was found in “Feature 4.” This feature “has been interpreted as the remains of a shallow cellar once located beneath a primitive log structure”— or the “cellar” of the current “storehouse” interpretation, located inside the reconstructed Apple River Fort. (It is worthy of note that the largest concentration of melted lead—pieces left over from the ball-molding process— was also found in this same cellar. Mansberger and Stratton, p. 94, stated: “It is probable that the melting of raw lead and casting of musket balls was conducted in a hearth once associated with this primitive log structure and the finished musket balls were stored in this cabin.” While it is tempting to conjure up the image of women and girls “running bullets” within the relative safety of a storehouse during the June 1832 fight with Black Hawk, it should be noted that Mansberger and Stratton reported no archaeological evidence that suggested a fire pit in this cellar. In contrast, the area of a large firepit near the main gate, identified by the archaeologists as “Feature 2,” only one melted lead piece and no bullets were found.)
Interpretation:
Before making a comparison between the lead balls listed in the archaeological investigation and the guns to which they may have been matched, one must be acquainted with the term “windage.” Properly defined, “windage” is the difference between the diameter of the ball and the diameter of the bore of the gun being fired, or the small space between the ball and the inside of the barrel. There is a common misconception among seasoned historical reenactors and even some professional historians that a .69 cal smoothbore U. S. musket fired a .69 cal. lead ball. In fact, Harold L. Peterson has written that a .69 cal musket would have fired a ball closer to .63 caliber, while the larger .75 caliber British “Brown Bess” would have fired a .69 cal. ball. Mansberger and Stratton, note 20, correctly observed that “the smoothbore muskets in use during this period would have allowed a much wider tolerances in ball size (windage) than contemporary rifles arms (rifles).” Indeed, such tolerances would have varied more or less than the 0.04 standard generally applied by these investigators.
Another reality of the 1830s American military experience was the Army’s reliance on so-called “buck and ball” cartridge ammunition. Simply described, “buck and ball” consisted of one .63 cal. round ball and three .31 cal. buckshot, rolled into a cartridge with approximately 100 grains of gunpowder (per original cartridges and x-ray examination of original cartridges as illustrated in Berekely R. Lewis, “Small Arms and Ammunition in the United States Service,” Publication 4254, Smithsonian Institution.) Dating from its adoption in an order issued by General George Washington on October 6, 1777 prior to the battle of Germantown, “buck and ball” evolved as the standard American Army cartridge for its smoothbore military muskets throughout the War of 1812 and into the Black Hawk War. In fact, “buck and ball” was unique to the American military system, as the armies of Britain and France did not as a rule employ this style of ammunition.
Knowing these facts, we can begin to make reasonable guesses as to the intentions for the ammunition found at Apple River Fort:
1. The two “.30 - .34 cal.” shot are almost certainly buckshot. It could have been used separately for fowling, or hunting of small game like turkey or squirrels. However, William Oliver in his Eight Months in Illinois, p. 161 stated that “a barrel carrying one hundred and twenty, or even one hundred [lead balls] to the pound [which equated to a .34 to .36 cal. rifle] is downright nonsense, and I never saw any of them , which, at eighty yards, would do much more than pierce through the bark of an oak, or make a crack louder than the whiffle of an air gun.” More probably the buckshot was intended or was at one time part of the standard Army “buck and ball” cartridge load. The three “.60 - .61 cal.” round ball are a close match for buck and ball round shot preserved in artifact cartridge ammunition in the National Collection. Used either separately or as part of a government cartridge, this ammunition points to the presence of .69 cal. U. S. Muskets— either the older Pattern of 1795 Muskets, or newer Pattern of 1816 muskets. These weapons were in use during the time of the Black Hawk War.
2. While Mansberger and Stratton opined that the two “.68 - .70” cal. round ball indicated “large caliber American made arms (such as the Kentucky Long Rifle)” I believe the investigators were on firmer ground when they indicated on p. 94, Table 12, that the balls were perhaps matched to a “large caliber rifle such as Brown Bess [which was a smoothbore musket, not a rifle.]” While the idea that overage British Second Land Pattern .75 cal. smoothbore muskets were present at Apple River Fort seems absurd on its face, it is important to point out that a.) The United States sent overage muskets, pistols, swords, and other militaria to the states for general issue to their respective militias, b.) Illinois indeed issued out military arms, including muskets with bayonets, to numerous militia companies in 1832, and c.) Work by investigator Greg Carter indicated that state officials listed so-called “Brown Bess” muskets on the inventory sheets of the State of Illinois as late as the American Civil War!
3. The five “.42 - .44” cal. lead balls are probably associated with .45 cal. rifles. Rifles, using a greased patch, required less “windage” to be effective.
4. The one “.47” cal. lead ball may be associated with a .50 cal. rifle. William Oliver in his Eight Months in Illinois, p. 159, described such a weapon: “Rifles for shooting deer and other large animals carry about forty bullets to the pound; the bullet in such instances being nearly half an inch in diameter.”
5. The six “.52 - .53” cal. balls seems to best translate into .54 cal. weapons. Of these there are an assortment— including the Pattern of 1803 Rifle produced by the Federal Armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (quantities of these rifles were known to be in the Lead Region during the time of the 1827 Red Bird Rising); the so-called “Lancaster rifle,” or full-stock Pennsylvania long rifles made by Lancaster gunsmiths like Jacob Dickert and B. D. Gill, which St. Louis newspapers advertised for sale circa 1828; so-called “St. Louis Mountain Gun,” a product of the Jacob and Samuel Hawkin (such rifles were already present in the Michigan Territory by 1827); and Pattern of 1816 and 1819 Pistols produced by Simeon North, which the Federal Government distributed among several states for the use of their respective militias. (The three small, worn flints described by Mansberger and Stratton, p. 97, and displayed at the small museum at Apple River Fort, suggested pistol use.)
Absent from this analysis is any mention of the percussion rifle thought to have been present at Apple River Fort. The presumptive owner, the courier George Harkleroad, has been recorded as possessing a percussion rifle when he arrived at the fort on June 24, 1832. Mansberger and Stratton, p. 98, noted the discovery of “two spent percussion caps…found in the upper fill of Feature 8 [a cellar associated with the blockhouse] probably originated from the midden (surrounding soil) which was used to fill in this cellar— and as such probably dates from the summer of 1832. Percussion caps are seldom found on archaeological sites.” It is tempting indeed to associate these spent caps with the “last stand” of the ill-fated Harkelroad—-Apple River Fort’s only battle fatality. Was Harkelroad’s weapon a St. Louis Hawkin full-stock rifle with the newer percussion lock?
The very nature of the presumptive variety of arms present at Apple River Fort proved to be a logistical problem for Captain Clack Stone during the June 24, 1832 fight. Newspaper and participant accounts mention the women and girls of the fort molding, or “running” bullets during the battle— evidence of a.) Captain Stone’s lack of preparedness regarding an adequate supply of munitions, b.) his reliance on armed citizens and their different caliber weapons to replace his absent militiamen, c.) unexpectedly rapid depletion of available ammunition stocks, or a combination of these and other factors.
