Long Land Brown Bess Ranger Musket

- French and Indian Wars  - Pontiac Rebellion  - American Revolution

The Long Land Brown Bess Carbine was originally made for the Royal Artillery but was quickly adopted by rangers and British Light Infantry.  The weight of the regular musket was a disadvantage in the wilds of North America.   So the British had this 34-inch barrelled short musket, with a wooden rammer, issued to the light infantry companies and ranger units like Roger's Rangers and Gorham's Rangers.  This was especially the case during the 1757 and 1758 planned attacks on the French fortress of Louisbourg.

The wooden rammer was preferred becuase it further reduced the overall weight.   As many bush battles in the French and Indian War were close action affairs, the short barrel was the happy medium between accuracy and manoeuvrability in the woods.  The only good illustration of this musket, a painting by Benjamin West (below), show it without a nose cap.  In 1759 this musket was replaced with a smaller bore light infantry carbine for the British Army campaigning in northern New York.  For the rest of the war Rogers Rangers carried this new musket but its exact configuration (whether it was rifled or not) is unknown.

Ranger unit lead by Major Robert Rogers became famous for their service and developing of ranger tactics.  Major Rogers 28 Rules of Ranging became the founding principles of the U.S. Ranger Regiments in WW2 and have carried on to today.  For this reason, the musket offered here is a popular retirement gift for U.S. Ranger. 

Like many firearms from the French and Indian War, they continued to be used into the American Revolution until they were worn out.  As late as 1793, Long Land carbines, as they were properly called, were still in military stores in Halifax, Nova Scotia.