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AS PICTURED AND DESCRIBED IN THE BOOK AMERICAN MILITARY SHOULDER ARMS, VOL. I BY MOLLER
LOT 1121
Documented Revolutionary War Era Jacob Dickert Flintlock American Long Rifle with Raised Relief Carved Stock -
NSN, 50 cal., 42 1/4 inch octagon bbl., brown finish, maple
stock. This rifle is featured on pages 183 and 184 of “American Military Shoulder Arms, Volume I: Colonial and Revolutionary War Arms” by George Moller and has his very small and faint “GDM” collection mark by the toe. Moller states, “This Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, rifle was made by Jacob Dickert sometime between 1761 and the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.” Jacob Dickert (1740-1822) was a German immigrant born near Mainz and was one of the most prominent Pennsylvania riflesmiths and was active in Lancaster County, recognized as the most significant center of rifle production in colonial America, from the 1760s until his death in 1822. During his lifetime, the American long rifle, American backwoods riflemen, and the Pennsylvania gunmakers became famous thanks to reports of American marksmen picking off British officers and other targets of opportunity from long range, acts the British considered ungentlemanly. During the war, there are recorded references
to Dickert rifles far from Lancaster. Dickert didn’t make
all of his rifles himself but instead ran an organized
and productive shop, particularly during the war when Lancaster became an important center for American
arms manufacturing. His name became virtually synonymous with the American rifles, sometimes
distorted as “Deckard.” With a Dickert rifle, the best American marksmen could reliably hit targets at over
200 and even 300 yards while the average infantryman with a musket would do well to reliably hit a target at 100 yards. George Washington famously employed riflemen
to terrorize the British in the north, and the “Over the Mountain Men” won the Battle of King’s Mountain with rifles in the south. Both Morgan’s men and some of the “Over the Mountain Men” are recorded as armed with Dickert rifles. Even though in reality they played a relatively minor role in the actual war, the riflemen and their rifles established a lasting reputation for individual American marksmen that continues to resonate today. This rifle certainly may have seen use by a rifleman during the war.
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