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The "Brown Bess" flintlock musket was the standard weapon of the British soldier for over 100 years. Its true name was the Short Land Pattern. Most American gunsmiths during the American Revolution copied the Brown Bess. Muskets were famous for missing their marks. Groups of men standing close together fired a shower of lead balls at the enemy. For charges and fighting at close range, soldiers fixed deadly, spear-like bayonets to the ends of their muskets. The original owner of this musket carved the initials "R.D." into the stock. John Fellows (1751-1831) of Shelburne added his own initials after he picked up the musket from the battlefield after General John Burgoyne's army lost the battle at Saratoga, New York in 1777.

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