"The Kentucky Rifle" Topic

"First, let us discuss the name, Kentucky rifle. This term is not found in eighteenth and early nineteenth century wills and inventories. Instead, the American longrifle was generally listed simply as "rifle gun" in those documents. The term, Kentucky rifle, was coined in a song shortly after the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. The song credited much of Gen. Andrew Jackson's American victory over the British to his Kentucky riflemen and their Kentucky rifles. Ever since, Kentucky rifle has become the generic term for all longrifles, not just those made in Kentucky. In fact, German emigrants in eastern Pennsylvania developed the longrifle in the second quarter of the eighteenth century from the German jaeger, a short, hunting firearm with a rifled barrel. Gunsmiths, primarily in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio produced longrifles or Kentucky rifles in large quantities…"

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Armand

I prefer to call it the Pennsylvania Rifle

FM

(smile)

Armand

In the south during the Creek War most long rifles came from Tennessee and were called Kentucky rifles

Thanks

Armand