Israel Whelan, Purveyor of Public Supplies, pays for a pair of pocket pistols with hidden triggers from Philadelphia merchant Robert Barnhill. Meriwether Lewis would acknowledge his receipt of the pistols on 7 June.
Pocket Pistol
From the private collection of Bud Clark. Photo © 2011 Kristopher K. Townsend. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Israel Whelen for Capt. Lewis May 21st 1803 Bot. of Robt. Barnhill 1 Pair Picket Pistols, Secret Triggers $10. [Endorsement:] June 7. 1803. The within Pistols were delivered by me to Captn. Meriwether Lewis. Robt. Barnhill.[1]“Supplies from Private Vendors,” in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., ed. Donald Jackson (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), … Continue reading
These small flintlock pistols, which were usually sold in pairs, were about six inches long, fired a single ball of .40 to .50 caliber, and could be had either with a normal outside trigger or a concealed trigger. Lewis chose the model with a concealed, or “secret,” trigger. This feature made the gun more streamlined and less prone to snag when withdrawn from the pocket. Small pistols are mentioned by Clark during a court martial on 30 March 1804.
Notes
| ↑1 | “Supplies from Private Vendors,” in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., ed. Donald Jackson (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 91. |
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- The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
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