Texas Independence Day celebration centers on musket

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March 2, 2011

Meagan O'Toole-Pitts Jacksonville Daily Progress The Jacksonville Daily Progress Wed Mar 02, 2011, 07:11 PM CST

JACKSONVILLE — Texas Independence Day celebrations in Jacksonville centered around one relic left behind — a Tryon 1816 Model, Type III, .69 caliber smoothbore, flintlock musket, one of only five others like it in the world.

“These are like a special edition because between the hammer and the flint plate is actually the star of Texas with the word ‘Texas’ on it,” said Lon Morris College Director of Instrumental Music Charles Davis. “This is a weapon that was actually made for the Texas forces.”

At a press conference at Lon Morris on Wednesday, Davis played the role of 1st Sgt. Samuel Enochs, a Republic soldier dressed in a 1st Sergeant, 1st Regiment of Regular Infantry Winter Fatigue Uniform from 1841. As Enochs, he explained what the early 19th century was like in Texas.

“I come from North Carolina and I come through Tennessee and I’ve been going West, but Texas is a great land of allure,” Davis said while in character. “The Texans that have already been there have set up a new, almost like a free government under the Mexicans, and the land — Land is the thing you want to have.”

In commemoration of the 175th anniversary of Texas Independence, members of the Cherokee Rangers Old West Shooting Club spent the day singing “Yellow Rose of Texas” and firing lead balls from flintlock and percussion rifles.

“They make (Flintlock muskets) hard to fire every time. They only fire about two or three times a minute,” said Ronnie Blackstock, known as “Sgt. Blackstock”to other club members.

At the press conference, Davis explained the long process of preparing to fire a flintlock musket, which included stuffing black gun powder and a lead ball down the barrel with a ramrod.

“When a soldier wished to fire the weapon he would take this bar and push it forward and it would expose a pan. This pan would actually hold powder. You would take out a paper cartridge. Its about the size of your fingers and about a couple of inches long,” Davis said while in character. “They’d put about 40 to 45 grams of black powder and when you twisted it you’d always have a little tail of paper. The tail was very important because you bite and tear off the end of the cartridge. In fact, in the American Revolution, Mr. Washington only had one requirement for soldiers in the army and that was that they had to have two opposing teeth.”

Forty-four men, much like Enochs, assembled at a building at Washington-on-the-Brazos to vote for the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2, 1836, said Lon Morris Academic Dean and History Professor John Ross.

“They drew up a Declaration of Independence for the state of Texas. These men were mostly from the United States — 12 of them were Virginians, 10 were South Carolinians, nine from Tennessee, 14 others from other slave states, seven from free states, there were three people that were Mexican, (of which) two lived in Texas,” Ross said. “The declaration that they had quickly written was modeled on Thomas Jefferson’s declaration of independence for the United States. .”

To teach children about Texas Independence, Ross and Davis will tour area schools to display the musket during educational presentations on Thursday and Friday.

“Sometimes the children don’t retain (knowledge of the history of Texas) but with (the musket) going around like this, it may be good for them to be able to learn, to see how things were back then,” said Elizabeth McCutcheon, chairperson of the Cherokee County Historical Commission.

On April 14, the musket will make an appearance at the Texas Historical Foundation’s quarterly meeting in Beaumont. On April 16, the musket will go to the San Jacinto Museum of History in Deer Park near Houston. The musket may return to LMC for more public viewing opportunities before being loaned to Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, said Scott Gilpin, vice president of development at Lon Morris.

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Texas Independence Day celebration centers on musket

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