Flints recovered from Fort William Henry, 1756

By kind permission of the Royal Sussex Regimental Museum Association Trust

A sharpened flint was used in the flintlock firing mechanism of a musket. Pulling the trigger propelled the flint in the hammer forward, causing a spark in the flash pan to ignite the gunpowder in the barrel and fire the lead musket ball.

Further details about firing a flintlock musket from the Revolutionary War Journal website.

View the Brown Bess Land Pattern Musket (replica)

See the Royal Sussex Regiment for the historical background on the siege and capture of Fort William Henry by the French and their allies.

The artefacts shown here were recovered during excavations in the 1950s when a group of local businessmen bought the site of the Fort to protect it from development. Later an accurate replica of the fort was constructed on its original footprint and opened as a living history museum.