Obsolete Muskets, Lethal Remingtons: Heterogeneity and Firepower in Weapons of The Frontier War, Argentina, 1869–1877
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Journal ff Conflict Archaeology
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This paper deals with firearms that were employed by the Argentine army
in frontier warfare between 1869 and 1877. Documentary information and
archaeological assemblages from two contemporary military facilities —
Fort General Paz and Fortín Algarrobos — are combined to characterize the
armament in service during those years. This was a crucial period, during
which a process of modernisation and standardisation of the army’s
armament started, centred on the incorporation of Remington single-shot
breech-loading rifles and carbines. However, the archaeological record shows
that this process was slow and that an astonishing variety of older firearms
(flintlocks, percussion smoothbores and rifles) remained in service, causing
logistic and operative problems, and reducing the army’s combat effectiveness.
The paper then discusses the impact of the incorporation of the
Remington guns on frontier warfare, critiquing commonly held determinist
characterisations, and placing the Remington’s effect in a broader political
and economic context.