The U.S. Contract Rifle of, 1792 - 1794
	A presidential decree in 1792 created a battalion of riflemen, and the government place orders for arms with established Pennsylvania gunsmiths. Tench Coxe, Purveyor of Public Supplies, discription of the rifles "...they are to be common, plain rifles substantially made." Secretary of War, Henry Knox contacted Brigadier General Edward Hand of Lancaster, Pennsylvania to procure rifles for the army. Knox wrote on Jan 4, 1792 to Hand, " As you are experienced in this business, I shall take the liberty of relying solely on your inspection and judgement of them..." A prototype was made up for Knox's approval and in a letter dated Feb 4, 1792 to Hand, the go ahead was given for a rifle with a 42" barrel bored 40 balls to the pound, a fly in the tumbler of the Lock, the trigger, side and breech pins to be hardened, the stock to be seasoned maple, and the catch spring release to be high so as to be more accessible to the thumb. 1,476 rifles were purchased by the government in 1792. Just under 3,500 were procured for the government during the period of 1792 to 1794.
				Arming the Corps of Discovery
		Frank Tait in his article, The U.S. Contract Rifle - Pattern of 1792 - for the June 1999 edition of Man at Arms magazine writes, "Much of the history of these rifles has been well reported elsewhere. Our inquiry need concern itself only with a specific shipment, the story of which has only recently been pieced together. It begins with the events that took place in 1794 in what is now known as the "Whiskey Rebellion." The federal excise tax placed on spirits created civil unrest which lead to armed conflict in western Pennsylvania. 15,000 federal troops were called upon to support civil authority. Hamilton wrote to Governor Henry Lee of  Virginia concerning the decision taken the day before to increase the call for his states militia. " It is his ( Washington's ) wish that as many of these as possible be drawn from places near the scene of the action and may be riflemen... General Morgan whom it is understood to be your intention to employ can it is believed to be very useful in carrying this particular object into effect. Colonel Carrington is requested to undertake the arrangement for all supplies in the Quarter Master and Commissary lines... I have sent him an order upon Mr. Holt Keeper of the Magazines at New London... I understand there are now at New London fifteen hundred stands of arms ready for service and that 1000 more per week can be got ready there." New London, Virginia, on the upper James River, was the site of a federal magazine and storehouse. The insurection was already collapsing by the time troops were ready to march. Washington turned over command of the army to Governor Lee of Virginia. Hamilton looking ahead to disbanding the force as early as possible wrote to Governor Lee on Oct. 20 1794, "On return of the army, you will adopt some convenient and certain arrangement for restoring to the public magazines the arms, accoutrements, military stores, tents & other articles of camp equippage, and entrenching tools which have been furnished & shall not have been consumed or lost." The New London magazine would have taken charge of 400 rifles promised to Virginia for her troops along with arms issued from New London itself. There, they would have been cleaned, refurbished and properly stored. The rifles remained there until 1801 when the New London magazine was made redundant with the completion of the storehouse at the then new Harpers Ferry Armory. Samuel Hodgdon sent an order to "Public Storekeeper" Thomas Holt on Feb. 6, 1801 to ship all arms and stores from New London to Harpers Ferry. An inventory taken on April 6, 1801 at Harpers Ferry Armory listed 382 rifles in stores. So there would have been plenty of 1792 Contract rifles on hand at Harpers Ferry when Lewis arrived on March 1803. The above just touches on the whole story of how 1792 rifles ended up at Harpers Ferry Armory. For more and the arguement for them being the rifles Lewis procured by Lewis, Man at Arms still has back issues of their June 1999 magazine that features the Frank Tait article on the 1792 Contract rifle, its a good read. *Note* The Standard issue arm of our new nation at the time was a smoothbore Musket. Only a small percentage were armed with a rifle. An interesting fact here, although having nothing to do with 1792 Contract rifle, but in 1795 Springfield Armory started producing our Nations first U.S. arm, the 1795 Springfield musket. Which was almost a copy of the French 1766 musket. Harpers Ferry Armory would start producing the 1795 Springfield sometime in 1801.