By M. R. Montgmery © 2000 by M. R. Montgomery Published by Crown Publishers, Inc. New York, NY ISBN 0-517-70212-6 $25.95

Montomery skillfully weaves the adventures of a varied cast of characters into a tale that is alternately fiercely gripping and ironically humorous. Montgomery follows the exploits of Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr, General James Wilkinson, Zebulon M. Pike and Meriwether Lewis and William Clark as they work for and plot against one other.

In 1803 Thomas Jefferson, without Congressional approval, purchased the entire Louisiana Territory from Napoleon Bonaparte for the bargain basement price of three cents an acre. He appointed General James Wilkinson who was, unbeknownst to Jefferson, a spy for the Spanish government military governor of the newly acquired lands. At the same time Jefferson named Meriwether Lewis to head a “Corps of Discovery” that would locate and map the headwaters of the Missouri River to aid in determining the extent of his Louisiana Purchase. They were also to look for the fabled Northwest Passage that Jefferson believed would make the new United States the commercial powerhouse of North America.

Aaron Burr, Jefferson’s vice-president, after an unsuccessful attempt to obtain the presidency by manipulating the electoral college votes, decided if he couldn’t be master of the United States he would become the emperor of the West and Mexico instead. Fleeing west after killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel Burr tried to enlist anyone influential enough to be of assistance that would listen to his grandiose schemes.

Wilkinson, while supplying the Spanish information about the intentions and location of the Lewis & Clark expedition, was in league with Burr to start a war with Mexico and have the Louisiana Territory secede from the United States. To this end he sent Zebulon M. Pike, again without authority other than his own, to map the headwaters of the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers. But Pike’s secret orders were to scout out the best places to gain control of the fur trade and the best avenues of attack against the forces of Spanish Mexico.

Montgomery draws these separate threads together into a masterful fabric of conceit and selflessness, intrigue and candor, cowardice and bravery as the individual participants draw toward their appointments with destiny. All of this in a book that frequently made me laugh out loud and more often had me wanting to read one passage or another out loud to anyone within earshot. This is not the too-dry history of the college text. This is the real deal and it reads more like Allan Eckert than Francis Parkman.

Jefferson and the Gun-Men is a new release and won’t be available in paperback for a year or thereabouts. But this is a book you’ll definitely want to keep so get the hard cover from your favorite book seller or visit your local library.---JBW

I recently decided to thin out my book collection. Not that it’s fat or anything but I didn’t think I was ever going to read my old college calculus books again. So I bundled them into some old packing boxes along with some military histories and trundled down to a shop that specializes in martial tomes. I ended up taking a store credit for my vended items and walked out feeling pretty good.

A week or so later I went back in to see if he had any books on longrifles. He did. I picked up two, one of which is the subject of this review (the other will follow in a subsequent issue). The book was Thoughts on the Kentucky Rifle in its Golden Age by Joe Kindig, Jr. I liked it immediately for two reasons. First and foremost it is large, over 9 x 12, and long, 562 pages not counting end papers. Second, it has lots and lots of pictures. Black and white pictures to be sure but close up and detailed. It was a first edition and priced at $95. I bought it and took it home.

The book is marvelous. It describes the history and rationale of the Kentucky rifle in reverent tones. Born in 1898 to a Quaker family living in York, Pennsylvania Joe Jr. no doubt had the opportunity to grow up seeing many specimens of this unique American art form and learned to appreciate it as such. He grew into a respected authority on 18th century American antiques but never let go of the glorious rococo rifles that captivated his heart as a teenager.

Kindig used the considerable resources he accumulated to collect original longrifles whenever and wherever he found them. He had but one criterion, that they be examples of this most American art. This in fact is the thesis of this wonderful book. In the preface he says, “This book is primarily intended to be an introduction to the Kentucky rifle as a work of art.” He goes on to say “…it may well be considered the most artistic product of the eighteenth century…” I tend to agree. At a time when craftspeople and artisans generally worked in only one medium the pre-industrialized gunsmith had to master many; ironwork, metallurgy, woodwork, engraving and inlay as well as chemistry and ballistics.

In due course Kindig assembled the largest and finest collection of longrifles in existence, with well over 500 items. It is 262 of these rifles that you will find lovingly described in the pages of his book. In Part I he discusses the gun and the gunsmith but it is Part II where he truly develops his thesis of the longrifle as an art object.

Kindig takes the reader on a tour of 11 Pennsylvania and 3 Maryland counties showing us the work of the gunsmiths within each. In the August 2000 issue of the Smithsonian magazine James Conway writes in The Renaissance of the Longrifle, “His (Kindig’s) landmark 1960 book described a highly regional craft with different styles for different communities, just as with furniture.” If you’ve ever wondered what makes a rifle from the Lancaster school different from one of the York school or what the characteristics are of an early versus late model rifle Joe Kindig, Jr. has the answers.

Each rifle shown is done so in three views, full length from the lock side and close-ups of the stock from both sides. The photographs are excellent and convey beautifully the artistic merit of these lovely old long guns. A small note accompanying each picture lists overall length, barrel type and length, caliber and weight. We see the masterful work of York County artist George Eister who loved screw making so much he would use as many as seventeen to secure his patchboxes. There are the lions carved behind the cheekpieces of Peter Anstat’s Bethlehem school rifles and the wonderfully engraved daisy patchboxes of the Lancaster school's Henry Albright.

The sad fact however remains that this fine work, Thoughts on the Kentucky Rifle in its Golden Age, is no longer in print. Yet George Shumway, also a native of York, Pennsylvania and a master of the American longrifle in his own right, was assigned the copyright in 1964 and told me he does have plans to reprint this classic, probably within the next twelve months. But be prepared, quality of this magnitude will almost certainly not be inexpensive. But as John Arbuckle used to say, “You get what you pay for.”