Scope and Content: During the Revolutionary War, procurement and manufacture of gunpowder were crucial to supplying troops with adequate ammunition. One of the primary components of gunpowder, saltpeter, was in short supply when the war began, and special attention was paid to its manufacture and purchase by the government of Massachusetts. On the recommendation of the Continental Congress, the Massachusetts General Court authorized the creation of a committee on saltpeter (Resolves 1775-76, c 162, Aug. 24, 1775),  consisting of Dr. William Whiting, Deacon Samuel Baker, and Captain John Peck.  (Jedediah Phips was added per Resolves 1775-76, c 326, Nov. 2, 1775.)  They were instructed to identify and publicize methods of manufacture of saltpeter, to buy up all saltpeter available in the colony by Oct. 1776 at half a dollar a pound, and to deliver it to a Court-designated manufacturer.  Meantime the towns were to acquire and prepare raw materials for saltpeter manufacture as well. –Resolves 1775-76, c 319 (Nov. 1, 1775) authorized committee research on saltpeter manufacture in Connecticut, provided for the committee’s subsequent headquartering in Newburyport, and directed it to pay an additional bounty of four shillings a pound to saltpeter manufacturers of fifty pounds or more, vouched for by town selectmen, if delivered before June 1776.  Per Resolves 1775-76, c 470 (Dec. 28, 1775), all assembled saltpeter was to be delivered to Richard Devens, recently appointed commissary general.  Resolves 1775-76, c 625 (Feb. 9, 1776) appointed Dr. John Greenleaf to the committee and appropriated a sum to allow Phips to receive and purchase saltpeter at the Watertown state store twice monthly.  Devens was added to the committee per Resolves 1775-76, c 648 (Feb. 14, 1776); the next month Samuel Tufts replaced Greenleaf on the committee, to receive and purchase saltpeter at Newburyport at the rate of seven shillings a pound through May (Resolves 1775-76, c 737, Mar. 25, 1776), with Edmund Sawyer joining him there per Resolves 1775-76, c 838 (Apr. 16, 1776) –Resolves 1775-76, c 969 (May 3, 1776) set a new purchase rate of five shillings a pound to run from June until October, the original target date set the previous August.  Resolves 1776-77, c 15 (June 6, 1776) clarified procedures for qualifying for that rate, as well as for the four-shilling a pound bounty rate set in November. Resolves 1776-77, c 54 (June 15, 1776) effectively replaced the committee, empowering the commissary general, Zebediah Abbot (at Andover), and Thomas Crane (at Stoughton) to examine and purchase saltpeter.  Resolves 1776-77, c 74 (June 21, 1776) deputized Alexander Sheppard, Jr. to receive saltpeter at Watertown and Resolves 1776-77, c 336 (Sept. 17, 1776)  appointed Capt. James Sikes to do the same at Springfield, future site of the Continental Army’s laboratory ((M-Ar)2357X) –The price of saltpeter was lowered to four shillings a pound by Resolves 1776-77, c 529 (Nov. 16, 1776), and at some point after June 1, 1777, to three shillings.  That the drop in price was the result of a large inventory is suggested by Resolves 1777-78, c 176, 216 (July 5, Aug. 7, 1777), which provides for the delivery to a manufacturer of two tons of saltpeter.  The last references to saltpeter during the Revolution in Massachusetts are in Resolves 1778-79, c 99 (June 20, 1778), directing delivery by the Board of War of stores of saltpeter to Samuel Phillips of Andover, to be manufactured into gunpowder. –Additional references to appropriations by the General Court for purchase of saltpeter are found in Resolves 1775-76, c 1030, and Resolves 1776-77, c 14, 54, 371, 418, 432, 862, 1068.
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