The Matchlock Gun

The Matchlock Gun
Author(s)	Walter D. Edmonds
Illustrator	Paul Lantz
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Children's, Historical novel
Publisher	Dodd, Mead & Company
Publication date	1941
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	0-698-11680-1

The Matchlock Gun is a novel by Walter D. Edmonds that won the Newbery Medal for excellence as the most distinguished contribution to American children's literature in 1942.

Synopsis

The book is set in the year 1756 during the French and Indian War in Guilderland, New York. Ten-year-old Edward Van Alstyne and his mother Gertrude are determined to protect their home and family with an ancient (and much too heavy) Spanish matchlock gun that Edward's great-grandfather had brought from Holland while his father Teunis is away from home with the local militia fighting the enemy (using, to Edward's disappointment, a musket instead of the matchlock).

Gertrude, Edward, and his younger sister Trudy go about their everyday chores, but news arrives that the French-Indian forces have been attacking and burning nearby settlements and that Teunis and his militia company have been sent to intercept them. Later that day, while she and the children are out herding the cows, Gertrude spots a column of smoke in the distance and realizes that raiders are getting closer. Returning to the house, she prepares for a possible Indian attack by loading the matchlock gun and instructing Edward how and when to fire it. She then goes outside to keep a watch for any approaching raiders.

At the book's climax, Gertrude spots five Indians approaching in the darkness, bent on burning the house. Barely able to outrun them, she reaches the front porch and manages to shout a pre-arranged warning to Edward, but is wounded in the shoulder by a thrown tomahawk, and the boy fires the gun through the front window, killing three raiders and driving off the rest (one of them, apparently wounded, is later killed by the returning militia). As their house burns, Edward and Trudy manage to drag their unconscious mother to safety. Edward goes back into the burning house to save the Spanish gun, and later he, Trudy and their mother are found by their father and the other militiamen.

The book's forward states that this is a true story handed down from Trudy's descendants (Trudy became widely known as an expert spinner, having been taught by her mother who, because of her crippled shoulder, could no longer perform the task).

Awards
Preceded by Call It Courage	Newbery Medal recipient 1942	Succeeded by Adam of the Road