Book Review: The Outlaw Gunner, by Henry M. Walsh
Jim Block • April 27, 2021
Eastern Shore outlanders wanting to acquaint themselves with local culture and history naturally learn about Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Henry Highland Garnet, and Gloria Richardson.
However, readers can discover another aspect of Shore history and culture in Henry M. Walsh’s The Outlaw Gunner (1st ed., 1971, 2008, Tidewater Publishers; 2nd ed., Schiffer, 2020), a history of wildfowl hunting and market gunning, its culture, techniques, boats, decoys, wardens, traps, trappers, cannon, guns, gunners, and dogs. Walsh also helped to found the Eastern Shore Waterfowl Festival in Easton.
Walsh’s local history will interest even readers with little or no interest in shooting. Many of its 13 chapters have tales told with art and imagination, including gunners and game wardens playing hide-and-seek, hunters battling storms, large guns that explode and injure their users, and long vigils waiting for game that all add rich appeal to his historical research.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, waterfowl hunting was far more important to the local economy than now. Well into the 20th century, ducks and to a lesser extent geese provided locals with plenty of food as well as plenty of food to sell. Restaurants in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York bought many birds from the Eastern Shore, with Canvasbacks prized for their flavor. Eating establishments in those cities almost always had wild fowl on their menus.
In the early 20th century, fearing mass extinction of the nation’s bird populations, Congress passed the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (1918, with Canada and later other nations). This early environmental protection law made it illegal, without a permit, “to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, or sell” wild, native migratory birds or their parts. Waterfowl needed protection from market hunters, but the Snowy Egret was also hunted nearly to extinction to provide white feathers for women’s hats.
Market gunning resembles the 19th century movement overland to settle the West. Yes, the Eastern Shore had long been settled by Europeans, but its outlaw gunners demonstrated endurance and imagination aplenty. Working with few materials, reusing old equipment, and sometimes struggling for survival, these bird hunters’ resourcefulness and imagination matched the wagon-hauling pioneers.
For instance, outlaw gunners invented specifically-designed boats (sinkboxes, sneak skiffs) in which to stealthily approach large rafts of unsuspecting ducks floating on the water.
Giant “punt guns,” some with bores as large as two inches, were improvised and packed with large amounts of powder to take out dozens of birds at a single firing. Improvised firearms sometimes exploded, causing serious injuries. Made from steel pipes or reused shotgun barrels and bolted to the bows of shallow-draft boats, battery guns fired multiple barrels simultaneously and sprayed shot widely.
When the MBTA law suddenly restricted hunting, the gunners quickly shifted to night hunting, the better to continue shooting ducks without hindrance by the law.
Historians of market gunning have yet to declare its end date, likely because none exists. The 1918 law, of course, was honored in the breach. The 1934 Duck Stamp Act regulated season dates and bag limits, but made perhaps a bigger impact in funds for state wildlife agencies and in sponsoring the popular duck stamp art competition. Ducks Unlimited notes that in the 1930’s there were “changes to waterfowl hunting regulations. Live decoys, sinkboxes, baiting, and shotguns larger than 10-gauge were prohibited, and a three-shell limit was placed on repeating shotguns.” On the whole, outlaw gunning ended with not a bang but a whimper.
Although Walsh’s treatment of outlaw gunners is sympathetic, the book’s final chapter argues a conservationist’s point. The book’s purpose is “to call attention to the many problems and uncertain future of our waterfowl” (167). Continued commercial hunting would have brought both waterfowl and sport to extinction. Even so, deteriorating conditions in the Bay as well as development have diminished waterfowl nesting habitat and hampered ducks’ reproduction. Hunters or not, all Chesapeake Bay residents are obligated to support conservation and environmental protection efforts.
References
https://www.commonsenseeasternshore.org/eastern-necks-outlaw-gunning-skiff-history-of-a-mystery
https://chestertownspy.org/2020/11/10/the-return-of-the-outlaw-gunner/
https://www.wildfowlmag.com/editorial/destinations_wf_chesapeake_0809/280774
http://johninthewild.com/the-history-of-hunting-ducks-tolling-and-market-gunning/
https://easternshorejournal.com/a-piece-of-hunting-history-eastern-necks-gunning-skiff/
Jim Block taught English at Northfield Mount Hermon, a boarding school in Western Mass. He coached cross-country, and advised the newspaper and the debate society there. He taught at Marlborough College in England and Robert College in Istanbul. He and his wife retired to Chestertown, Md. in 2014.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
Right now, Congress is working on a fast-track bill that would make historic cuts to basic needs programs in order to finance another round of tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.
The House Agriculture Committee recently voted, along party lines, to advance legislation that would cut as much as $300 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program, helping more than 41 million people in the U.S. pay for food. With potential cuts this large, it helps to know who benefits from this program in Maryland, and who would lose this assistance. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities compiled data on SNAP beneficiaries by congressional district, cited below, and produced the Maryland state datasheet , shown below. In Maryland, in 2023-24, 1 in 9 people lived in a household with SNAP benefits. In Maryland’s First Congressional District, in 2023-24: Almost 34,000 households used SNAP benefits. Of those households, 43% had at least one senior (over age 60). 29% of SNAP recipients were people of color. 15% were Black, non-Hispanic, higher than 11.8% nationally. 6% were Hispanic (19.4% nationally). There were 24,700 total veterans (ages 18-64). Of those, 2,200 lived in households that used SNAP benefits (9%). The CBPP SNAP datasheet for Maryland is below. See data from all the states and download factsheets here.
Apparently, some people think that the GOP’s “big beautiful bill” is a foregone conclusion, and that the struggle over the budget and Trump’s agenda is over and done. Not true. On Sunday night, the bill — given the alternate name “Big Bad Bullsh*t Bill” by the Democratic Women’s Caucus — was voted out of the House Budget Committee. The GOP plan is to pass this legislation in the House before Memorial Day. But that’s not the end of it. As Jessica Craven explained in her Chop Wood Carry Water column: “Remember, we have at least six weeks left in this process. The bill has to: Pass the House, Then head to the Senate where it will likely be rewritten almost completely, Then be passed there, Then be brought back to the House for reconciliation, And then, if the House changes that version at all, Go back to the Senate for another vote.” She adds, “Every step of that process is a place for us to kill it.” The bill is over a thousand pages long, and the American people will not get a chance to read it until it has passed the House. But, thanks to 5Calls , we know it includes:
Let's talk about our Eastern Shore Delegation, the representatives who are supposed to fight for our nine Shore counties in Annapolis, and what they actually got up to this session.
For the first time in recent memory, Virginia Democrats have candidates running in all 100 House of Delegates districts — a milestone party leaders and grassroots organizers say reflects rising momentum as President Donald Trump’s second term continues to galvanize opposition.
The 447th legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly adjourned on April 8. This End of Session Report highlights the work Shore Progress has done to fight for working families and bring real results home to the Shore. Over the 90-day session, lawmakers debated 1,901 bills and passed 878 into law. Shore Progress and members supported legislation that delivers for the Eastern Shore, protecting our environment, expanding access to housing and healthcare, strengthening workers’ rights, and more. Shore Progress Supported Legislation By The Numbers: Over 60 pieces of our backed legislation were passed. Another 15 passed in one Chamber but not the other. Legislation details are below, past the budget section. The 2026 Maryland State Budget How We Got Here: Maryland’s budget problems didn’t start overnight. They began under Governor Larry Hogan. Governor Hogan expanded the state budget yearly but blocked the legislature from moving money around or making common-sense changes. Instead of fixing the structural issues, Hogan used federal covid relief funds to hide the cracks and drained our state’s savings from $5.5 billion to $2.3 billion to boost his image before leaving office. How Trump/Musk Made It Worse: Maryland is facing a new fiscal crisis driven by the Trump–Musk administration, whose trade wars, tariff policies, and deep federal cuts have hit us harder than most, costing the state over 30,000 jobs, shuttering offices, and erasing promised investments. A University of Maryland study estimates Trump’s tariffs alone could cost us $2 billion, and those federal cuts have already added $300 million to our budget deficit. Covid aid gave us a short-term boost and even created a fake surplus under Hogan, but that money is gone, while housing, healthcare, and college prices keep rising. The Trump–Musk White House is only making things worse by slashing funding, gutting services, and eliminating research that Marylanders rely on. How The State Budget Fixes These Issues: This year, Maryland faced a $3 billion budget gap, and the General Assembly fixed it with a smart mix of cuts and fair new revenue, while protecting working families, schools, and health care. The 2025 Budget cuts $1.9 billion ($400 million less than last year) without gutting services people rely on. The General Assembly raised $1.2 billion in fair new revenue, mostly from the wealthiest Marylanders. The Budget ended with a $350 million surplus, plus $2.4 billion saved in the Rainy Day Fund (more than 9% of general fund revenue), which came in $7 million above what the Spending Affordability Committee called for. The budget protects funding for our schools, health care, transit, and public workers. The budget delivers real wins: $800 million more annually for transit and infrastructure, plus $500 million for long-term transportation needs. It invests $9.7 billion in public schools and boosts local education aid by $572.5 million, a 7% increase. If current revenue trends hold, no new taxes will be needed next session. Even better, 94% of Marylanders will see a tax cut or no change, while only the wealthiest 5% will finally pay their fair share. The tax system is smarter now. We’re: Taxing IT and data services like Texas and D.C. do; Raising taxes on cannabis and sports betting, not groceries or medicine; and Letting counties adjust income taxes. The budget also restores critical funding: $122 million for teacher planning $15 million for cancer research $11 million for crime victims $7 million for local business zones, and Continued support for public TV, the arts, and BCCC The budget invests in People with disabilities, with $181 million in services Growing private-sector jobs with $139 million in funding, including $27.5 million for quantum tech, $16 million for the Sunny Day Fund, and $10 million for infrastructure loans. Health care is protected for 1.5 million Marylanders, with $15.6 billion for Medicaid and higher provider pay. Public safety is getting a boost too, with $60 million for victim services, $5.5 million for juvenile services, and $5 million for parole and probation staffing. This budget also tackles climate change with $100 million for clean energy and solar projects, and $200 million in potential ratepayer relief. Public workers get a well-deserved raise, with $200 million in salary increases, including a 1% COLA and ~2.5% raises for union workers. The ultra-wealthy will finally chip in to pay for it: People earning over $750,000 will pay more, Millionaires will pay 6.5%, and Capital gains over $350,000 get a 2% surcharge. Deductions are capped for high earners, but working families can still deduct student loans, medical debt, and donations. This budget is bold, fair, and built to last. That’s why Shore Progress proudly supports it. Click on the arrows below for details in each section.
