Provenance has probably affected price more than any other factor in recent years, so it stands to reason that many items have “acquired” a provenance. When you are paying for an item and its history, be careful. It is easy for a seller to tell a story when handing over an object, but it is a lot more difficult to verify or prove it. The best provenance will be in the form of period inscriptions or written notes attributing an object to a particular soldier.
THE WEAPON’S PLACE IN HISTORY
Finally, it is the goal of this book to help the collector understand the context of the firearm. Depending on how it is viewed, the context can be varied. For example, a Model 1861 Springfield rifle in average condition is, in the most base of contexts, an item worth about $900. Stepping up the ladder, it represents the strides in rifled firearms development made in a few short years of the Civil War. Even higher up the ladder of consciousness, it might represent the need of a modern society to feel connected with its past.
Context is, obviously, a very personal consideration. Feelings and emotions aside, however, it is factually correct that these firearms represent a time in the United States’s history when a pervasive feeling of states rights and isolation from its government caused a people to sever themselves from the nation. What ensued was the overwhelming willingness of the masses to die to protect that right or to protect the integrity of the Union. This is the context that we, as collectors of firearms of this great struggle, can never forget.
CHAPTER 1 MUSKETS
I n terms of Civil War weaponry, a “musket” is any smoothbore, muzzle-loading shoulder arm of a minimum length of 50? that was made to support a bayonet. That is to say, “the standard weapon carried by the world’s infantry in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries.”
By 1861, the musket was an antiquated weapon. In the decade prior, many of the major world armies, including that of the United States, had adopted rifled weapons. Rifled muskets, rifle-muskets, rifles, and rifled carbines were changing the way war was fought.
As rifled weapons reached the troops, hundreds of thousands of smoothbore muskets were relegated to arsenal gun racks. When buyers for the Union and Confederacy searched, the world’s governments were eager to sell the obsolete muskets. With few alternatives, the buyers reluctantly snatched up the stocks hoping that armories back in the States (whether United or Confederate) would be able to rifle the weapons before issuing them to the troops. Whereas this did happen, it was the exception more than the rule.
The same process occurred in the United States. Government and state armories were full of obsolete muskets, some dating back to the War of 1812. On November 12, 1859, Colonel of Ordnance H.K. Craig stated that 23,894 flintlock muskets were still unaltered and in the possession of the United States armories and arsenals. Two months later, he reported 499,554 .69-caliber percussion muskets and muskets altered to percussion were on hand and suitable for service. However, of that number, 60,878 muskets and rifles were in arsenals in South Carolina, Alabama, and Louisiana, and would be lost if the southern states decided to seize them. At that time, the U.S. arsenals reported little more than 35,000 rifled weapons on hand.
Work had been in progress to convert the smoothbores to rifled weapons and flintlock ignitions to percussion, but that work had proceeded rather slowly. Desperate for arms, many states sent their troops off to war armed with whatever weapons they had.
However, by 1863, manufacturing in the north was closing in on meeting demand. Troops who had entered the war with old, state-provided smoothbores or received sub-standard European arms began to receive new issues of rifle-muskets. In the South, where demand out-paced supply, this transition took a bit longer. Nevertheless, the smoothbore musket is best quantified as an “early war weapon.”
AUSTRIAN MODEL 1842, .70 CALIBER, PAPER CARTRIDGE, PERCUSSION
Made by Austrian National Armory and private gun manufactories, ca. 1842-1849 Total imported: Unknown, but more than 135,000.
Overall length: 58".
Muzzleloader, single shot.
Markings are uncommon. Each lock plate was stamped with a small Austrian eagle and the year of manufacture (with the first digit omitted, e.g., “843”). A few examples have the year of manufacture stamped on the barrel near the breech in addition to “IB” in an oval. Some arms bear the mark of a private manufacturer, “RS Heretta”.
Originally fitted with a tube-lock ignition system developed in Austria, the three-band, Model 1842 muskets were produced as smoothbores. All iron furniture was left bright. Later, many were rifled to fire a conical bullet. The U.S. Ordnance Department purchased approximately 68,500 Model 1842 muskets in various configurations. Conversions from the original tube-lock include a U.S. cone seated in the barrel, bolster or cone seat brazed on the breech, patent breech with forged bolster, or a U.S. Maynard conversion style. The firm of Kruse, Drexel and Schmidt supplied 25,000 in the original tube-lock configuration to General John Frémont. Herman Boker imported two shorter versions: A cadet model that was 52-1/2" overall and an engineer model measuring 48-1/2". It is unknown how many Model 1842 muskets the Confederate government purchased, though it was, most likely, a weapon utilized by southern troops.
| GOOD–$375 | FINE–$1,250 |
Amoskeag Auction Company, Inc.
BRITISH PATTERN 1839 MUSKET, .75 CALIBER, PAPER CARTRIDGE, PERCUSSION
Rock Island Auction Company
Made by various English manufactures, London, England, 1839-1851 Total imported: Unknown, but likely more than 10,000.
Overall length: 55".
Muzzleloader, single shot.
Lock plates vary dependant on year of manufacture. Generally, the lock plate will be stamped with a crown over “VR,” the British “broad arrow” and the year of manufacture in addition to “Enfield” or “Tower,” depending on place of manufacture. Barrels are stamped with either the Enfield proof mark, a crown over “VR” or “MR” above a set of crowned scepters or the London and Birmingham mark consisting of a crown over “TP” over a broad arrow in addition to a crown over “B” surmounting a “7” over a crowned broad arrow.
Originally designed as a flintlock musket, the P39 musket can be recognized by the three round pins and upper swivel screw that retain the barrel to the stock. The P39 was produced without a rear