CIVIL WAR GUN SURVIVAL

[brubincam]

-----I just wonder how many CIVIL WAR firearms have survived to this day-----

 

[Mad Professor]

I've got a Springfield made by Rhode Island Tool Co., 1863 manufacture date.

The stock is in great shape, barrel has been cut down, but lock/trigger is fully functional. I've not tried but I bet with a new nipple and a little cleaning it would fire fine. :thumbsup:

Not sure if it is a shot out 58 cal. rifle or started life as a smoothie, no lands visible at the muzzle?

 

[R.M.]

I have an 1860 Austrian Lorenz.

R.M.

 

[J.D.]

Considering the huge numbers of muskets acquired for both sides, relatively few continue to exist, especially in good, original condition.

The gates and fence of Grant's Farm, in what is now St. Louis County, were made from scrapped CW gun barrels, for example.

Of those remaining, many were sold surplus and others cut down or modified into various configurations for continued use by the military.

So, if you own a CW rifle musket in good condition, you have a gem.

 

[arquebus]

I suspect neither of mine were used during the war, but I have two original civil war era rifle-muskets. The first is a Remington M.1863 (Zouave), & the other is a Bavarian-made M.1858 Amberg/Podewils. The Podewils was one of the many types of R-Ms to be imported during the civil war, but I don't see any U.S. or C.S. markings on mine, so assume it was brought over sometime after.

 

[jdstrang]

I'd guess tens of thousands of original CW guns survive in some form or other, considering the spectrum of firearms involved, from wheelguns through Henrys. I'd guess there are maybe a thousand original Smith, Burnside, Ballard, Gallagher and Maynard carbines alone still in heavy use in the N-SSA.

Not sure if it is a shot out 58 cal. rifle or started life as a smoothie, no lands visible at the muzzle?

There's a good chance your rifle was bored out after the war to be a shotgun. That was the sad fate of uncounted Springfields and Enfields as westward-bound settlers found such cheaply remade shotguns/smoothbores more suited to their subsistence game-getting needs than rifles.

 

[Bountyhunter]

I have two for sure.

 

[redwing]

I don't know but from the Museums filled with them there was more than a few. This seems to the most displayed of all firearms. :2

 

[bob308]

yes yours was a .58 musket. as stated before many were cut down and bored out for shot guns.w stokes kirk and bannerman were 2 of the biggest surplus dealers of the time.

when i worked for bob hoyt we put many of the cut down rifles back to the way they were. it was easy cut them off under the middle barrel band dore them out make up a sleeve. and rifle it.

dunlap made replacemant forearms.

 

[bob308]

the remington was used late in the war. the other rifle could have been used too not all were marked.

 

[Zonie]

My 1842 Springfield .69 cal smoothbore was likely used in the CW but there is no way to tell for certain.

I know they were quite popular during the war for shooting buck & ball and they played a role in several of the major battles that were fought.

 

[ronrryan]

In about 1947/8 my cousin John and I took the Long Island railroad into New York City and went to Bannerman's warehouse store. He bought a perfect trap door Springfield for $7 complete with bayonet, scabbard and sling. I bought a perfect 50/70 Remington rolling block carbine for $5. They tried to sell us civil war Springfields or Enfields in great shape for $2.50 to include a cartridge box with twenty rounds of ammo. They had them by the hundreds racked up on the walls as tight as could be up to the high ceilings, with thousands more in stands in the back. It makes me want to cry---nobody wanted them, they couldnt give 'em away. God only knows what happened to them.Good smoke, Ron

 

[Poor Private]

Since I have done civil war reenacting for a bunch of years, it is nothing to see original firearms out on the field. From muskets, to rifled musket, and lots of side arms and even sabers. One of the guys in my union unit has a 3band enfield that is now cut down to a 2 bander. It was found this way in the wall of an old farmhouse that a friend of his was remodeling.
These guys still take them out into the reeacting field to use. But they are not using them "live" they are only used with blanks (just pouring 60 grains of powder down them, and packing the paper ).

 

[arquebus]

I shoot MLAIC competition, & there are ALOT of original firearms still be used, not just CW era, even matchlock muskets dating back to the 1700s.

My original Zouave has a bunch of notches carved into the top edge of the forearm.....I'm assuming they are 'kill notches', but don't know if it was for game or foe!

 

[varsity07840]

I hunt with an original 41 Mississippi
(.58 rebore), a rifled '42 and a '63 Springfields.

Duane

 

[Zonie]

arquebus:
I doubt that the notches were carved into Government issued arms during the war.
The military then had about as much humor about defacing Government property then as they do now. :rotf:

Most likely the notches are like the (upside down) initials in the stock on my 1842.

I'm sure they were carved after the gun was sold to the public.

To folks wondering about the upside down initials: These were sometimes done this way because the guns were often hung on the wall or above the doorway upside down.

 

[rebel727]

I've got a three band Enfield dated 1861. :thumbsup:

 

[Trot]

There appear to be lots of them around, I have been looking to buy one, but the prices are pretty steep!

 

[Pigman]

I just passed, last summer, on an original 1863 springfield for $300 at a pawn shop.

At the end of the CW the men were given the option of taking their weapons home for cost. If I recall right it was like $7.00 for an infantry man.

Thanks,
Foster