• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Found at Gettysburg, or so the story goes...

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

larsfinley

Pilgrim
Joined
Aug 12, 2020
Messages
1
Reaction score
2
So the story is that my father used to get drug on family trips to Civil War battle fields when he was a kid. When at Gettysburg they were allowed to go find things on the field and bring them into the shop and buy them. They found this rifle(sorry I didn't get pictures of the rifling grooves but they are there) and bought it. Ive tried searching google but can't find anything that seems to be the same.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.


IMG_6736.jpg



IMG_7292.jpg

"D" on the left hand side plate

IMG_7291.jpg

"Moon 11" as best I can tell. One of three of these on the rifle.

IMG_7289.jpg

"Moon 11" second instance

IMG_7287.jpg

"2 17c 33" opposite the hammer.

IMG_7288.jpg

"_ , 3 or 5, 7" then two crescents around a circle??? and then a "4"

IMG_7290.jpg

"854" next to the hammer
 
I’m not familiar with too many of the rifles made for import for the war. It looks like the nipple is too small for a musket cap. I don’t know if such rifles were made for military or not.
A lot of guns were made simi military for civilian use.
Lot of history was made in the Gettysburg besides the battle, this could be a civilian gun.
I wouldn’t toss it out if it was mine.
 
Looks like an imported Austrian Lorenz made in 1854 ( the date on the lock plate of 854). I've heard stories that after the Gettysburg battle, the locals helped clear the battle field of wounded, dead and equipment. The non-standard equipment could be kept by the civilians . Maybe apocryphal , but I bought a "battle field"gun from a Gettysburg gun dealer with that story attached about 50 years ago
Screen Shot 2020-08-12 at 5.31.24 PM.png
 
Anything left on the battlefield for a few years would have been a chunk of rust and rotted wood. However, I do remember reading a story of one or more boys who were tired of farm life and yearned to see the west and they allegedly stopped by the battle field in September 1863 for a couple of rifles, ammo etc. as they fled west. I live about 35 miles due east of the battle field. The story goes that the farmer owning the property was injured at Gettysburg and furloughed to go home to recuperate. He grabbed a mule that was just wandering around in harness and headed home. He spent a few weeks recuperating and then began building a new house. The farm house and farm, my wife and I purchased built in 1863. The soldiers grandson would stop by occasionally and tell us stories about the farm and the old man. I found some strange old artifacts around the place. an old leather boot with a wooden pegged on heel up in the basement rafters, old bottles, etc. But one day I spotted something in the corner of some shelves in the basement. A really old moldy piece of leather with a buckle attached. The buckle was a small cast thing for a strap about 5/8 inch. The tab on the brass buckle has the letters CSA.. Up in the woods I also found the remains of some old horse drawn wagons. I found another brass buckle up next to one of those wagons, it matched the one I found in the house, but was much more corroded. I looked for records of the old man's enlistment. mustering out, pensions reciepts etc. Nothing. Most recently, I learned that this part of PA had a lot of southern sympathizers. In fact a company of Confederate Soldiers was raised in the southern PA county (A confederate General grew up just 4 miles from here) and that Sam may have been one of the Confederates.
 
Not a Lorenz M1854 series. They were all cal. .54. I have a M 1854 Jaeger rirle. This is the M1849 Jaeger rifle in .71 cal, unless it has been reamed out. Yes, it is dated 864. Maybe one of the last ones made before priduction shifted over.Appears original and unmolested but missing both swivels and rear site. Rammer either replacment or heavily repaired. A survey of the bayonets in the Rosensteil collection picked up on the battlefield indicates 1 or more having been found. I just don't remember. Takes a VERY impressive bayonet! I have some lock parts if needed. Nice find! Jaeger
 
Looks like an imported Austrian Lorenz made in 1854 ( the date on the lock plate of 854). I've heard stories that after the Gettysburg battle, the locals helped clear the battle field of wounded, dead and equipment. The non-standard equipment could be kept by the civilians . Maybe apocryphal , but I bought a "battle field"gun from a Gettysburg gun dealer with that story attached about 50 years agoView attachment 39681

That gun does not look like it has spent much time lying out in the weather.
I would not put it past unscrupulous antique dealers “ salting “ some of the nearby landscape with old items they had bought someplace else, scattering a few here and there on private property for tourists to “ find “ and purchase.
 
Not a Lorenz M1854 series. They were all cal. .54. I have a M 1854 Jaeger rirle. This is the M1849 Jaeger rifle in .71 cal, unless it has been reamed out. Yes, it is dated 864. Maybe one of the last ones made before priduction shifted over.Appears original and unmolested but missing both swivels and rear site. Rammer either replacment or heavily repaired. A survey of the bayonets in the Rosensteil collection picked up on the battlefield indicates 1 or more having been found. I just don't remember. Takes a VERY impressive bayonet! I have some lock parts if needed. Nice find! Jaeger
actually it is dated "854". My Brother has a hacked up "sporterized" musket brought back from the war by an ancestor (he was drafted in late July 1863). Fashioned into a half stock shotgun and bored out. It is obviously a later Lorenz and is marked "864" iron trigger guard. Lorenz also sold model 1861 horse pistols to the federal Government for cavalry use. Most were issued to Cavalry units from New England, but as soon as the superior fire power of revolvers became evident, the single shots were traded in. I had an original 1861 Lorenz pistol in great shape. Shot it a few times. I remember it as being a 56 caliber, but I lost it in a house fire.
 
Back
Top