Union-used Confederate Musket, ca. 1862
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GUEST:
I brought my great-great-grandfather's rifle from the Civil War. He was in the 116th New York Volunteers.
APPRAISER:
All right.
GUEST:
He came into the war later, and his first assignment was to be posted at the Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C.
APPRAISER:
Interesting, interesting.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
And he do anything special while he was there at the prison, or, you know, just working as a guard?
GUEST:
Well, he wrote some letters to my great-great-grandmother...
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
...indicating that he was guarding the fellow that doctored John Wilkes Booth's leg, so that would be Dr. Samuel Mudd.
APPRAISER:
Oh, really? Dr. Mudd. Very interesting. That's certainly a neat piece of history. Do you know much about the gun itself, or do you just know that he brought it home after the war?
GUEST:
We know that it's a Potts and Hunt. He bought it when he left the service in 1867 for $6.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
They withdrew that from his pay.
APPRAISER:
Okay, well, what you brought in here today is an English-made Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle musket. This was the standard weapon for the British military at the time, and it was probably the most advanced muzzle loading, percussion ignition firearm used by any military during the mid-19th century. This was the second-most-used gun during the course of the Civil War by both sides. Thousands of Enfield rifle muskets were imported by both the North and by the South.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And what's sort of interesting is the guns were very popular because they're .577 caliber, nominally .58, and that's the same caliber as the American Springfield rifle musket, which was the standard-issue gun for the U.S. military. So, for the most part, the ammunition was somewhat interchangeable.
GUEST:
You didn't have to worry about the ammo.
APPRAISER:
It worked out very well in terms of ordinance supplies and things like that. And, you're right, the gun is marked Potts and Hunt on the lock plate. Potts and Hunt was a London gun contractor. They made a lot of guns. These guns were made on contract between 1861 and basically 1864. This gun is not dated, so we don't know for sure what year it was manufactured, but it was probably circa 1862, based on the style of the Sinclair Hamilton mark that's found on the gun. And, of course, you've got the original bayonet that came with the gun, the bayonet he was issued, so that was a very important accessory. Without that you, uh, couldn't guard against cavalry. What's sort of interesting about your gun, even though it saw Union service, is this gun was originally a Confederate contract gun.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
It was made for the Confederacy. And the way we know that...
GUEST:
(laughs) Wow.
APPRAISER:
...is up here on the comb, in front of the buttplate tang, we have a little mark that indicates this gun was made for Sinclair Hamilton Company. Sinclair Hamilton and Company was the largest single provider of firearms to the South, from Great Britain, during the course of the American Civil War. It also has the mark, this little "I.C." here. Okay. That's the mark of Isaac Curtis. He was an Englishman who was hired to work as a viewer-- an arms inspector-- in England by the Confederacy. So with his inspection mark, and with the Sinclair Hamilton mark, we know for sure that this gun was part of a Confederate contract.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
More than likely what happened to this gun is it was captured coming through the blockade. And it's interesting, you've got a New York regiment that the gun was issued to. When the guns were captured, when the arms and material were captured coming through the blockade, they were sold at prize courts. Basically auctioned off. Auctioned off in New York City, the state of New York acquired the gun, and then issued it to their troops. So, you've got a neat gun. Confederate purchased, but the gun's turned against them and used by the Union to preserve the Union. As a regular plain old Enfield, in the condition it's in, at retail, it's about a $1,200 gun. You've got a nice I.D. with it. That enhances the gun. So, with the I.D., it's about a $2,000 retail gun. The magic is those Confederate inspection marks. Makes it a much more interesting, much more desirable gun, and in a retail setting, probably priced around $5,000.
GUEST:
Really? Wow! (laughs) That's quite a surprise.
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