Within the past month the rifle was handed to a master restorer who removed the rear most ancient repair screw from the trigger guard that ran up through the wood and clamped the wrist back together with a modern water-soluble adhesive and it looks great.
Sunburst type to learn for shiloh crack#
The Civil War soldier then put a small narrow brass plate inside the trigger guard crack and made it fast with a small screw the break is virtually invisible to the eye now. To accommodate the screws, he tapped 2 small holes in the trigger guard. The soldier who picked up the rifle mended it with 2 screws through the trigger guard one long screw ran up to stabilize the cleanly fractured wrist remarkably which had very little wood loss or splintering (Back in the day there were no glues readily available to hold that type of damage fast). The 30th was heavily engaged on April 7, 1862.
"30" over "IND" is very faintly scratched in the front of the trigger guard. The weapon was picked up by a member of the 30th Indiana Volunteers. It caused not only the wrist of the arm to shatter but it also broke and bent the iron trigger guard and caused the barrel tang screw to break off and fly into oblivion (see several attachments). This is just above and to the left of the rear of the lock plate. It can readably be identified as a triangular impact crater extending over 1/2 inch in depth. THE SHILOH WOUND: A shell fragment slammed into the wrist of the rifle. Both sling swivels are in place as is the original threaded ramrod.
Pitting is extant at the rear near the bolster. The smooth barrel retains nice original lacquer brown mixed with age patina. The iron hardware is all original and is encrusted in places with a heavy patina but is not unattractive. There are letters probably the initials of a soldier lightly carved on the left side of the stock north of the butt. The surface on the stock has a wonderful mellow patina. The weapon shows lots of expected period use with burn loss to the wood behind the bolster and some in front of the lock. Of interest is the fact that before the conversion and certainly before the spring of 1862 two other sights were used on this weapon! 1/8th inch deep drilled and threaded holes attest to this fact. The front sight is a crude cast Confederate version while the rear sight is an open "Buckhorn" type moved back 4 inches from its original 1841 position. The Roman numeral "V" is extant in several places, and this is a mating number put on the weapon at a Confederate facility. The somewhat crude cast cock or hammer has not been crosshatched at the thumb pull point. The conversion, to the knowledgeable eye, is only southern in technique. This weapon was converted from flint to percussion ignition using the "bolster conversion" method The work was done at a Confederate government or state sanctioned facility. Army of Mississippi were: Christian Kreutner of Alabama, Holly Springs Armory, Memphis Arsenal, Columbus Mississippi Arsenal, and Briarfield Armory to name a few. Among those re- working and upgrading existing older arms for the, then. This desperate plea resulted in older arms of every description and ignition system being sent to gunsmiths and armories all across the South. Two well defined cartouches are located on the flat opposite the lock.Īlbert Sidney Johnston wrote Jefferson Davis in late 1861 and pleaded: "We need more guns, not more men!". The iron butt plate is marked US on the top of the tang. 54 caliber it is 36 and 1/2 inches long and was never designed to take a bayonet. in an arc over a sunburst motif with a five-pointed star, over US. Forward of the hammer it was, before Confederate modification, marked N.
The gun is marked vertically in three lines behind the hammer: MIDDTN. This particular common rifle was produced in 1841, and that date is found on the rear of the lock plate as well as on the barrel tang. This gun was part of a second contract let to Starr in 1840 for 6,000 rifles. The Common Rifle was only produced by contractors, and not at the National Armories. The term Common Rifle actually dates to the period of use and was meant to differentiate between this traditional muzzle loading rifle and the Hall’s Patent Breech Loading rifle produced at Harper’s Ferry and by Simeon North.
The rifle started life as a Nathan Starr second contract US flintlock rifle and was converted to percussion by Confederate authorities. This is an historic museum worthy example of a Confederate altered US Model 1817 Common Rifle.
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