Guns International #: 103616048
Seller's Inventory #: 250322

Category - Civil War Rifles - Antique Rifles - Percussion

Category
Civil War Rifles
Antique Rifles - Percussion

CONFEDERATE 1861 Dated TYPE-1 Antique RICHMOND, VA “Humpback” Rifle-Musket SCARCE! 1 OF 2300; VERY Early TRANSITIONAL Longarm

Description:
CONFEDERATE 1861 Dated TYPE-1 Antique RICHMOND, VA “Humpback” Rifle-Musket

SCARCE! 1 OF 2300; VERY Early TRANSITIONAL Longarm

Here we present an antique Confederate “1861” Dated RICHMOND, VA Three-Band “Humpback” Rifle-Musket, made in mid-1861 in Richmond, Virginia. This Richmond Armory longarm is often referred to as a Confederate “High Hump” rifle musket. The ‘high hump’ trait in the U.S. Model 1855 lockplate was designed to support the Maynard tape primer system which the Confederates did not use in their own production. This example is based on the U.S. Model 1855 Pattern made at the U.S. armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
This one has the proper inletting for a stock captured at Harpers Ferry and therefore the Richmond lock, an unmarked (i.e. not “US” marked) buttplate, and was built with one of the captured Harpers Ferry barrels as the rear sight dovetail does not have the “T”. The wear on the stock is very fitting for a Confederate gun. The sizeable groove at the rear of the ramrod channel might be from saddle wear.

In early April of 1861, in an effort to prevent Confederates from seizing arsenal equipment, including 15,000 muskets, Union 1st Lieutenant Roger Jones set fire to the arsenal buildings and then fled north to Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In the meantime, Virginia militia under the command of Major General Kenton Harper occupied the town, and when Colonel Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson arrived on April 27 to organize the militia into army regiments, he salvaged what he could from the arsenal ruins, including 300 machines and 57,000 tools, spare musket parts, dies, and 33,993 black walnut stocks which they shipped to Richmond, Virginia where the Type-1 rifles were assembled once the southern armory was refitted with the Federal machinery. The machinery and stocks were shipped on the Winchester and Potomac Railroad to Winchester, Virginia, where they were transferred by wagons over the Valley Pike to be reloaded onto the Manassas Gap Railroad at Strasburg, Virginia for delivery to Richmond. The rifling machinery was transferred to the Fayetteville Arsenal. These very early high-hump models all had lockplates that had the date “1861” stamped behind the hammer, and “RICHMOND, VA” forward of the hammer. They were the predecessor of the Confederate government’s first production run of military longarms which commenced at the end of August or early September timeframe in 1861.

At the start of the American Civil War, the Confederacy suffered from a lack of resources with the capability to produce small arms weapons. Virginia appropriated funds to modernize the Old State Armory building in Richmond with arms-making machinery manufactured in England. But the confrontation at Fort Sumter initiated the Union blockade which prevented delivery of the machinery. The original Virginia Manufactory of Arms was a state-owned manufacturer of firearms and arsenal in what today is Richmond, Virginia. It was established by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1798 to supply the Virginia militia with firearms. The factory operated from around 1802 to 1821. When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, the works were revived as the Richmond Armory, eventually utilizing the machinery captured from Harpers Ferry in April 1861. The Richmond Armory Rifle-Muskets are easily identified by the hump-back lock plate made from forgings and dies for the U.S. Model 1855 Maynard tape primer lock plate that were captured at Harpers Ferry. While the Model 1855 lock was made to be milled out for the use of paper primers, Richmond left the locks intact and simply used the standard percussion caps directly on the nipple. This musket represents the most numerous domestically produced longarm of the Confederacy and one that would have been found in the infantry’s hands most often.

The overall condition is good. Strong action. The bore is dim with very little trace of rifling. Dark patina with oxidation throughout. The stock is solid despite showing evidence of much use and weathering.

Own the original! This is a legitimate antique and not a reproduction.

Barrel is 40 inches.

Caliber: .58 Percussion

Overall condition as seen in photos.

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Guaranteed AUTHENTIC & Includes CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY.

ancestryguns

$3200

#250322
 

SOLD

Antique: Yes