Civil War Relic BP pistols and rifles

[Multigunner]

Just found this
http://www.championhillrelics.com/MiscDugRelics.htm

I'd never heard of this collection before.
I started looking for information on this sort of relic after a fool practically called me a liar when I mentioned the great condition of my brother's dug up Navy Colt.

Anyway, none on this site are in as good a condition as my brother's Colt but some are in pretty good shape. Only a couple still have the grips, My brother's Colt not only has intact grips they still have almost all the original french varnish finish.
I cleaned it up and found the only mechanical damage was a broken hand where the finder had tried to turn the cylinder in the wrong condition with a pipe wrench.
Needless to say that didn't help out the cylinder scene any.
The springs are stronger than those of modern replicas. I would not hesitate to fire it if it were mine.

His Colt looks to have been unloaded when buried, the nipples are still intact. I figure that if it had fired caps in place the primer residue would have eaten away the nipples.
The bore looks like a well seasoned skillet, a little rough but not fatally so. If put in firing condition lead lapping the bore might be best before firing any bullets through it.
I might talk him in to letting me try a few blank loads using waxed tissue paper wadding. I've fired blanks like that in my replica, these could be very dangerous, one caved in the side of a steel trash can like it had been hit with a ball bat.

An 1860 Colt found by the father of a friend back in the 1950's was complete and not badly pitted, but two loaded chambers had rusted through from the inside out. It looked like it might have been fireable if the nipples were replaced and only the two chambers furthest from the rusted chambers were loaded.
The finder had ground and polished away the rusty surface, so no telling what it looked like when found.

Anyone here have a relic they'd like to show off?

When I next have my brother bring his over I'll get some pics and try to post them, its a beauty.

[gnoahhh]

Neat stuff for sure. I grew up not far from the Antietam battlefield and did my share of metal detecting in the area, but I never found a weapon. The closest was an Enfield bayonet on ground occupied by units of Lee's army while waiting to cross the Potomac during the retreat from Gettysburg. Tons of minie balls and round balls, brass buttons, rusty flaky cartridge box tins, etc. were the norm. I did find some brass holster flap buttons and brass ends for tompions, all of which got recycled back into their original use for myself and re-ennactor buddies.

[oldhickory]

BestI can do relic wise is an Enfield bayonet also, (from the Gettysburg Campaign) from where I found it, I beleive it to be Federal issue. I'm very impressed with the 1863 "Artillery" musketoon. I beleive it to be the first authentic "used" one I've seen.

[405]

Any battlefield is interesting- somewhat sacred places really.
Have some old family friends who had a farm adjoinng the Vicksburg battlefield. I never got a chance to poke around there but they had numerous items and many canon balls IIRC of 2 or 3 sizes. I drink coffee with a fellow who grew up on a farm in Arkansas on the banks of the big river. He too remembers turning up all manner of Civil War relics. He still has a large segment of a thick iron sphere- its diameter would be about 15-18". The wall thickness is something like 2". Best I can tell it is a piece of an exploded, very large mortar projectile probably fired from a barge on the river.

[Multigunner]

When they tore down some old houses near here they found cannon balls embedded in the walls and repairs done over them.
A small church on the grounds of a cemetery was used as a field hospital. They say amputated arms and legs were stacked six feet high outside the doors.

There was a massacre of troops caught still in their tents by calvary. I forget which side caught who napping, and a calvary engagement on main street.
The whole area was covered with dead, a rifle company fought to the last man right here where this house now stands. They had dug in tight as a tick and took some killing.

Since this land has been gone over by builders, and was a cornfield before the house was built, no artifacts left unfound so far as I can tell, but I did find what might have been a musket barrel when digging postholes. It was only flakes of rust barely holding the shape of a long tapered thick walled tube, the breech end broken away. It fell apart as I pulled it free. With that taper it was unlikely to have simply been a piece of pipe. Size was exactly right for a riled musket barrel. It was pretty deep, so it was likely lying at the bottom of a trench and covered by mud, then buried as the trench collapsed or was filled in.
The Confederates lost in the end, but the bodies were buried in a mass grave at a major cemetary near here, and a very nice monument was raised by the Daughters of the Confederacy years later. I think it has a bronze angel holding a lamp with a nice poem. I should take some photos next time I go there.

My older brothers found a strong box with some old money , papers, and a pistol inside buried in a vacant lot when they were kids, but I think this dated to the early 20th century rather than Civil War days.

The Colt my brother has was given to him by his son. His son had seen it in a shed when doing some work for the farmer who had found it years earlier. The farmer gave it to him because he knew nothing about pistols and had given up on cleaning it up after the busted the hand and messed up the cylinder with the pipewrench. It was still caked with clay when I first saw it.

[Mustangpalmer1911]

I just started a thread about my Great Great Grandfahters Civil war musket eailer. I am makeing a nice display with it for my father.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y158/mustangpalmer91/c1cb3193.jpg

[oldhickory]

I beleive the type of soil has a lot to do with the condition of a relic when found. I remember visiting George Marinos's shop in Gettysburg some years ago and hanging on the far wall was an 1861 Springfield that from a distance looked to be in very nice shape, (George's place doesn't have the best lighting). On closer examination, it was clearly a relic. I ask George where it came from and he said it had been found under water, (I don't remember where, but it was complete, wood and all).

I've pokedaround the Harrisburg Nail Works in West Fairview, Pa. and found wood planking in the adjoining creek in fair shape. Also nails dumped at the creeks edge, rusty, but still nails. The Nail Works operated from about 1830 to the first years of the 20th century, it was raized in 1911 and used a dumping ground by the locals until about 1950. Lot's of interesting stuff found there before it became a community park.

[gnoahhh]

It's a BIG no-no to remove an artifact from U.S. Park property. That said, one day about 30 years ago I was on an annual pilgrimage to Gettysburg and was hiking with my Labrador puppy across the fields from Seminary Ridge toward the Bloody Angle (the ground covered by Longstreet's assault- Pickets Charge- on the 3rd day). The ground was kind of muddy, having been recently tilled. I bent down to pick up a stick to throw for the dog and lo-and-behold there lay a minie ball. Naturally I picked it up and discovered it to be an unfired Gardner bullet, obviously dropped by a Confederate soldier (as Gardner .58 minies were unique to Confederates). Into my pocket it went, and I drove home feeling a little guilty, but not enough to go back and turn it in. To this day I get a little goose-bumply when I handle it.

[Multigunner]

It's a BIG no-no to remove an artifact from U.S. Park property. That said, one day about 30 years ago I was on an annual pilgrimage to Gettysburg and was hiking with my Labrador puppy across the fields from Seminary Ridge toward the Bloody Angle (the ground covered by Longstreet's assault- Pickets Charge- on the 3rd day). The ground was kind of muddy, having been recently tilled. I bent down to pick up a stick to throw for the dog and lo-and-behold there lay a minie ball. Naturally I picked it up and discovered it to be an unfired Gardner bullet, obviously dropped by a Confederate soldier (as Gardner .58 minies were unique to Confederates). Into my pocket it went, and I drove home feeling a little guilty, but not enough to go back and turn it in. To this day I get a little goose-bumply when I handle it.

All the major battlefields were picked over pretty throughly long ago, a good find is a real rarety these days. If metal detectors were allowed some good stuff might still turn up.
Around here the battle raged all through the county with a calvary engagement right down main street.
I doubt any of the local battle sites are government protected, they'd have to buy up hundreds of farms.
A gold shipment disappeared only a few miles from here, the whole detachment was massacred from what I was told, though more likely it was an inside job. The gold was never heard of again. It would be cool to run onto a huge chest of gold coin. Of course I'd turn it over to the treasury (yeah right).

[coopieclan]

The relic website is awesome.
The excavated guns have such a wonderful look.
Boat anchors get a cool grain in the iron after rusting for a while.
If I had big $ I would be buying an antiquity such as one of these.

[gnoahhh]

Another relic hunting story is that of an acquaintance who was relic hunting in a coastal area of Florida close to the site of an old Confederate coastal defense fort. He found a 32lb. hollow shot only partially buried in the ground. He grabbed it by picking it up with his fingers in the empty fuse hole, like picking up a bowling ball, and carried it that way back to his truck parked about a half mile away. When he flopped it up on the tailgate it rolled over and a coral snake slithered out. I think he went back to the motel at that point, after stopping at a liquor store along the way.

[4060MAY]

Here is one taken from a deceased Confederate LT.
anyone tell me what it is?

[gnoahhh]

Adams? Sorry, just a guess. My knowledge of C&B revolvers doesn't extend much past Colts and Remingtons.

[Dean D.]

Here is one taken from a deceased Confederate LT.
anyone tell me what it is?

Looks very similar to the English made Tranter. A view from the opposite side might confirm it. Here is a link to the Wiki on the Tranter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tranter_%28revolver%29

[4060MAY]

That has been suggested, might be a copy of a Tranter, but notice there is no top strap and the barrel unscrews from the cylinder pin. It is Single/Double action and made by Neumann Freres Leige Belgium
appears to be 44 cal..it is an original gun..Had a gentleman from Belgium going to research it, sent pictures but they went into the black hole called the Internet and I never heard from him again.

[Dean D.]

Interesting piece of history no matter what it ends up being. :grin:

[Frank46]

They were doing some dredging in Bayou Tech here in Louisiana and started pulling up a bunch of old civil war bayonets. While at a local gun show a dealer had some cannonballs of different sizes. I asked where did he get them and he told me that his farm was the site of a battle and just about everywhere he dug, there was either a cannonball or shell. I have 4.5 acres and one of these days I'm going to get a metal detector and see what if anything is on my property. Remember its not only the civil war that was down here but about two hundred years of pirates, smugglers,
and other folks of questionable charactor plying their trades in and around these waters. Local hospital has been a good place to go artifact hunting as musket balls and other stuff can be dug up fairly easily. Hey maybe I have a cannon buried on my property????. Tie a good rope around it and drag it up to the house and give it hell with the pressure washer inside and out. Don't want to be featured on the 6"Oclock
news "a local man was usinga pressure washer to clean a civil war cannon he'd found on his property. Somehow the 170 year old powder charge ignited and blew said man into his backyard. Frank

[gnoahhh]

Be careful if you dig up unexploded ordnance. After all these years it is indeed possible for some of it to blow up. I had a friend who specialized in CW artillery projectiles and rigged a way to de-activate live shells. He built an outhouse-like little building down at the bottom of the yard with nothing but a drill press in it, and a long rope back up to the house. The shell would be submerged in water while being drilled by remote control. Dozens of shells over the years were successfully made safe by this method of getting the powder out of them. Then one day a 12-pounder shell went up, leveling the apparatus.

[405]

Almost forgot this sitting in the safe. Originated out of a collection in Louisiana but unknown about the military history of this particular pistol although some were no doubt used in the Civil War.

M1842 US contract pistol. I.N. Johnson ca 1854. 54 cal. smoothbore. Condition is fairly good and shootable but never attempted to shoot it. Have had it quite a while. Need to get the nipple freed and replaced then go shoot it .... yet another project :)

[reivertom]

Be careful if you dig up unexploded ordnance. After all these years it is indeed possible for some of it to blow up. I had a friend who specialized in CW artillery projectiles and rigged a way to de-activate live shells. He built an outhouse-like little building down at the bottom of the yard with nothing but a drill press in it, and a long rope back up to the house. The shell would be submerged in water while being drilled by remote control. Dozens of shells over the years were successfully made safe by this method of getting the powder out of them. Then one day a 12-pounder shell went up, leveling the apparatus.

There was a fellow killed by a Civil War shell a few years ago in, I think, Virginia as he was drilling into it to see if it was loaded.....it was!!

[Rio Grande]

As the war ended and Federal troops had yet to arrive in Houston, Texas the locals decided to make the best of things and simply take what munitions they could from an armory located along Buffalo Bayou where downtown was and still is. Contemporary accounts relate how dangerous that became, with folks stepping all over loose caps on the floor and loose powder everywhere.
The buildings owner, named Foley, quickly intervened and what shells and other items left were simply tossed into the Bayou - they showed up for years. At least one man was killed years later after scrounging some.
Many are probably still there in the mud.