Arms, Armor and Militaria

.44 RF Henry. 24" octagonal barrel. SN: 3352 (mfg. circa late 1863). Blued barrel and magazine tube, color casehardened hammer and lever, brass frame and furniture, round toe walnut buttstock. Lever action tubular magazine fed rifle with 900-yard folding ladder rear sight and German silver front sight blade. Barrel is marked in two lines forward of the rear sight: HENRY'S PATENT OCT. 16, 1860/MANUFACTURED BY THE NEW HAVEN ARMS CO. NEW HAVEN, CT. Serial number 3352 on top of barrel between rear sight and frame. Research published by Wiley Sword indicates that Henry Rifles with the serial numbers 3301-3535 were manufactured during November of 1863. The matching serial number appears on the lower left frame tang, inside the upper tang mortise of the buttstock and inside the buttplate, as well as on the neck of the buttplate tang screw. The lower buttplate screw is numbered 3276 and the three buttstock retaining screws that pass through the upper and lower frame tangs are not numbered. #3276 also falls in the range of 1st DC cavalry Martial Henry Rifles. The rifle was not further disassembled to examine for any additional numbers or markings. The left side of the barrel at the frame junction is marked with the CGC sub-inspection mark of Charles G. Curtis. A stylized 2 is stamped in the lower frame tang. No cartouche is visible on the stock. The bolt face which the firing pins are mounted to is missing, preventing the bolt from fully retracting when the action is cocked. There are no cleaning rods in the butt trap of the stock. While this serial number does not specifically appear in the very incomplete lists of serial numbers compiled in the Springfield Research Service serial number record books or those complied by Wiley Sword, #3354, only two numbers away, does appear as one of the guns reissued to the 3rd Veteran Volunteers. This gun comes from the collection of noted firearms historian and author Charles Worman, whose two volume set Firearms of the American West 1803-1865 and 1866-1894 is one of the leading references for arms historians and collectors.

By the middle of 1863, the War Department and Ordnance Department were feeling the public pressure to equip cavalry regiments with the Henry repeating rifle. A newly organized cavalry battalion known initially as Baker’s Mounted Rangers, but subsequently designated as the 1st DC Cavalry, would be the first to receive US Ordnance Department contract Henry Rifles. The unit was formed to directly counter the Confederate partisan rangers harassing norther Virginia and the Washington D.C. area, particularly John S. Mosby’s rangers. In order to give Colonel Lafayette Baker’s men, the greatest advantage they were to be armed with the Henry Rifle. To this end, two hundred and forty rifles were ordered in June of 1863 to arm his initial command of a battalion sized force, which eventually grew to be a full sized regiment. In the end some eleven hundred Henry rifles would be delivered under government contract for Baker’s command. The first three hundred came mostly from various New Haven Arms distributors and dealers, due to so few arms being available and on hand at the factory. These arrived in several shipments between June and October of 1863 and are not marked with US inspector marks. Their martial status is confirmed by their notation by serial number in the rolls of the 3rd US Veteran Volunteer Regiment, who received many of the former 1st DC Cavalry guns after this new regiment was formed in the spring of 1865.

These initial Henry deliveries appear sporadically in the 1,300 to 3,000 serial number range and as noted are not inspected. The next eight hundred Henry’s delivered to the 1st DC Cavalry were delivered during the first part of 1864 and are all contained within the 3,000 to 4,000 serial number range. These guns were inspected at the New Haven Arms factory by Charles G. Curtis, who began the inspection process in February of 1864. These guns bear Chapman’s block CGC mark on the right side of the barrel at the frame juncture and on the right side of the stock in the form of a script cartouche. This completed the single largest US government order for Henry Rifles. Two additional orders of five hundred and one hundred twenty-seven rifles were placed in April and May of 1865, respectively, for issue to the 3rd Veteran Volunteers. However, at this point the war was over and these guns did not see Civil War combat service. These final deliveries were not inspected by Curtis but bear other inspector marks. A number of the men in the 1st DC Cavalry purchased their guns and took them home after the war (a total of sixty-five according to Wiley Sword’s research), and an even larger number of the guns were lost while fighting Confederate forces on the Virginia peninsula not long after the guns were issued to them. Another sixty-two went home with the men of the 1st Maine Cavalry, the regiment into which most of the 1st DC Cavalry was folded in August of 1864 when the regiment was dissolved. Sometime after the siege of Petersburg, most of the remaining 1st DC Cavalry Henry Rifle were returned to the Ordnance Department and subsequently re-issued to the 3rd Veteran Volunteers, who were allowed to keep the guns and take them home as part of the bonus they were given as veteran soldiers for re-enlisting.

As a result, a large majority of 1st DC Cavalry Henry Rifles saw service with two different regiments and were subsequently allowed to go home with the soldiers. This means that these guns saw heavy use and are typically well worn when encountered today. Many veterans moved west after the war, where their Henry Rifles did yeoman’s service in helping to tame the American West. With slightly less than ten thousand Henry Rifles manufactured prior to the end of the American Civil War, the Curtis inspected arms of the 1st DC Cavalry only represent about 8% of total wartime production, and only about 6% of total Henry production, if you include the guns produced after the Civil War.

With only eight hundred of the Curtis inspected guns ever delivered, these are very scarce in any condition and are among the most sought after of the Civil War Henry Rifles and certainly the most desirable variant of the martially inspected guns.