Arms, Armor and Militaria

.58 caliber. 33" barrel secured by two flat brass spring-retained barrel bands. NSN. Blued barrel, color casehardened lock and hammer, brass furniture, walnut stock. Single shot muzzleloading percussion ignition rifle with the Maynard automated priming system, assembled by the south from parts on hand after the capture of the Harpers Ferry Arsenal. Lock marked U.S./HARPERS FERRY forward of the primer door, with a {Spread-Winged Eagle} on the primer magazine door and dated 1858 horizontally at the tail. Breech with barely legible 1858 date as well, and the usual V/P/{Eagle Head} on the left angled flat. No cartouches on counterpane. Brass buttplate with mid-production "upside down" US mark. Equipped with 1858 pattern 3-leaf rear sight, correctly marked "R" on the leaves, rifle front sight and saber bayonet lug on the right side of the barrel, 3.5" from the muzzle. The rifle retains the lower sling swivel, but the upper one is missing, along with the bayonet lug and a portion of the upper band. A correct pattern swelled shank, tulip head ramrod is present. This rifle was featured in the 4th issue of North-South Trader's Civil War in 2009 (Volume 34 #4) by John Barone, which discusses the fact that the gun is almost certainly a southern assembled example built from parts on hand after the state of Virginia took the Harpers Ferry Arsenal on April 18 of 1861. According to the article, Barone acquired the rifle directly from the family of the solider who carried it during the war. A number of salient features led to this conclusion, most notably the scale on the blued barrel, indicative of a barrel that had been in or near a fire. In an attempt to keep the arsenal, the arms and the machinery from falling into southern hands, the arsenal was set on fire immediately prior to its capture. However the blaze did not completely destroy the arsenal as a concerted effort by many of the workmen, townspeople and the Virginia militia contained it and managed to save some 5,000 arms, 426 machines, thousands of hand tools and thousands of gun parts in various states of being finished. Other important features worth noting are the use of a short brass 1855 Rifle Musket type nose cap, a Model 1841 Mississippi Rifle lower barrel band and the use of the later pattern "oval" patchbox stock with earlier brass furniture. This oval cut out shows only rough finishing and has not been finished off to arsenal standard and other rough finishing is present on the stock as well, again not up to arsenal standards. Additionally, the brass furniture, particularly the patchbox and edges of the buttplate, show rough hand finishing work suggesting that these were unfinished parts that received a minimum of finish work, simply enough to be functional. An unknown number of arms were assembled and completed in the brief period of time that Virginia troops controlled Harpers Ferry, prior to the removal of the machinery, tools, parts and arms to Richmond and Fayetteville to begin production of more Confederate arms. Three copies of the North-South Trader's Civil War magazine that contains the article about this gun are included with it.