Arms, Armor and Militaria

.69 caliber. 42.25" round barrel secured by three flat iron bands. NSN. Bright finish, iron furniture, beechwood stock with raised cheek rest. Single shot muzzleloading percussion altered smoothbore musket. Lock dated 851 with the first digit of the date omitted in the Austrian fashion. The matching assembly number 13 is present on most parts. The upper left side of the upper barrel band is marked with the US Ordnance Department alphanumeric bayonet mating code A83. Retains the original block rear sight, the iron front sight, the Laukart pattern bayonet spring catch under the barrel, both sling swivels and the correct full-length ramrod. In traditional fashion for the Austrian Model 1838 and 1842 muskets, the middle band is retained by friction with only the upper and lower bands retained by springs. The Austrian Model 1842 was originally produced in Augustin Consol lock (tube lock or "pill" lock) and many were later altered to percussion by the Austrians after the adoption of the System Lorenz in 1854. Thousands of Austrian Model 1838 and Model 1842 Muskets were sold to arms dealers and then resold to the United States during the first year of the American Civil War with Herman Boker and Company being one of the primary resellers of these guns to the Ordnance Department, delivering some 39,038. Some 25,000 of these guns were even delivered in their original Consol lock configuration the firm of Kruse, Drexel & Schmidt who managed to sell them to General John Fremont for the use of his Army of the West. Most of the Consol lock detonators necessary to use the gun exploded in transit, leaving the guns mostly unusable in hands of Fremont's men. 10,000 of the guns were subsequently altered to percussion by either Miles Greenwood & Co or Hall, Carroll & Co, both of Cincinnati. The balance were eventually shipped to the Frankford Arsenal for alteration to percussion, where the work appears to have been primarily contracted to the firm of Henry Leman who used the chambered breech method to alter these guns. The musket includes an original Civil War period 1857 style musket sling.