Arms, Armor and Militaria Online

.69 caliber. 42" barrel. NSN. Heavily oxidized metal, steel furniture, full-length musket stock with three flat, spring-retained barrel bands. Single shot muzzleloading percussion musket later upgraded by riffling and sighting and then rebuilt by the Confederacy as part of their Cleaned & Repaired program. The lock is marked with the usual {Spread-Winged Eagle} over US forward of the hammer and in three vertical lines at the tail SPRING/FIELD/1848. The breech shows the usual V/P/{Eagle Head} proofs and the breech plug tang is dated 1853. A weak script JS cartouche is present on the counterpane and the Confederate re-inspection "C&R" mark "Q" is found in the wood forward of the triggerguard. Research printed in Steven Knott's book Captured & Collected - Confederate Reissued Firearms suggests that this mark was that of an unknown inspector at the Richmond Artillery Workshop, where thousands of guns captured and collected from battlefield were refurbished for reissue during the Civil War. The musket retains a correct pattern 1855 type long range rear sight from when the barrel was upgraded by rifling and sighting in the 1850s and the bore retains the three weak rifling grooves. The standard upgraded steel front sight blade is not present, although the correct cut in the barrel underneath the upper band is present. This cut was to accommodate the small rivet that reinforced the connection of the new sight to the upper band's forward strap. It is likely that the current barrel band with a standard smoothbore brass blade front sight was installed during the Confederate rebuilding of the gun. Otherwise the gun retains both sling swivels and an original ramrod that is not cupped for elongated ball, again likely replaced at the time of the southern refurbishment. A neat example of a Confederate rebuilt US musket that likely took the field again to fight after it was rebuilt.