Arms, Armor and Militaria

.54 caliber. 8.5" round barrel. NSN. Browned finish, polished color casehardened lock, brass furniture, walnut stock. Single shot percussion ignition muzzleloading smoothbore pistol with captive swivel ramrod. Lock markigns somewhat weak but with the correct Palmetto tree design in the center over the letters S.C. with the words PALMETTO ARMORY in an arc over the tree. The words have the correctly attached serifs in the right locations and the tree has the correct lower right frond touching the trunk which is correctly hatched in a single direction diagonally in the correct way. The tail of the lock is correctly marked COLUMBIA/S.C. 1852 in two vertical lines. The lock shows some minor forging flaws on its face, flaws in workmanship are not an uncommon feature with this guns. The breech plug tang is correctly dated 1853, with the left breech flat of the barrel is correctly marked Wm GLAZE & CO above the stock line. The breech has a clear set of inspection marks consisting of a P over V over {Palmetto Tree}. There is a large punch mark under the bolster on the barrel, below the stock line where the expected and often encountered condemnation "C" mark has been intentionally defaced to make it less obvious, likely something done during the assembly process by Glaze, as he used a number of condemned parts to produce the pistols for this contract. The pistol retains its original brass front sight blade and original captive ramrod.

The Palmetto Pistols were "manufactured" for the state of South Carolina by William Glaze. Glaze received a contract to deliver 1,000 pairs of pistols (2,000 total) in 1851 with deliveries to take place in 1852. He primarily relied upon condemned parts left over from the Ira Johnson contract for US Model 1842 pistols, as well as locks produced for him by Asa Waters to get the necessary components for the pistols, which at the most were assembled at his Columbia, SC manufactory. In the end only 1,000 of the guns were delivered in late 1853, well after the original 1852 contract requirement. These are scarce secondary Confederate martial pistols that clearly saw heavy use during the early part of the American Civil War, as authentic examples of these pistols are almost always encountered in well used condition. This is a solid and authentic example of a desirable South Carolina contract pistol. {ANTIQUE}