From the civil war battlefield at Gettysburg.

It needs words; that is an 1816 Springfield 69 musket, converted to percussion; not by any approved US conversion program. It has a civilian type hammer and drum.
So, while it might have been found at Gettysburg, it was not converted under a US Ordnance Department contract to an approved design.
So, might have been CSA issue.

Nice story dpcd. Think it had been loaded with powder twice? Barrel plugged with dirt?

Never know; both sides used converted flint muskets in the early stages of the civil war. But by 1863, certainly the North would not use them and the South, might have but was pretty well equipped with captured 58 Rifle-Muskets and Enfields by then.
The 1816 flint muskets were made in an era of poor metallurgy; not like the 1861 and 63 Rifle Muskets which had barrels of rolled English wrought iron and basically could not be blown up with black powder.
Especially when rifled and fired with the very heavy 69 caliber Minie bullet, the 1816 barrels could rupture.
The favorite ammunition for them was the Buck and Ball; three 30 cal buck shot and one 69 ball. Very effective at short range.
Killed Stonewall Jackson with that load. Friendly fire incident.

I am continually blown away by your wealth of historical firearm knowledge! Thanks for sharing it with the rest of us.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Never know; both sides used converted flint muskets in the early stages of the civil war. But by 1863, certainly the North would not use them and the South, might have but was pretty well equipped with captured 58 Rifle-Muskets and Enfields by then.
The 1816 flint muskets were made in an era of poor metallurgy; not like the 1861 and 63 Rifle Muskets which had barrels of rolled English wrought iron and basically could not be blown up with black powder.
Especially when rifled and fired with the very heavy 69 caliber Minie bullet, the 1816 barrels could rupture.
The favorite ammunition for them was the Buck and Ball; three 30 cal buck shot and one 69 ball. Very effective at short range.
Killed Stonewall Jackson with that load. Friendly fire incident.

Thanks; I have been studying it every day since I was 8; but I usually make most of it up.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
...
Killed Stonewall Jackson with that load. Friendly fire incident.

... we remember his passing. Hemingway's book about another commanding officer not averse to hangings was brooding and badly received but Stonewall's last words gave him the finest title in literature.

In the heat of battle, Civil War soldiers were known to have loaded and pulled the trigger on their muskets without putting a cap on the nipple. Given the level of noise around them, they evidently did not realize that the load had not gone off and continued to load and pull the trigger until the barrel was full. Of course, remembering to use a cap at some point in the sequence would have resulted in a blow-up like the one illustrated.

To say that Jackson was killed by friendly fire is somewhat simplistic. He was wounded so severely that his left arm had to be amputated, which resulted in General Lee writing to him, "You have lost your left arm, but I have lost my right." Jackson died of pneumonia a few days later.

Some have speculated that had he been present at Gettysburg, instead of the indecisive R.S. Ewell, who took his place, the outcome of the battle would have been different.

Read on another forum that after the battle at Gettysburg they picked up some 40,000 rifles of various types. Half had more than one load in the barrel. A few had been loaded up to the muzzle.