Information on a Gallagher

Joined
Dec 3, 2015
Anyone have further information on this Gallagher S/N 14280? I know there were approximately 18,000 made making this part of the late production. Thank you.
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Thank you. I am hoping someone may have information on date of manufacture and where assigned/used (if it was).
 
Do you know if this was a Gallagher made for the brass cartridge that required a separate percussion cap or does it take the rim fire cartridge that the spencer was designed for? The last issues of the Gallagher were chambered for the rim fire cartridge. I do not know when the conversion date was but I think it was late 1864. Most of them seemed to have issued to Western troops such as men from Kentucky and some Union Tennessee troopers.
 
I can't help with your question, but I CAN welcome you to the forums!
 
I have a bit more information for you. The total number produced for the US military was about 20,000. It was the last 5,000 that were chambered and configured for the 56-52 spencer cartridge, contracted for in March of 1865 and delivered a few months later (some of these last cartridge arms wound up in the French forces during the Franco Prussian War). Some of the units issued the Gallagher were the 3rd, 4th and 6th Ohio, the 13th Tennessee and the 3rd West Virginia. If you want some of the brass cartridges that it took, several reloading firms that deal in obsolete cartridges offer them but your arm appears to be in such good shape I would not shoot it (you could reduce its collector's value) but having a few empty cartridges near the carbine will look good. Judging by your high serial number I would guess sometime just before the contract called for the altered gun to be produced so I would guess late 1864, early 1865. The Gallagher was not considered a reliable firearm according to a survey of officers of units issued them because of extraction problems. The early cartridges were very thin and made of tin and with no extractor the fired cartridges often tore apart as they were digitally (as in fingers) extracted. I hope this helps.
 
Each Gallager (note the spelling is as shown on the lock plate) Carbine was supplied with a tool to aid in extracting a stuck cartridge case. The majority of the cartridge models went to France for the Franco-Prussian War and were lost to history, which is why they are so difficult to find today. I recently saw an original Gallager cartridge, complete with the paper wrapper, for sale at local show for the princely sum of $125.
J.
 
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