What is this? Civil war era musket/rifle

wetsun

Cadet
Joined
Feb 15, 2020
Ok so my dad found this in the 70s in a field.
Now i have it,
Picture 119.jpg
Picture 120.jpg
Picture 125.jpg


So it says ''LEMILLE A LIEGE'' which points to a french belgium city (Liege).
I did a little research online and I what i came up with was that it was probably made around 1860 buy the 'LeMille' guy who had a facility and produced those. It was found near Ottawa (Canadian capital) on the french side (Quebec).

It doesn't have any other inscriptions on it except like the icon or company brand, and it's very small.
So I made an account here maybe someone here has some extra information for me about this musket/rifle. Of course i'm curious about how much it's worth but I intend on keeping it in the family.

I know pretty much NOTHING at all about guns what so ever. But to my eyes it seems in a rather good condition for spending 100 years in the dirt, which makes me a bit suspicious about its authenticity. But then again, what do I know...

So here I am lol... What do you guys think?

Also the thing with which you push down the gunpowder and bullet sticks out a bit. It won't go deeper... Which is weird. It shouldn't go further than the rifle right? Oh yeah and it's hanging on a guitar hook thing for the pics, I just rotated the pics so the gun is horizontal.
 
Lemille's first name was Joseph.

It's a French pattern rifle. I would guess a Model 1859, but there are several different models with only slight differences. Hopefully, someone can nail that down.

It's missing the rear sling swivel, so that would hurt value a little. You are correct that it certainly looks like a nice one otherwise. You are also correct that the ramrod should go in further.
 
Belgian copy of a French rifle, I can’t see the front band on my phone well enough to pin it down. Likely in .71 caliber. They were not an interchangeable arm but were generally a quality arm. The men who carried the French pattern arms either loved them or hated them. With some US units refusing to exchange them for Enfields.
 
Thanks for sharing. This is just my opinion, but I think that the ramrod is a replacement and was for a musket with a longer barrel.
 
OK i found it...

so around 200 canadian bucks...
thanks Rob63, knowing the year (1859) narrowed the search by lots.
so my curiosity seems satisfied right now, but I won't mind any additional information about it if anyone finds anything interesting to say about it.

I'd say the only other thing that peaks my curiosity is like, who used it... was it used in a battle?
In which case, which battle? would have occurred around the location that it was found? (mentioned in first post).
But I feel this questions is for an historian. And would involve a deeper search, which I don't feel like putting in the time (and probably not you guys either).

Anyways thanks everyone!! :smile:
 
OK i found it...

so around 200 canadian bucks...
thanks Rob63, knowing the year (1859) narrowed the search by lots.
so my curiosity seems satisfied right now, but I won't mind any additional information about it if anyone finds anything interesting to say about it.

I'd say the only other thing that peaks my curiosity is like, who used it... was it used in a battle?
In which case, which battle?
would have occurred around the location that it was found? (mentioned in first post).
But I feel this questions is for an historian. And would involve a deeper search, which I don't feel like putting in the time (and probably not you guys either).

Anyways thanks everyone!! :smile:

Who used any particular rifle at any battle is very difficult barring documentation. Civil War-era long arms did not have serial numbers.
 
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